Adobe Max 2021 - The Bests
When it comes to anything Adobe I tend to be the quintessential fan girl, and their annual Max conference is no exception. For the last three years I have cleared my schedule and attended as many sessions as I possibly can, virtually in more recent years. But as this 2021 conference comes to a close I am sorry to say that I have been underwhelmed. I did win a pretty sweet free t-shirt that arrived in the mail yesterday (timely). However, I felt that this year’s content fell a little flat for my very high expectations. Some of the sessions felt all too familiar, the speakers were less than captivating, and I didn’t end my week with this great sense of creative motivation that I normally do. Nonetheless, Adobe Max is always time well spent learning about the latest software enhancements, best practices, and industry trends. So I am sharing my Best of Max 2021 for those who didn’t get to attend, or skipped out early and missed some things.
Best Theme - Collaboration! No surprise here. As we’ve fully acclimated to virtual working environments, software companies are set on allowing creatives to collaborate just as well virtually as we used to face to face. Adobe revisited this theme continually throughout the three days, highlighting new features that make it easier for us to share concepts, drafts, and edit in real-time with others. Undoubtedly Adobe takes collaboration opportunities to another level with their product enhancements that have been implemented this past year.
Best Topic - Allyship! This term was new for me, although the essence behind it was not. We have all heard a great deal about diversity and inclusion, but when hearing various speakers talk about allyship, it really resonated with me. According to Google, Allyship is the inactive, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person holding systemic power seeks to end oppressions in solidarity with a group of people who are systemically disempowered. One of my favorite speakers discussed how creatives can play an interesting role in this movement by continually finding ways to enrich your content with diverse cultures, thoughts, experiences, lifestyles, and more.
Best Sneak - Project on Point! If you are anything like me, you’ve lost hours (maybe even days) scrolling through stock images to find just the right one for your project. With this new feature, you are able to upload a similar picture or tweak a stick figure to refine your search results to find not only the right subject, but a picture that has the right subject in the right pose, in the right position. Game changer!
Best Adobe Product - Spark! This is not a new tool for me, but for some reason I gained a new found appreciation for this tool that I definitely will be playing around with in the weeks to come. I saw speaker after speaker use this tool in unique and exciting ways. Everything from sorting different client assets for easy access to perfecting social media posts for an upcoming campaign.
Best Takeaway - Repurpose Your Content! Again this is not a new concept, but something that I think it is important to reiterate each year because it is so essential to maintaining your sanity and growing your brand. There are so many ways in which the Adobe suite allows you to repurpose a single asset into many different usable pieces of content. Again, Adobe Spark is an excellent way to achieve this, taking existing assets and creating content that you can use across your website, social media platforms, collateral, email campaigns and more.
Best Aha Moment - AI Makes Things Possible! Whether it was during the incredible sneaks segment, or in opening keynote where we got to see the latest enhancements for all of the Adobe programs, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of most of the innovation. What I appreciate about the Adobe programs and how I have come to be able to utilize them more and more, is in learning and adopting the features that rely on AI. You don’t have to be a trained graphic designer to make incredible art. You don’t need a degree in videography to product a stellar video. And you don’t need to be the next world renowned photographer to take the next eye catching photo. AI allows us normal people to do above average things when we leverage technology right. This makes it possible for more and more people to tap into their creative abilities and surprise even themselves!
My love for Adobe has not faltered, but I would like to see them spice things up a little more next year. Maybe some more impressive celebrity hosts. Definitely bringing in some featured creatives to show us how they use the Adobe tools in unique ways. Maybe providing more ways to network and interact with people virtually. And for the love of god - a better sponsor game that actually is fun! I will leave you with my favorite quote of the week because I think we’ve all been there at some point and can relate, to Sneaks host Keenan Thompson when he said:
“This was a great time. We learned a lot. Mostly I learned how to nod my head and pretend that I know what a vector is!”
