There are many words to describe the overall atmosphere I experienced this past week at the Adobe Max and EDUMax Conferences. Inspiring definitely comes to mind for sure. This was probably one of the most eye opening and truly exhilarating events I have ever been to. Definitely one for the record books in my opinion as well.
First, this event was truly massive in size and scale. The Adobe Max conference was held at the San Diego Convention Center (Home of Comic Con to give you the scope of how big this event was this year).
You may be asking yourself – how did this all happen? I have been a fan of Adobe for many years, but this new partnership came down to a value in which Adobe truly embraces: relationship building.
This was not my first Adobe event (even though it was my first time at Adobe Max). I have been at a previous event this past summer in Lehi). This event really was inspiring and got me more energized and motivated to use Adobe products as much as I could in my classes at the University of Louisville.
Since this summer, I have been in correspondence on social media and online with Adobe and I got an invitation to attend both EDUMax (an event dedicated to higher education and professors) and Adobe Max (Adobe’s main conference for clients and where they announce new features and host workshops/sessions/labs for specific platforms and tools).
As soon as I got the invitation, I was heading out to San Diego for the event. Special, special thanks to Suzanne Jennings for making this all happen! I can’t thank you enough along with the many great professionals at Adobe for allowing me to experience this great event.
So, how was EDUMax and Adobe Max? Here were some of my highlights:
Seeing new emerging ways to integrate Adobe tools into practice.
I got inspired by EDUMax to see how certain professors (and students!) were using Adobe tools from their Creative Suite to their mobile and free tools (ex. Adobe Spark products, etc). There was a lot of discussion related to partnership and coordination across campuses, which was awesome to see and hear these stories. We got a chance to hear from educators across the USA from SC (Fight On!) to North Carolina and Clemson.
A highlight for me as well was to hear Stephen Marshall (ETSU) share what he is doing with Adobe Marketing Cloud for his students and university. Truly inspiring and what a thought leader!
We were all able to hear about some ways in which students and faculty could use tools like Adobe Spark (LOVE their tools here!) for their classes as well as other Adobe related products. You want to provide some additional opportunities for students to showcase their work on places like Adobe Portfolio and Behance. I’m actually going to have my students do this for my upcoming Strategic Writing course in the spring.
The other thing that was constantly reinforced and discussed here was how FACULTY (yes, fellow educators, that’s us!) can use this for our own personal branding. For example, when we do a conference presentation, we can create a summarized page on Adobe Spark Page to share with others about the work we are doing. We can create a video showcasing a preview of our class for the upcoming semester and what students can expect to see. We can add our professional and personal projects to Behance from class and consulting. The list of opportunities goes on and on, but the main point is this, if we want our students to use these tools, we have to embrace them as well.
I enjoyed hearing more about the work Clemson is doing to engage students and educate them on digital literacy (still a key element to note here). Plus, it was awesome to hear from a student’s perspective from North Carolina about personal branding, which is so important and key for all of us to teach our students.
In addition to this, one of the things I noticed was the fact in some cases, some of the educators were talking about certain concepts and assignments they were doing for their classes (most were in English classes) and some of these were very much like assignments you saw in PR classes. In fact, many of them had social media campaign assignments. I did mention these were Digital Rhetoric and English classes, right?
And you may ask how many PR professors presented at EDUMax? Zero. How many were in attendance? Three, including myself. I shared these findings in a FB Live video on my Facebook page and some of my fellow professor colleagues were very surprised with this. That’s why PR professors need to have a voice here in this community to let others know – hey, we are doing this already and let’s collaborate to learn and grow together. Otherwise, if we don’t, we risk having our discipline taken over by others.
Being creatively inspired
I always share with my students while it is important to be strategic and scientific in their work, it’s equally important to be creative. This has been something I have tried to reinforce time and time again in my class, and I was truly pleased to see this being placed front and center (literally – it was front in center as you entered the main lobby of Adobe Max!) about creativity and being curious.
As professors, we sometimes forget to be creative with our own work and inspire our students to push themselves out of their comfort zone so they can achieve true greatness! I found this to be a motto and vision for Adobe and everyone (both at EDUMax and at AdobeMax), which was awesome to see and be a part of.
I also love this motto here as well. As educators, we are explorers of knowledge and boldly go where no professor has gone before (*wait!* That’s Star Trek!). Still, we have to be curious and have the ability (and willingness) to be curious of our field and what we can do. We are all creative in some form or fashion – we just have to embrace it and express it for the world to see.
Yes, we may have to put ourselves and work out there, but we never want to be in the position where we regret we didn’t take advantage of an opportunity to take the time to learn a new tool. What’s the worst thing that could happen? You fail and you don’t succeed on your first try. That’s why you have to take the time and invest in your skills. It just takes practice. Luckily, Adobe has a great list of resources for you to take advantage of!
Attending the main event
I got a chance to experience Adobe Max for the first time. I thought some of my academic conferences were big. NOPE. Nothing compares to what I experienced at Adobe Max. The conference said more than 10,000 people were in attendance this year, which is their highest number yet. I had a chance to meet fellow designers, creatives, and professionals working in the industry.
I was walking around meeting everyone – they all asked me the same question: what do you do? When I told them I was a professor, they were like – wow! That’s pretty cool and when I told them I teach social media and PR, that’s where they were even more surprised. This is why I think it is crucial for PR professors to become more familiar with the community and brand Adobe is building for their main conferences as well as for their education events.
There were several major keynotes and events for the conference. The first one was to highlight where Adobe is going as a company and brand, and what are some new features to look at. A lot of these brands now have these events like Facebook, Dell, Oracle, and Apple of course – but this was my first time ever attending one of these types of events in person. The presentation was extremely visual and beautiful. I loved how the screen was engaging and every speaker had their Twitter handle under their name. I wonder if we could get this at an academic conference?! Anything is possible.
I was able to attend a few sessions as well at the conference. They were more focused on key areas and specific tools and platforms (ex. After Effects, YouTube Videos and Premiere, and How to use social media to get your dream job). I felt these were good ones to go to to integrate these ideas in my classes. These were also pretty big and well attended sessions as well. What I liked about these presentations was the fact they all had takeaways for everyone to do after they went away from the conference. I think having this approach is crucial because in each case, it helps build a community from the conference.
Major SWAG and Branding at Adobe Max
When you think of a conference like Adobe Max, you may not think it is also a place where you need to make sure you have extra room in your suitcase because you will be bringing back a TON of stuff. This was one lesson I realized I needed to make a note of for future conferences!
We were able to get some major swag items for both conferences, which was an extra bonus for me. It’s awesome to see how generous Adobe was for all of their attendees and to have the opportunity to bring back some of these awesome gifts. Personally, I love the sweater I got (so comfy!)
The main convention exhibition center was absolutely huge and full of amazing booth displays for a variety of brands like Netflix, GoPro, Dell, and many others. You could pretty much spend the entire day there if you didn’t go to the sessions.
It takes an army to build a sustainable and positive brand culture.
Adobe professionals truly do walk the walk. Even though I was one of 10,000 people attending the event, I felt my voice and insights were valued at the conference. I was able to experience this with Amber Hutchins first hand with some truly amazing customer service at the Adobe Max conference. We were able to get our questions answered and everyone really took wonderful care of us. It was truly amazing.
In essence, Adobe not only has great and industry leading products, but the community and people behind the brand makes it truly the complete package. Everyone I spoke to at both events were inspired, energetic, and happy to be part of the community. This speaks volumes to me and it shows a human side of the company that is both great and inspiring for me to see as an educator.I had a chance to spend some time talking with a lot of representatives at Adobe while I was at the event, and each conversation I had with them was truly amazing.
If you have a chance to go to EDU Max and Adobe Max – DO IT! You will get inspired, energized, and truly walk away with so many creative ideas that it will take you just a few days to synthesize them all. I am still doing this even after a few days because of how many great ideas that were discussed at the event. I think educators need to make sure they mark this event on their calendars for sure to make sure they get the latest trends both in the industry and in the classroom for sure.
Again, I would like to thank Suzanne, Ryan, Sebastian, Keith, and Ashleigh for their engagement and constant support for educators and the community they are establishing at Adobe. I am planning to take what I learned from the events and not only bring them into my classes, but also integrate them in my various roles as a researcher and consultant.
I can’t wait to see what happens next year at the EDUMax and Adobe Max events!
Best Wishes,
Karen