MAX Wrap Up
Wow… I can’t believe that around this time exactly a week ago we were partying at the MAX Bash. Well… The MAX Bash was already over and we continued the party in the hotel bar ;-) Now… Where do I start…? Did I not tell you that this was going to be the best MAX ever? Even on a personal level this one is going to be hard to top. I mean… It was already pretty amazing to be on stage welcoming everybody for the day 1 keynote while Joa Ebert was coding and Eric Natzke was making some amazing art behind me.
Backstage MAX Online was already in full swing. Joining Ryan Stewart in hosting MAX Online was also a lot of fun and meeting/interviewing Martha Stewart is also going to be hard to beat.
Then my live intervention from the Device Lab in the day 1 keynote and hosting the Iron Builder segment in day 2…
And later that night meeting William Shatner… (I owe you one Nicole!)
I’m telling ya… It’s going to be hard to top this next year.
And then I haven’t even started about the amazing things we talked about in the keynotes and sneaks, the lovely people I met, winning the “Are You Smarter Than An Evangelist” contest with my evangelist colleagues, the new technologies that launched at MAX, … The AIR team has a great overview of AIR related announcements. You should also check Adobe Labs for more things to start playing with. My favorites are the preview releases of Flash Builder “Burrito” with Flex “Hero” and Flash Catalyst “Panini” as well as the first ever public demo of the BlackBerry PlayBook and the sneak peek of the upcoming 3D capabilities in Flash Player.
MAX will be back in Los Angeles on October 1st to 5th 2011. You better mark that in your calendar so you don’t miss it next year! I hear you can get very cheap airline tickets if you book well in advance ;-)
Do not miss the best Adobe MAX ever!
I know… I know… I say this every year… But trust me on this one! If you don’t attend MAX this year you’re going to kick yourself in the head. I’ll even take bets on that! I am 100% sure that you’re going to say “Well, Serge. It looks like you were right” by this time next week!
So what is happening…? Well… Did you really think I was going to tell you everything I know? ;-) I don’t want to spoil the surprises and frankly I don’t even know everything but the things that I do know about are fantastic.
If you’re still on the fence about going to MAX then perhaps this incentive can help. As a extra thank you gift, MAX attendees can save 20% on all your favorite Adobe products, training, and support from October 23, 2010 through November 1, 2010. Eligible products include Adobe Creative Suite, ColdFusion, Flash Builder … and anything else in the Adobe Online Store. More details will be available at MAX.
I’m pretty sure you can tell that I am super excited about MAX this year! Not only will I be co-hosting MAX Online with my colleague and good friend Ryan Stewart but you’ll also see me during both keynotes. Oh dear… Writing that just made me a little nervous actually but I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun!
If you can’t make it MAX then make sure you sign up for MAX Online. We’ll be streaming both keynotes live. That said… You should really try to be there in person! Again… Trust me on this one ;-)
MAX session update: Personalized video on the web
After posting the behind the scenes articles about the MAX widget I got a lot of emails from developers wanting to know more about how you build apps like that. That got me thinking… “Why not do a session on that at MAX?”.
So… On Wednesday Oct 27th at 9:30 AM I will tell you all the secrets on how to build personalized video experiences on the web like the MAX widget.
MAX UnAwards widget uncovered: developing personalized video apps on the web
Discover the magic behind the MAX UnAwards widget, and learn how to create personalized video apps for the web with the Flash Platform. In this session, you’ll learn how to sync videos with animations, how to add video recording capabilities, and how to add personalized animations. You’ll learn how to use cuepoints and how to use Flash Media Server 4 to create engaging personalized experiences on the web.
PS: This session replaces my previous announced session.
Leonard Nimoy hosting MAX Awards (+exclusive rehearsal photo)
Adobe MAX is now only 2 weeks away and I’ve been hearing some amazing rumors about what we have lined up for you. One of those things I heard a few weeks ago was that none other than Leonard Nimoy will be hosting the MAX Awards and Sneak Peeks together with our own Ted Patrick.
Rehearsals are well underway and an anonymous source just sent me this picture from last week’s rehearsals. ;-)
You do not want to miss the MAX Awards and Sneak Peeks! See you in Los Angeles!
Give yourself a MAX Unaward
If you follow me on Twitter you probably saw my tweets about a new secret project. Today I can finally reveal it to you.
I actually started this project somewhere mid-June. It all started with working on a widget for the Cannes Lions festival. I realized that it was probably a good idea to start thinking about a new widget for MAX. With close to 1 million views, last year’s MAX widget was a huge success (I was just checking the number before posting this and it actually passed the 1 million mark and is still generating views every day) and I thought it would be cool to try and match that number this year (although I realize that that’s a pretty big target). I knew I wanted to do something with video and more specifically do something with personalized video… and it had to be related to MAX. Once the storyboard was approved we recorded the video in a studio in Hilversum in The Netherlands. That was right before my trip to Japan. When I came back I started building the app and have been working on it for the last 3 or 4 weeks.
So… Without further ado… I present you… The Adobe MAX Unawards!
There are a couple of people I really need to thank for their help.
First and foremost: Wim Vanhenden. I think Wim is one of the most talented Flash developers in Belgium… but I decided not to use his Flash skills for this project. Wim is actually the host of the MAX Unawards show. Don’t ask me why but when I started working on the storyboard for the application, I almost immediately thought of Wim for the role of the host. I think it worked out great and we had a lot of fun recording this!
I also want to thank Klaasjan Tukker and Ton Frederiks for helping out with recording the video in the green key studio.
Big thanks also go to Paul Burnett. Paul worked on the personalized text pieces in Flash CS5.
This project would also not be possible without the help of Influxis. Thank you, Jerry, Grant, and Noe! If you ever need any Flash Media Server hosting you have to try these guys. Their custom admin panel alone makes it worth every penny.
UPDATE: Obviously also a big thank you to all the beta testers who gave me a ton of valuable feedback.
I just realized that this blog post is now starting to sound like an acceptance speech for an award… ;-) I should have just created a video for it! ;-)
I hope you guys enjoy the application. I’m looking forward to seeing what awards you give yourself and the creative acceptance speeches you create for it. Oh… and… Hope to see you at MAX!
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