Really excited about the new products about to come and and the changes in CS4.

Thought the general sessions and sneak previews were good.

I did pick up some really great tips and advice from about half the sessions which made the conference worthwhile from that point of view, but was pretty disappointed with several sessions.

Two hands on CF sessions on the first day were terrible. Instructors hadn't reviewed or tested their material prior to the presentations and the starting points provided to us meant we had to type a lot of basic code to get the lesson set up to work on what we were there for. You're not getting much bang for your buck having to type like mad to keep up to the instructor - especially when it's just writing code the attendees should already understand.

The presenter for the Next Generation Flex Skinning was terrible and so was the material. There was a packed room at the beginning but the room thinned out quickly. Insead of seeing some really cool things that can be done with skinning and then seeing how much easier it will be in the next version, we looked at a button most of the time. But it gets better because the button was mostly grey against a grey background and it was really really small.

Basically 4 hours was a complete waste.

My recommendations:

1) Have presenters for hands on session develop material so that the people attending the session can dive right into the topic the session is on. Don't waste our time having us writing code we don't need to review. If it's an advanced topic, assume the attendees understand the basics.

2) Have presenters do a test run before the first group gets in. We shouldn't be guinea-pigs. I'm paying a lot of money to be there and not making money while I'm there so please don't waste my time being your tester.

3) If presenters haven't had any experience presenting, then they shouldn't be there unless they've done a test run in front of a review panel.

4) Presentation material should be reviewed and be engaging.

Adobe is all about creating tools for us to create engaging material so I know you've got people who know what that's all about. Presenters need to do better than just read power point presentations.

On the positive side, I thought the Thermo session, High Performance CF, HD Video, Creating Interview Videos and Fear No Audio were great. Got a lot out of those.

One last thing - Coke not Pepsi.

The good:

- Overall organization: perfect place, a lot of supportive info, sneak peaks, general sessions rocked,Customer Appreciation event on Tuesday evening rocked even more (the best thing I've seen in MAX 08)

- Some sessions were really great: Michael Labriola's "Testing your flex app", Nigel Pegg's "Cocomo" , RJ Owen and Brad Umbaugh's "Deep dive into...", Sean Christmann's  "Optimizing Adobe Air...". There probably were a couple of other great ones, I am waiting for the recorded versions of them.

- "10 minutes of fame" booth was a great place to spend time, I wish someone recorded the mini shows and uploaded for public view.

The Bad:

Sessions: almost half of the sessions I attended were not at the level I expected them to be. As a developer I wanted to get inspired from Design-oriented sessions (Lazy Innovation, Designing Design), but was really disappointed with boring/not useful presentations. I wish we had Steven Webster (Cairngorm) and/or Laura (MATE) as one of the speakers in "The Flex Architecture Faceoff", because in first 15 minutes all speakers quickly agreed on "not to use any framework" and didn't know what else to tell to the audience for the rest 45 minutes other than repeating "why use framework? I won't use".

The ugly:

- Wireless connection

- Queues for "Session organizer" PCs

- Non working demos in sessions

- "We are running out of time, therefore I need to skip this slide".

- Why speakers are trying to write code during the presentation (applicable to both "sneak peaks" and sessions)?

Recommendations: Make a polling and see if you need to put more advanced content.

Bottom line:

Connect - 10/10

(Get) Inspire(d) - 7/10

Discover- 6/10

Overall, MAX was great! This was my first MAX and I was impressed with the organization & logistics, the high quality of presentations, and the venues. The food was pretty good too! The quality of the presentations did vary a bit but, in general, I found the ones that I attended to be quite good. In particular, the two labs I attended were outstanding.

There are two main things that I would change. First: wireless access! Second, online access to the presentation materials from the sessions & labs. When I inquired at one point, I was told that after the conference I would receive an email providing a link to all of these resources. I haven't received it yet; maybe, it's still coming. I'm particularly interested in viewing recordings of a couple of the sessions I couldn't attend. And, assuming that these resources are going to be available you should tell everyone very clearly before and during the conference. Knowing that materials will be available allows attendees to take less detailed notes and to concentrate better on the presentation.

Oh, actually there's one other thing: I've been having some problems with Contribute/Dreamweaver so I stopped by the Support Lab twice but there was no one there who knew anything about Contribute. A support incident was subsequently opened. Hopefully, I'll get some answers this way but it would have been nice to speak to someone at MAX. That's the point of a conference, right? Bringing people together?

This was my first MAX and all-in-all I had a great time and learned a lot. I did have some concerns -

1.COST COST COST (more on this later) - For the price, they should have given us CS4. 30 day demos?! PFFFT!

2. The MAX Website -

The website, while graphically attractive, was more of a hinderence to real information gathering. The registration side was confusing. You basically "reregistered" each time you went to the site... there wasn't a simple "log in".

The policies/rules were a bit fuzzy. From what I read, I was able to register for a one-day pass and yet attend sessions/booths on another day. I even set up the schedule that way and the system allowed me to. It wasn't until the Friday before that I called Adobe just to be sure and had to pay more money.

There was no way to update your registration once you paid: I paid for one day, needed to update for a second day but there was no way to do that on the MAX website.

3. Session descriptions and Developer vs Designer issues -

The session descriptions left a lot to be desired. Perhaps since I was a newbie at this I didn't know that "developer" = "programmer". I ended up attending sessions way beyond my exp level and made for programming types.

There were WAY too many sessions and labs for "developers" in my opinion. Perhaps Adobe could have developer/designer sessions in different places and provide equal amounts of content for each path?

Because of the confusion I paid for and attended a lab that was, not that useful to me. Had I known I would have gone elsewhere.

4. Labs were "sold out" but still attendable - I wanted to attend additional labs but they were "sold out", it wasnt until late on the last day that an Adobe product manager told me "go anyway!" I'm glad she did because that was when I learned a lot.

5. The Tues Night main event was great except for Awards. The were anemic, boring and really a waste of time. Everyone was waiting for sneaks and more in-depth training. The sneaks were AWESOME but the "applause-o-meter" was BOGUS.

The food, in my opinion, was fine. I'm sure if there was better food at other MAX events one might see this as sub-par, but since it was my first even, I was actually suprised at the offerings. I've been to other similar events where only the basics were provided and you had to get your own lunch. Besides there was beer and wine available at the main session of Tues evening, unbelievable.

6. The User-Appreciation event was spectacular. I was blown away by the food, the entertainment and everything... HOWEVER...

I think Adobe could have charged half-price if they hadn't rented out two museums and gotten all that entertainment. It was overkill. If they had just set up the main session area or similar with the food, bands, entertainment, hands-on demos etc. I would have been even happier. Less alcohol, smaller party = less expensive MAX? I'm SO there.

7. The Unconference - WHAT WAS IT? So much programming related and odd stuff. A bunch of us did get captivated by the project-managment presentation however.

8. Tiny trade-show - 30 or so vendors? Surely there's more folks who would have wanted to be there...? Again if the event was cheaper maybe more folks would come?  Most of the booths were solidly backend app vendors and the like. I remember MacWorld expos where the photoshop plugin makers were everywhere... where were the smaller guys? Did so few people know about the event?

MAX just felt like more of a developer-oriented conference than I was expecting...

I probably won't be able to attend next year unless it's less expensive, but since I'll have to fly to attend it... not likely.

Overall I got a lot out of it.  The faceoff, as mentioned above, was dissapointing.  On the other hand the Flash Security session was way more interesting than I expected.

What really stunned me though was the crappy wireless service.  Unbelievable!

Labs:
I was very impressed by how the labs were conducted. "Using Data Services to Power Flex Applications" by Christophe Coenraets was very smooth and by the numbers, all the examples worked, and the TAs made solving learning issues and keeping up with the session easy. Even though the topic was a review for me, I got a lot out of it, as Christophe was able to answer some tough questions after the session that had been bugging me. It was very rewarding learning from such a master.

I have to hand it to Duane Nickull and James Ward in "Building Service Clients with Flash and AIR", they had their game down cold. They checked in with everyone frequently to judge the speed at which the tutorials were going, and we completed all the exercises, including a few that James had come up with the night before, which all worked without a hitch, which was great to see (although this was as a result of giving the lab w few times already, so I guess they had a few practise runs ;) I would have liked to have seen a bit more advanced examples, but it was a great overall introduction to connecting Flex and AIR apps to many different data formats: WSDL, SOAP, RSS, AMF, SQL, etc. To take a lab like that with two supreme flex-fu masters made it feel like I was taking martial arts lessons from Bruce Lee and Jet Li. :) Haiya!!!

Although it made certain examples difficult (such as the Yahoo Maps mashup), I actually think it was a good thing not having internet connectivity in the labs. I've given Adobe training sessions before, and the most difficult thing is keeping the attention of the attendees when they are busy checking their email. And it's easier doing a lab with localhost anyways, rather than worrying about connectivity bandwidth.

The only thing I was not too thrilled about with the labs was the lack of final files to look at while the lab was going on. Usually if the lab gets too advanced I just follow along with the final files, which means I can still absorb the concepts. But fortunately these trainers in the two Data Services labs I attended had it down so well that I didn't need the final files to keep up, but it would have been nice anyways.

The Thermo/Catalyst lab was a bit of a disappointment to me, but maybe that was just because as a developer I wanted more than just an intimate walk through the interface. I wanted to what is under the hood, how is it built, what code does it output, how do you use the tool in a production workflow from Illustrator-to-Catalyst-to-Flex. For a tool that's designed to take a load off the developer's workload, it was little basic, though I think a lot of people got  lot out of it. I eventually got these questions answered at the BOF session, so it's not all that bad.

Recommendation: if a tool is being released that is both for designers and developers, split the lab into two tracks -- one for designers, like the Thermo/Catalyst lab, and one for developers, so each party can find out what the tool will do for THEM.

The only thing I would change with the labs is make them correspond more closely with the sessions, so that people don't have to miss two session time slots just to attend one 1.5 hour lab.


Sessions:
Luckily all the sessions I attended were great, did not attend any duds, though I heard second hand how some of them were. As a rule, if you're going to have a good conference session,

a) Have it be by a known expert in the community with experience presenting, otherwise you run the risk of having inexperienced communicators with nothing ground-breaking to say. I spend a lot of money to attend MAX, and I expect be listening to experienced people. Although I have a great respect for community initiatives, MAX is not the forum for amateurs.

b) Make sure the demos work: don't waste our time by having the audience beta test the speaker's app.

c) To the speakers: post your slides and your code up on the MAX website or your own blog, before the session or within hours of the session. A few months from now I'm not going to remember which sessions I went to, and any chance to absorb and really learn from your session will have all but dissipated.

Evey conference I go to seems to incur the same routine of spending an entire day a few weeks after the conference hunting down blog posts for code samples so that my conference experience wasn't totally wasted. It would be nice for a change if MAX could be the exception to that norm.

d) Provide working wifi. I can count on one hand the number of conferences I've been to in the last ten years where internet connectivity actually worked consistently, for both speakers and attendees. Adobe, you're all about connected experiences. Put your money where your mouth is by providing a stable internet connection for all 5K attendees and the speakers. I know that's a big job, but as from an industry leader I would expect nothing less. You're playing in the big leagues now Adobe, and so should your conference experience.

e) Don't insult us by providing "recharging stations." In the time it takes me to recharge my laptop I'll have missed three sessions. You had the right idea at the ON AIR Tour, do that: provide power strips along each isle so that people can connect their laptops while the session is going on. Combine that with working wifi, and you've got a potential for audience participation that is off the charts. I can understand and in fact condone no internet for labs, but for a session it is different. I would have liked to use an app like Mind Manager to take notes, which would have vastly increased what I got out of it, and if the speakers had distributed code ready, I could have followed along with the code they were presenting, while it was all happing.

You've got to get more interactive in the sessions. Stable wifi and access to power, along with available code and slides while the presenter is doing their thing is one way toward that goal.

I was very impressed by the session picker, allowing you to register for sessions, and the scanning device which let those who preregistered get first access to the session. That part was exceptionally well done. Though I think it could have been communicated a little better that even if a session or lab is "full" you can still try for a seat. And some ill-informed volunteers were still scanning for access half way through the session. I had to completely ignore one guy who kept telling me that I could not go into a session, despite the fact that it was 1/2 over and plenty of seating was available. The MAX staff were really great on the whole, no complaints, except for that one time, where he was a little too enthusiastic about his job.

The timing was also well done. Half an hour between sessions gave everyone lots of time to have a bathroom/refuel break and get to their sessions before the next one started.

On the whole I was very impressed by the quality of the sessions and the knowledge of the speakers. Most of sessions I attended were a delight, and those that were not, I just moved.

General Sessions:
The first general session was a big yawn. Though in Adobe's defence I do understand they need to do the marketing shtick. On the one hand from a fanboy perspective it was great to see Adobe forming important alliances with the likes of Google and Disney. On the other hand it seemed like a lot of boring dudes in suits giving marketing pitches to the VIP section in the first two rows. One redeeming factor of the first session is how they gave a general overview of the technologies by dividing the presentation into 1) Trends, 2) Social Computing, 3) Devices & Desktops. For the managers in the audience that must have been really useful.

Tuesday's general session generally rocked. But I got the distinct impression that you're reserving some goodies up your sleeve for the other two MAX conferences. Which is cool, I understand that. But at least tell us you're doing that so we don't feel gypped. I expected some announcements around Flex 4 and Flash Player 10 point releases, or even penetration numbers. And what about Pacifica?

The only thing I would say was really missing is, even though I'm a developer now, the designers in the crowd must have been sooooo bored. You guys are coming out with huge advances in your creative tools, but the emphasis was overwhelmingly on the tech/developer side of things. Maybe that's just a fact of general trend in the industry itself, maybe there's no designer-ly stuff left to invent or talk about, but I doubt it. It's all about balance.

And in a more specific note on content, I get that you want to push the whole mobile thing, but as a Flex and AIR developer, I am not convinced. SHOW ME THE MONEY AODBE!! Get Flash working, on a stable mobile platform that is ubiquitous, and then you've got me, heart and soul. What I heard regarding mobile is not any different than what we were told in 2000, in 2002, in 2004, and 2006. Every two or three years there's this big push for mobile, and yet developing for it still feels like pulling my toenails out by the roots. Your Flash Player penetration may be great, and the browser/desktop development experience is solid, but for mobile it just blows. I personally will continue to refuse to develop any mobile solutions until you guys (and the mobile industry) have your shit together. Stop giving us platitudes, and give us a platform that works, on a huge range of devices, with the full power of at least Flash 9 and ActionScript 3 behind it. And what the hell was that with the iPhone? Here is is -- no it isn't, SYKE!!!. C'mon... I think that baker metaphor was apt -- mobile shows great promise, but unfortunately at this stage IT IS STILL HALF-BAKED. N'uf said.

Sneaks:
The sneaks were on the whole well done. Get a geek in front of a mike with a huge audience, and chances are they are going to bore the hell out of 50% (or more) of the crowd with geek-speak. But that didn't happen, which is feat unto itself. So I think your scripted "00B" play worked well, and forced the speakers to remain focused on the theme and the topic at hand and not tangentialize too much.

BUT WHERE'S THE ROADMAP? Are we supposed to guess? Are you saving that for the other MAX's? A Sneak Peek without a roadmap is like road signs without a map: you know where the stops are, but no idea how you'll get there.

Food:
The food on the whole was great. I think few people realized that the food in the Marriott salon was slightly better than the food in Moscone West. If someone is taking even one lab, they should know about the food for lab attendees. I didn't sample the food in Moscone, but the continental breakfast and the lunches at the Marriott, including the welcome reception diner on Monday was great. And the free supply of munchies, coffee, bottled water and even pizza and beer at the BOF was the icing on the cake (and wow that was kick ass pizza!).

That I didn't have to go out and spend money on breakfast or lunch for four days for good food plus snacks and coffee definitely made the price of the conference worth it for me. If you were charging those rates with minimal food and drink then I'd really question coming back. As it is it helped me stay satisfied, energized and focused on the sessions instead of where to eat and how to stay hydrated.

Huge kudos to Effective UI for supplying everyone with refillable bottles so we could all stay hydrated in an environmentally sustainable fashion.

The only think I would change is to keep the coffee flowing all day long, which would have made it easier after a night of parties. :)

Well done on the food Abobe.

Exhibitors:
A good number, but the booths were a little small, leading to crowding/swarming, blocking passageways, etc. And here too there way way too much emphasis on the development side. For me it was great, cause it felt like being at a Flex conference. :) But the designers must have felt major gypped. There was almost no designer presence in the exhibitors. I was kinda hoping to see new advances in drawing tablet/creative suite applications and cool After Effects/Photoshop plugins, but maybe all that is passe now that we're all so focused on mobile RIAs? As great as all this dev stuff is, don't forget where you came from, Adobe.

Location:
The location was fantastic, the layout of Moscone West ideal for getting to and from sessions. The general session hall was a bit of a bottleneck though.

Having the labs in another building was understandable, and you got used to it when you were there, but an underground tunnel connecting the two locations would have been better so I didn't feel like a Hobbit plumbing the Mines of Moria.

At least it was better than the last MAX where I heard you had to do cross country training just to get between sessions. This location layout was great, but could be better.

Speaking of location, I was very impressed by the hotel reservation system. It allowed my to book my conference ticket, register for my sessions and book my hotel, all from one (more or less) site. And when I got there the hotel had all the info I placed in the form, including my special requests, and had a room all ready and waiting for me, no mixups or missing reservation. Very professionally done.

Unconferences:
The unconferences really could have used better signage (maybe up high, at right-angles to the flow of traffic?), better promotion, and better informed info booth personnel. As it was I didn't attend a single unconference session despite wanting to, because they competed for MAX slots. If you want community participation, make them part of the MAX experience. Suggestion: on the very first day, give the unconferences an entire time slot, so that nothing but unconferences are going on, in the regular session rooms. This will give them all a chance to direct attention to their "booth" or "alcove" areas for the rest of the conference, and give people a chance to attend them at least once without worrying about missing anything in the regular conference.

Parties/Events:
The Sunday reception seemed like a private party, since all the literature said "by invitation only," until I figured out that that meant for Sunday lab attendees only. There was considerable confusion about whether it was a private corporate function or a general reception for Sunday attendees, and the fact that there was considerable lineup, well, I just went elsewhere with a bunch of people that didn't feel like standing in line.

The Monday party was good, and the Tuesday one was better. Being my first MAX I have nothing to compare it to other than to say that the Science Academy was a really neat location, the entertainment was fun and the food was amazing. Well done Adobe.

Most of the action at conferences like MAX as far as networking is at the after session parties. Part of the after session time except for Tuesday felt like a guessing game to discover where the real parties were, through word of mouth, even though the other after parties were not really private, just that they were hosted by some of the sponsors I would guess. So knowing about them though an "after events" board would have really helped. A section on the MAX conference site dedicated to after-events, whether official parties or just simply personal meetups, would have saved a lot of walking around.

Conference Website:
Despite the hotel reservation system and session planner being very well done, here's where you guys need some serious improvement. The user experience was not consistent across the three applications: 1) reservation system, 2) session planner, 3) experience website.

I've already commented on the experience website, so I won't repeat myself here. Suffice it to say that if I were Big Spaceship, Blitz and 2Advanced, I would not be so quick to slap my logo on this endeavour. The games are fun and the graphics superb, but I'm there to get information, purchase and reserve, with playing games a distant fourth, so the user experience needs to be in that order of priority.

Conclusion:
As my first MAX conference, on the whole a fantastic job. Overall an 8.5 out of 10.

This was my first MAX, having recently reentered the designer/developer world and adobe's line.

Sessions: Overly hit or miss.

Food: fine. + another for coke not pepsi.

RFID: Um, please don't do that again. Who likes being tracked? And, if a session's a dog, I should be able to go find one that isn't without any reregistration nonsense.

Trial Software: Really?  A bit more value would've been nice.

General Impressions: Too much energy spent trying to figure out adobe's platform, rather than learning how to make best use of it. In my session comments I mentioned that I missed Allaire and Macromedia.The back end is starting to sound more and more like vignette, oracle, and all the other disjointed bloat from which CF used to contrast so nicely. The selection of sessions seemed to reflect the current product line's fracturing nature.

There really needs to be some consolidation of products, and some sanity restored to costs. Not conference specific, but these were my overwhelming impressions while sitting through the sessions. To the former, it's really hard to justify more middleware on the top of the upgrade for the middleware we bought last year. The latter's just obvious for CS4, across the board.

Not sure if I'll bother with MAX 2009. LA's not a draw. And if the product line continues to sprawl, I'll be looking to invest conference and class $$ elsewhere.

Feedback on MAX from The Saj:

The Good

> Overall, I thought MAX was great. I really have to give Adobe kudos on the customer appreciation event. That was a blast.  "Brain Pong" baby!!!!

> The UnConference - this was really cool. First of all, it provided additional learning resources. Second, it showed that Adobe was community first.  Seeing such entities as 360Flex conferences as complimentary to Adobe and not competitive.  Though I think providing at least curtains to reduce distractions would have been helpful.  Projectors would have been nice, 50" screens are still small from a distance.  I understand this is a first time run, there is clearly room for improvement. I just want to say that I think it's the right direction and once the right implementation is worked out - it'll be great!

> RFID cards were nice.

> Cool insights into future products.

> Nice city choice, fun city. Great food.

> Event guide with the graph paper in back was GREAT. Really facilitated note taking. And was just about the right amount of paper.

> Great DJ, even looked "geeky"...who is he?

> Secret Agent presentation was pretty cute.


The Bad:

> Sessions not matching up to titles. I attended a session that was supposed to be on Developer Best Practices. Meanwhile, my co-worker attended a session on Flex Developer Team Best Practices. Figuring his session would cover team strategies with Flex and mine individual programming best practices.  Instead, what I got was essentially a session on how to work with designers using the upcoming Catalyst. (More of a team + designer focus.) And then the last 3-4 minutes addressed the most basic of best practices.   While the session was well presented it was NOT what it was advertised.  A few other sessions fell into this pitfall. I was told by one presenter that he was given the title for his session - I wonder if this is part of the problem.

I think best practices are really a necessary session.  Adoptees of new technology can see projects fail because of pitfalls.

This was my first time attending Adobe MAX.  I thought the sessions were "okay", very insightful (coming from Adobe and seeing sneak peaks) but often not as strong as sessions I've attended at 360Flex conferences. 

> Login issues with the scheduling app. Also, it'd be nice if there was a "Resend Password" option in the Flex app as well. Turned out my password was not the issue, rather something else was preventing successful login. But it would have been convenient to have this option. It's standard on the HTML website, why not in the Flex app?

> Surveys, these became a big hassle. Not the survey's themselves but how they were processed. There was usually little organization in collecting them. Session speakers would have to draw numerous forms until they got an ID that was still in the room.  I'd recommend just having people turn them all in as they walk out. Then taking all of the surveys and do all the drawings at once.  Perhaps move MAX awards and sneaks to the last day and include a big raffle. Or draw a few during each keynote.

> Marriot, internet prices a bit outrageous.  I guess I'd like to see Adobe apply some pressure to future hotels to include internet access for all registerees.

> Internet access (lack there of) in general. It's kind of funny, but this conference trip equated to what was essentially the first week of no broadband internet access for me in probably 5 yrs.  About the only thing that held me at bay was my iPhone. But that's a pretty limited experience regardless of what Mr. Jobs thinks.

> Breakfast kind of sucked. I felt like all the bread products (which was the mainstay of breakfast) were dry or even stale. I wound up tossing a few things out half eaten. Which means I didn't get satisfied and Adobe's money was wasted.  Frankly, what I'd give for Ikea's 99 cent breakfast over what we had.  The coffee was disgusting - at least the one cup I tried.  I found myself going to organic coffee and getting "fresh squeezed" orange and grapefruit juice for breakfast instead.  Lunch was acceptable - I really don't mind box lunches.  Dinners were pretty darn good. 

But I'd love to see a breakfast worth waking up too.

> Adobe booth area. I think this could have been set-up a bit differently. I visited a couple of times and heard about various things of interest after the conference. Layout was lacking...

> Session over-booking.  I registered and scheduled early. I shouldn't fear not getting into my session. Which almost happened for one of my sessions.

> Non-alcoholic drinks lacking. Ginger ale would be nice. Maybe Vitamin water and other non-soda options.  (Of course, I'm all for more micro-brew and craft beer for next year. Maybe some craft soda too like Foxin-Park Birch Beer.)

>  Connecting... not so much a bad...just some input:   MAX is "huge". Coming from my experience at two 360Flex conferences I found the "connect" part sorely lacking at MAX.  It's somewhat understandable as MAX is over 10 times larger than 360Flex, where one meets people and finds themselves sitting down together at meals, etc.  I think a bit of creativity could help this... perhaps add some mingling games.  (Example: On the back of your ID card are 50 IDs.  If you can get the name of 20 of them by intermingling you win a free software prize. )  Numerous little things like this could help intermingling and connecting. Especially with RFIDs in the cards.

> Really would have liked to see Adobe give out a bit more free software.  There were a few contests but they required so much work for low odds of prizes. 

> Re-chargin stations.  How about a few iPhone/iPod dongles to charge off of. *lol*  I found MAX not to really be laptop friendly, and just had my iPhone.  It'd make it thru the day, but sometimes I had to ration the battery. Guess I could have brought a charger but I only brought a cord to charge off of a laptop

The Ugly:

> The little "Max" rubber doll was cute. But man, what was with the smell? You could sell those things on the street as "huff" drugs.  I swear, I am now convinced that China is taking all their toxic waste and molding it in plastic toys and shipping them to America.

> I'll have to chime in on the bag. Last year my co-worker came back with an awesome bag. This year, well....but hey. It's just a bag.

> LA next year ? Blech!!!  That's only a hop-skip-and a jump away from SF.  Why in California again? Three of the last 5 MAX events have been in California. In fact, have done a little research. There has not been a MAX event on the east coast since 2002. And I don't even know if MAX has ever been held in the northeast. Can we get some love? Could do DC, NYC, Philly, Boston, Baltimore, or Orlando again.

2009 Los Angeles
2008 San Francisco
2007 Chicago
2006 Las Vegas
2005 Anaheim
2004 New Orleans
2003 Salt Lake City
2002 Orlando

***

Next year... Arhnold!!!

I just want to know who beat my hight score in Ms. Pacman of 112,260 ? And no, I did not continue!!! - Come to think about it, that's my only complaint about MAX 2008. Next year, adjust the dip-switches on the retro games so they don't allow for continuous play.

(Just kidding) - some folks need that extra boost :-)

@Bruce,

LOL yeah Tom and I use an AIR app for 360|Flex. Adobe could easily do it. Plus AIR can store locally if peeps ain't connected.

Hi Ted, Overall, I thought the conference was very good. Here are a few comments:

- Regardless of how much money Adobe makes or loses, having the conference price go up by roughly $300 is steep. I'd love to know what expenses increased the cost of the conference. Can't say I'm excited about having it in LA.

- Loved having MAX in San Francisco. I wouldn't mind if they were there from now on. I also thought Moscone West was great, but I kind of felt like we were pushing the limits of crowd size - sometimes the crowds were pretty immense.

- Please have somoene double-check the speaker session titles. Many of the sessions did not match what the titles sold them as.

- Though my experience was better than average, many of the speakers were not very good presenters. Some people I talked to sounded like they didn't fare as well as I did. We need some QC on speakers' presentations skills.

- However, there was a noticeable improvement from last year regarding A/V and technical assistance. All the speakers' laptops worked, the screens were large and bright, and the sound systems were solid.

- Bad wifi is as good as no wifi. I would also really really like to see some effort made to wire the rooms for power. At least make it available for the back 5 rows or something.

- A+D mashup dj's? Contortionists? Women dressed like Tron on roller-skates? Dim Sum and Indian food? The party was just amazing! I didn't go to MAX for the party - but I thought it was so incredible, so creative and fun - it will be the most memorable part of the trip. I still can't get over it! I'm sure it was expensive, and am guessing this is part of the reason why the price of the conf. went up.

- Whoever had the creativity to put the party together should get on the swag team. This was my 2nd MAX, and the messenger bag was OK last year, but the recycled grocery bag this year was quite a letdown (esp considering the price increase). It would be cool to come home with one item that I'd be proud to use or wear that was MAX branded.

Already wrote a quick review of MAX Europe 2008 : http://cyrilhanquez.com/blog/2009/01/22/late-max-europe-review/

The Good

* Overall organization (including food, location,...)
* General sessions : love this way of presenting upcoming products :-)
* Materials : Guide, Bag - yep, EU got a really nice bag :-) ...
* Networking : crowdy enough to meet some new people, even if I met some people (I knew from twitter) only the last day

The Bad

* price : is it overpriced compared to other conferences ? Maybe...
* wireless connexion : a never-ending problem :-(
* labs : sorry but why using the same examples as the ones shipped with the products ?!? I expected something a step further and assumed that people already looked at the product themselves before.
* lot of demos already seen at the CS4 launch event (late september 2008) !
* sessions : mixed feelings. Sometimes it was marked as "advanced" but I didn't learn much things. Some others were really great, some were not well prepared (examples crashed,...) and "lightweight" (close to the documentation).
* MAX Europe to close to MAX U.S. ? Lots of information, videos, review already available on the web after MAX U.S. I know that it would be hard to do but a 6 month delay between both with new content could be better, no ?

Anyway, I enjoyed being there ! :-)