I just came back from a whirlwind of a trip to Los Angeles to attend Adobe MAX and EDUmax. Both of these events are two of my favorite industry events to attend to.
I feel I have become quite the veteran in many ways – this is my fourth time heading to EDUMax and Adobe MAX – and each year – I always learn something new, meet some incredible professionals, and of course meet up with my friends at Adobe. I was honored to attend the event as a Digital Literacy Thought Leader for Adobe.
There were lots of takeaways I had from the event, so let me try and summarize some of these here.
New roles and efforts in bridging education and industry. This has been something I really have felt Adobe is leading the wave in. With EDUMax and Adobe MAX – you are seeing more efforts coming together to help bridge educators together with industry professionals. For example, the Adobe Education Leaders program is a great way for educators to have the opportunity to be part of a program and be able to chat w/ Adobe on ideas, work on projects, etc.
Another trend I saw was a new role was announced at Adobe EDUmax, and that was of a pedagogical evangelist. This title, which is held by Dr. Todd Taylor, shows a new trend of companies bringing on board educators to help bridge the gap between academia and industry. I thought this was pretty cool to see, and I do believe Adobe is the first to do something like this in the space of digital literacy and creativity.
Tons of exciting new program updates and activations. There were a TON of really cool updates that happened at Adobe MAX. Photoshop and Illustrator for iPad for example were big ones for a lot of people, but from a social media standpoint:
The he partnership with TikTok and Adobe Premiere Rush
This is big since this is the first third party program that has done something like this with TikTok. I was pretty excited to hear about this. I am already planning on a TikTok integration for one of my classes next spring, so I am adding this to the list of things for my students to check out.
There were lots of activations present at the Community Pavilion as well – including one with the new Terminator Movie coming out. You were able to get a video of yourself with the Terminator using AR technology. Me? Well, of course I had to make sure to check it out!
To give this movie some context – I did wave at the Terminator and my weapon of choice was inspired by Will Smith in Men In Black!
Diversity in presenters and attendees. I really felt this was very apparent at Adobe MAX and EDUmax. We heard from so many speakers from different backgrounds and roles. I also appreciated seeing so many student presenters from various schools and levels.
This was inspiring to see! We also got to see more students in attendance her as well – including Candice, who is a student at the University of Louisville! Candice was able to come and experience her very first Adobe MAX and EDUMax experience.
It is important for all of us to connect so we can share ideas, understand where we are coming from, and see what we can do to come together to brainstorm ideas to collaborate and make a greater impact on our field and community. I am very grateful Adobe has created not just a physical space to do this, but online communities to do this as well.
Insights on social media from speakers. We got a chance to hear from a range of speakers and professionals at Adobe MAX, but one that I felt was very interesting was Billie Eilish and Taakashi Murakami. Both were great- but Billie made some comments about the role social media played in her career, and how she understands how much good (and some times bad) can come it. This was something I felt is good to share w/ students especially – it’s all about balance here when it comes to what you do on social media, so I felt this was a good message to share w/ the audience.
Summary
I am forever grateful to Adobe for all they are doing for education. Their support in making sure we are doing what we need for our students is really special, and the team behind the brand is truly amazing.
I would like to thank some amazing people at Adobe for making this all possible.
- Seb – you are a rockstar and visionary for making this all come to place. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for education. You are amazing!
- Lisa – you are a true mastermind for making this event come to life! EDUmax gets better and bigger each year – thank you for all you are doing!
- Andre – so thankful for your support and having you be our account executive for the University of Louisville! Thank you also for your mentorship and generosity to Candice and allowing her to be able to come to EDUMax and Adobe MAX!
- Andrea and Patrick – thank you both for being amazing colleagues and friends at Adobe. It was so good to see you both again and thank you for taking the time to help Candice when she lost her phone while at MAX (greatly appreciate the kindness you shown her!)
- Clara – it was so good to finally meet you in person and thank you again for all you are doing for the AEL program!
Thank you everyone at Adobe for truly making this experience a marvelous one! I am very excited to take these insights and share them w/ my colleagues and students at the University of Louisville.
Looking forward to seeing you all next year at Adobe MAX and EDUmax in 2020!
Have a great day!
Best Wishes,
