Connect. Discover. Inspire. That’s what the Adobe Conference is all about. The Los Angeles Convention Centre was well equipped to host this major event, with some 3,500 attendees, mostly developers, and more than 100 journalists. See Flickr Photostream.
There were so many sessions taking place all day from 9-6, everything from “Exploring ColdFusion Powered Flash and Adobe Air”, to “Best Practices in Cross-Browser Testing with Adobe BrowerLab” – there was something for everyone, no matter what part of the industry you worked in.
At the conference opening, the keynote speech stirred some excitement with a dance performance by one of Adobe’s charitable endeavours, the Peapod Academy, a discussion on the developments of the Flash platform, the announcement that Apple was now accepting Flash applications into the App store, a positive step forward. Lucky attendees managed to catch a glimpse of the extended screener of James Cameron’s Avatar. The producer John Landau introduced each scene and discussed the extent to which Adobe software was used in the making of the movie.
On my first day I was jumping around like an excited puppy waiting to see Joshua Davis, a major inspiration of mine since I began working with interactive, experimental design.
Joshua Davis is a New York based artist, designer, and technologist. His studio put research and development at the heart of their process and boasts clients such as BMW, Nike, Volkswagen, Sony, HBO, Canon, Nokia, and others.
Joshua delivered an inspirational session, looking at the fusion of computational design, ActionScript, storytelling, along with manipulated static print work, collections using layered patterns, grids and artistic use of space and colour.
Experimentation is key to his work. He says it’s good for client work, as they get a strong concept that ‘innovates not replicates.’ One particular favourite of mine is the generative iPhone application ‘Reflect’ (read more). It uses shapes, colours and algorithms which assemble pieces into randomised whole compositions. A very popular download so far with a 4+ rating!
He also creates interactive pieces that get the public involved like the ‘Random Assistant’ in Lisbon, 2008.
Joshua Davis clearly educates and demonstrates that by looking at the space and objects around us, coupled with a degree of ‘randomness’ and experimentation, and the freedom to try something different, we can open endless possibilities in static, interactive and physical concepts (see Tropism 2007 exhibition).
After this great injection of creativity, I got hands on with some BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) sessions for Adobe After Effects with Chris Jackson. This powerful program is rich with animation tools that create compelling motion graphics and visual effects that really bring graphics to life. A vital tool for any digital designer and animator today. Chris Jackson took us through some step by step projects with easy to understand handouts (let me know if you would like to see these).
I later attended some of the FITC Unconference sessions, run by Influxis, they had flown a bunch of gurus over to talk at the sessions. Even though this was developer orientated, I still found the sessions insightful: ‘Mapping and Geolocation with Flash Technologies Old and New, (by Ryan Stewart), ‘iPhone Apps+ Coldfusion’ (by Josh Adams) among other 3D and Flash talks.
AR (Augmented Reality) is another exciting area which is on every ones lips. In terms of practical applications it’s still a growing star, but we are slowly being shown useful examples, like AKQA’s AR development for USPS. Users can determine what size box they need to ship an item, by printing a marker, holding it up to a webcam and then comparing 3D box sizes along with the item to be shipped on screen. The appropriate box will be sent to the user through the post. Other speakers such as my partner James Alliban and Jessie Freeman, revealed their projects and experiences using FLARToolkit (created by Tomohiko Koyama, a very clever fella who walked around with a huge tea-cosy-like hat).
‘A Deep Dive into Ten Innovative Projects for Flash’ was educational too. Generating PDFs within Flash, creating interactive PDFs with video using Fireworks (nice to know it’s still useful for something!), Flash and the webcam (too much to mention here), so I suggest you check out the AdobeTV, they have a list of great sessions to choose from.
Jun Heider (too technical for me) covered performance, memory and good practice with developers using Flex. He preaches cleaner code!
Adobe were definitely safe from the dark side with their guest host Mark Hamill at the ‘Sneak Peeks and 2009 MAX Awards’. Quite a brief affair, but it was good to see some innovative sites ranging from social networking with video integration and games, and an interesting FedEx tracking application ‘solving mission critical business applications within the enterprise’ (watch)You’ll be pleased to know that Proximity BBDO won an award for Advertising & Branding for their Pepsi Max It site!
The MAX Bash followed that evening. Taking place at the LA Live entertainment complex, this was the perfect place to schmooze alongside Adobe PR, journalists and top industry experts. This glamorous location came with free access to museums, art shows, live Latin music, bowling, arcade gaming, the list goes on! A special Star Wars display with Darth Vader and Chewbacca costumes were major highlights for me, oh, and not forgetting the free beer!!
I found the two days really insightful and well organised and I think techies and creative peeps alike should attend the conference at least once, but to truly experience it all I suggest going for a full conference pass! I guarantee you a good show!
There are tips from this experience that I can takeaway and plaster on walls everywhere: always keep user experience in mind, provide easy access to content, try something new (Sainsbury’s was right!), push interactive experiences to the limit (‘innovate not replicate’ as Joshua Davis says), take advantage of new technology and EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING (that doesn’t include drugs BTW)!
Thanks for the opportunity!
Juliet Lall
PS. (Sorry for the long article, a lot to cover!)
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