You see it on the billboards. You hear it on television. "What happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas." But if you experienced MAX 2006 in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, chances are that experience will extend well beyond Sin City. In fact, I am guessing that many of you flew back to your workplace with new skills, new ideas, new directions, and a slew of new contacts.

With more than 140 sessions (and a few swanky parties), MAX 2006 provided developers an unprecedented opportunity to learn about Adobe software, socialize and interact with peers and industry experts, and get a sneak peek at Adobe technology in the works.

Lucky me, I was one of 300 Adobe employees who got to hop on a plane to Las Vegas. Sure, my teammates and I were excited about the bright lights, slot machines, and fine dining, but most of all we were looking forward to meeting with the developers and designers who fly in from around the world to attend MAX.

As managing editor of the Adobe Edge newsletter, I was hoping to enlist subject-matter experts to contribute articles and, of course, I wanted to accumulate some great story ideas. (Tom Green, I'll be in touch!) But my main mission was to conduct and videotape developer interviews. I had scheduled interviews prior to the show but my colleague, senior editor Stefan Gruenwedel, and I couldn't resist pulling people out of the community lounge for some impromptu one-on-ones.

Meanwhile, the Adobe Developer Center team (executive editor Craig Goodman, managing editor George Fox, senior technical editors Amy Wong and Hong Qiu) were onsite, meeting each day with developers.

One thing that really impressed Goodman was the speed at which the blogger community relayed information from the conference out into the blogosphere. He loved seeing the "races" between folks who took and sent notes and images out to those who couldn't make it to MAX. The lightning-fast blog reportage must have set new speed records on the ol' information highway.

During MAX 2006, editors Hong Qiu, Stefan Gruenwedel, and George Fox cranked out content for the Adobe Developer Center. (Photo by Julie Campagna)

Flex developers on the rise

When asked what she thought of MAX 2006 compared to MAX 2005, Amy Wong, who manages the Flex Developer Center, responded: "Last year, developers told me what they were planning to build with Flex; this year they showed me what they had really built, which was very cool."

Not only that, several user groups throughout Japan and China, in particular, showed her applications that they had built collaboratively. "It's clear that more and more developers are learning how to use Flex and, with its capabilities, are starting to push the boundaries of rich Internet application (RIA) development," said Wong. It's also interesting to see developers work together—and see innovative applications like the interactive origami instructional application built by the Flex user group in Japan.

User group managers are the "heart and soul" of what makes Adobe what it is, and it's great to hear about the projects people are building. Executive editor Craig Goodman heard a lot of people talking about how they wanted to learn Flex and would love to build something for Apollo—and how they use Flash for many projects but also use Flex for others. He was interested in the number of people who identify themselves as "Flash/After Effects" types—folks who work on time-based media projects—and hearing them compare the ways they work in both. All in all, Goodman thinks there was a super high level of excitement about how people can use all the Adobe products.

Most Flex developers were very interested in seeing what they could do with Apollo. We met many Flash developers who were attending Flex sessions and asking how they could learn more. Conversely, almost every ColdFusion developer we talked to was using Flex in a current project and was well beyond the beginner stage. Most had heard of, and used, the Flex Quick Starts to get on their way. Flex Developer Center editor Wong said she's looking forward to seeing what the Flash community will be doing with Flex at next year's user conference.

While Adobe executives likened the merger of Adobe and Macromedia to a marriage, Adobe Community Expert Giorgio Natili was actually going to do it. That's right: Barbara and Giorgio flew in from Italy to tie the knot at MAX 2006. (Photo by Matt Snow)

Developers told us what's on their mind

With Stefan Gruenwedel behind the camera, I had the opportunity to interview the youngest attendee, 14-year-old Max Zimet, a fortuitously named whiz-kid whom Kevin Lynch brought onstage during the Day Two keynote and presented with a bag of MAX-themed goodies. I also spoke with seasoned mobile developers Robert Hall and Andreas Heim, 2006 MAX Award winners Jason Lehman (The Wharton School) and Paul Carpenter (Multiweb Communications), MAX Award nominees Michael Lebowitz and Joshua Hirsch of Big Spaceship, Josh Berling and Michael Labriola of Digital Primates, and other interesting developers from all over the world. You'll soon be able to see these interviews in the Developer Center. Stay tuned.

Stefan Gruenwedel handled the camera and mic. (Photo by Matt Snow)

I learned several things from watching the keynotes and sneak peeks, and connecting with developers during interviews, in the community lounge, and at social gatherings (sounds more proper than "parties," doesn't it?). Most developers, such as long-time Macromedia customer Lisa Heselton, felt that Adobe has done a great job of incorporating and supporting the developer community since the Macromedia merger last December.

"There's a common belief that Adobe is really trying to integrate the developer community—they're trying to expand opportunities for all kinds of platforms, all kinds of devices, and all kinds of developers," said Heselton, an Apple Specialist and e-business manager at a nonprofit based in Washington, DC. "I think it's nice to see that level of commitment to the developer community."

Developers cannot wait to get their hands on Apollo

Apollo is the code name for the cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to use tools and technologies such as Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax to build and deploy RIAs to the desktop. Developers told us they are amazed at the possibilities posed by Apollo.

"For me it's all about Apollo," said Josh Berling of Digital Primates. "I can't wait to download Apollo and start seeing what I can do with it... Already I can think of several clients for which we've built web-based applications—but for all intents and purposes those applications should live on the desktop. As soon as Apollo becomes available, we're going to convert those web-based applications to desktop apps. I can only imagine the scores of other developers who are out there and planning to do the same thing. I can't wait to get my hands on Apollo."

For Michael Lebowitz, CEO of Big Spaceship, Apollo is a total game-changer. "Apollo is opening a door for us. We don't need to learn all new techniques or hire C++ programmers. We can develop applications with the skill sets that we have in-house and do incredibly exciting and dynamic work across the things we might want to play with."

New workflow scenarios rock people's world

Many people I spoke with particularly enjoyed seeing the improved workflows that were demonstrated during the keynote and in the sneak peeks. Leif Wells, RIA evangelist and Adobe User Group manager, was psyched about Adobe's focus on product integration. "For me, being able to see improved workflows, like going from Illustrator to Flex, was awesome... These are things that are going to make the creative and technical teams at my company get along much better."

Lisa Heselton was enthusiastic about the improved workflow across Adobe and former Macromedia products, and what it means for the work she does every day. "I've traditionally gone from Dreamweaver to Photoshop, then to Fireworks, and then back into Dreamweaver. So having integration between Photoshop and Dreamweaver is going to be very critical to producing web-based graphics and images in a more efficient manner. I think this workflow is going to be a welcome relief for a lot of people," she said.

Greg Rewis explained a new workflow during his MAX keynote. (Photo by Matt Snow)

ActionScript 3.0 and Flash Player 9 are a powerful combination

Mobile Flash developer Robert Hall told me he loves the performance gains of ActionScript 3.0. "Things that would take 10 to 12 seconds for a tight loop now take a few hundred milliseconds." He explained that the strong typing of the language itself helps you prevent errors, and that you can debug things much easier. "Along with Flex and the new Eclipse environment, it's just a much better coding environment for pure developers," he said.

For Joshua Hirsch, Minister of Technology at Big Spaceship, the improvements in code performance and processing in Flash Player 9 is going to let them do things they've already been doing—but spend half the time on optimization and figuring out how to make their RIAs run fast enough.

Joshua Hirsch and Michael Lebowitz from Big Spaceship enjoyed their interview. (Photo by Stefan Gruenwedel)

Flex changes the way people make rich Internet applications

The mobile and devices ecosystem in North America is about to take off. "With the Adobe/Verizon partnership, device manufacturers in North America are going to start looking at Flash as a very viable solution for delivering a rich, immersive interface in a short amount of time," said Robert Hall. "And the mobile and devices ecosystem extends well beyond cell phones and PDAs. Think cars and consumer appliances. If you were to compare the development time of using Java or another language to build an interface for a hardwired consumer device, it would take months. With Flash, it might take a couple weeks, as Greg Burch demonstrated when he developed the touch-screen interface for the Kodak EasyShare-One [digital camera]. The market in North America is set to take off."

PDF is not just for static documents anymore

While I may be an Adobe employee, I must admit that most of the demonstrations and announcements that took place during the keynote presentations were news to me. As an attendee at MAX, I was blown away by the Flex/PDF demonstration during the Day One keynote. Slowly, but surely, I am starting to think of PDF as a very dynamic and powerful solution—one that does a whole lot more than just allow me to print out my tax forms. More importantly, the developers in the audience were blown away too.

"Adobe's evolving; they're evolving the product," said Leif Wells. "They're making other products work with Acrobat to increase the workflow of not just developers, but the people who use these products to get things done... So if I am able to fill out a form in Flex and hit a Submit button, and automatically generate a form—all filled out—as a PDF file, then I've got a document I can trust... I've never seen anybody use a form that way," he told me.

Better than coffee, the Blue Man Group arrived on stage to entertain and wake the audience prior to the Day One keynote presentation. (Photo by Matt Snow)

Video was big last year but now it's huge

"The web is going to stop being this separate channel from everything else. With the explosion of video, you're seeing that it's a broadcast channel; it's an alternative to television on some level," said Michael Lebowitz, who had a lot to say about the future. "We're going to start seeing the process of convergence, but it's not going to be convergence the way that everybody always thought it was going to be. You can work in After Effects and not be working for broadcast or DVD deployment; you can be doing straight online deployment. The combination of the ease of self-publishing with far more flexible tools is going to really create something brand new."

Beyond boundaries of the web

Bandwidth is of utmost importance, Michael Labriola of Digital Primates told me. "You never thought you'd get to the point where [DSL and cable companies] were battling to bring you more bandwidth. Bandwidth is key because all of these things that we do—all of these rich Internet applications—require the ability to get it to the client. Ultimately, if the client is on a very slow connection, the experience can't be positive. Bandwidth is a huge consideration; it's allowing us to go further and do more with the industry in general."

And what happens as a result of all that bandwidth bringing RIAs seamlessly to the desktop? The end of the web as we know it. Michael Lebowitz explained it as follows: "The browser keeps everybody focused on the web. Once things are pulled outside the browser, it could just be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of little functioning things that all share information using the Internet, but not necessarily the web. It creates this whole new taxonomy of things that exist."

And that brings me back to Apollo... I can't wait until MAX 2007 to see what developers create with Apollo. Until then, I hope you'll stay abreast of the latest Adobe products and technologies, industry trends, as well as developer tips and tricks by tuning into the Adobe Developer Center as well as the Adobe Edge newsletter.

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