Adobe Max and the clam before the storm…

No offense to clams intended. Some of my best friends are clams.

As I frantically pack for Adobe Max this year (why do I always wait until the last minute, then invariably create a “to do list” a mile long 18 hours before I leave?) I’m keenly aware of the opportunity I have. Think about this for a minute. Flash, Mobile, Dreamweaver based development, Photoshop techniques, Interactive Creative, Interactive Workflows, AIR development… how much of that stuff do you think goes on in Myrtle Beach? Don’t know? I’ll tell you, “A hell of a lot”, that’s how much. Every creative entity in town has their fingers in this pie.

So ask yourself, why am I the only person in town going to this event?

Yeah, I don’t really know either. But one thing I do know, I plan to take full advantage of it. Everyone you talk to is using a CMS as a platform these days (and rightfully so, I might add). They’re efficient, cost effective, they allow website owners to participate in the creation and maintenance of content… there’s a list a mile long why people are flocking to Dupal, Joomla, and WordPress. Positioned squarely in the center of that storm is Dreamweaver CS5. I mean, I totally get using another IDE. I do. I’m not so narrow minded that I don’t understand why developers use TextMate, and Eclipse, and a host of other IDEs to get their shit done. I’m just saying, if you’re going to spend your time working on something like a wordpress site, wouldn’t you at least be interested in a solution that integrates so tightly to the site you’re building that you might… you know… save time and money developing it? I’m just saying… Don’t get me wrong, Dreamweaver isn’t the end all be all and I’m not here claiming it is. It’s just one of the tools that Max shines a light on.

Then there’s Photoshop… oh, and Flash, and AIR, and Android, and don’t forget the Packager for iPhone… the list of important technologies, not just from a client standpoint, but from a technique and execution standpoint, is mind-blowing. I mean, if you’re in this business, and you do this for a living (develop creative interactive solutions for clients’ marketing needs) then there’s this conference, and maybe one or two others the entire year.

So I’m always a little blown away when I realize (sadly) that I’m the only person in town going. There’s a great developer community in town, but I’ve always (and I mean always) been a little saddened by the lack of interest in Macromedia/Adobe/Allaire solutions, when in fact, 95% of the advertising and marketing business in this town uses them in some way, shape, or form. Hell, I’ve tried on three separate occasions to form user groups, only to abandon them after months of meetings where I was the only attendee (I didn’t even win any of the drawings for free Adobe software, that’s how much of a loser I am).

Well, this year I’m gonna make sure I don’t blow it. This year I’m gonna really try hard to make sure everyone I know gets an opportunity to see all the great stuff I get to see every year when I attend this conference. I’m gonna blog as much as I can, shoot as much video as will fit on my MacBook, and use up every square inch of my camera’s SD card taking pictures of as much as I can see. I really don’t know how on earth I’ll have the time to do any of this, that’s why it feels like an impending storm. I feel like as soon as my feet touch down in Los Angeles tomorrow, all hell is gonna break loose and I’m going to be a whirling dervish of multimedia activity. I hope I can pull this off, because I’d love to share everything that I think is cool with an audience that I think will have an appreciation for what I think is cool. I would like to think I’m a pretty good judge of, “okay, that shit is cool…”.

I’ll let you be the judge. Stay tuned and make sure you check the site out frequently during the next week. I hope you enjoy what I post!