Macromedia MAX 2004 is just around the corner, and we think we've put together our most exciting conference ever. Each year at MAX, we try to take you deeper into using Macromedia products and also show you where we are going in our quest to provide the tools to forge a new digital world.

As always, Macromedia Customer Training has been centrally involved in planning the content for the conference. Our primary goal is to ensure the quality of technical information and education in each session. Members of the training group, who are experts both in instruction and Macromedia products, have managed several of the tracks. They will also lead many of the hands-on sessions, along with many Macromedia Authorized Training Partners and Certified Macromedia Instructors including Steve Drucker, Holly Quartzo, Simon Slooten, Ray Camden, and Art Philips.

MAX 2004 features seven tracks, each focusing on an area where Macromedia users are breaking new ground and, in doing so, helping to drive the enhancement of Macromedia software. The tracks are:

• Designing Great Experiences
• Creating Rich Media
• Designing and Publishing for the Web
• Developing Rich Internet Applications
• Web Application Development
• Mobile and Devices
• Training and Collaboration

Here are brief descriptions of each of these seven session tracks and some highlights from each.

Designer Session Tracks

For all the designers out there—three of the seven session tracks focus on creating better-looking, better-functioning, and more usable sites and applications. These sessions will teach you how to create world-class sites with state-of-the-art navigation and exciting rich media, including video and animation.

Designing Great Experiences

Over the past few years, Macromedia has heeded the call of users for better online experiences by providing an array of powerful tools for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). However, there is more to creating rich experiences than just having the tools. Macromedia created a team of specialists who have been hard at work figuring out design concepts and techniques that will lead to better online experiences. In this track we share with you some of the fruits of that effort. These sessions share some of the techniques (and lessons) we've learned from our experience in creating Rich Internet Applications including how to decide when to use an HTML or a rich interface, how to test effectively for usability, and how to create a distinctive look and feel for RIAs.

A highlight of this track is a session called Case Studies: What Works and What Doesn't, led by one of the leaders of Macromedia's experience design team, Michael Gough. In this session, Gough looks at some of the major RIAs created over the past couple of years—and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses.

Creating Rich Media

Richer user experiences require rich media, and this track will help you learn how to build "rock star" video, animation, and other media. Thanks to increasing bandwidth and improved technologies, the use of video to communicate information across the Internet has surged over past year, and the dramatic improvements in the video capabilities of Macromedia Flash are at the center of that revolution. Several sessions address these new capabilities, showing you how to stream live video, integrate video files in different ways, and create "talking head" applications that get rave reviews from users. There are also sessions on scripting basics for designers, advanced animation techniques, creating 3-D games, and using Flash and Macromedia Director together.

In particular, don't miss Jeff Whatcott's Flash Platform Overview and Roadmap to get the scoop on Macromedia's plans for the Flash platform, which has evolved from the "little player that could" to the engine of the next-generation Internet. Another great session, Streaming Live Video with Flash, gives you a chance to learn how to produce live video broadcasts from one of the experts in the field, Kevin Towes.

Designing and Publishing for the Web

In creating new tools and techniques for creating Rich Internet Applications, Macromedia hasn't forgotten that a big part of development is still creating great websites, both for intranet and Internet use. This year's MAX will help web publishers be more productive in two ways. First, there is the new Macromedia Web Publishing System, that binds the power of Macromedia Studio and Contribute together to make creating systems for distributed content creation and maintenance easier than ever. Sessions in this track explain how to use and extend the Web Publishing System to match your workflows and business requirements. This track also offers sessions that help you increase your productivity and the sophistication of your sites by customizing and extending Dreamweaver and Flash and using the design power of CSS.

And finally, for those of you who find yourselves maintaining redundant content on many pages, or spending too much time on routine content updates, or manually managing the transfer of information from your site to other systems, it's time to move up to dynamic application development. This track will help you with sessions on ColdFusion basics and working with databases.

This track includes Angela Buraglia and her Dreamweaver Killer Tips session, and Eric Mueller revealing the details of the JSAPI, showing you how to add custom tools to Flash to boost your productivity.

Developer Session Tracks

If you're the type who has to know "what makes it tick," the two developer-focused session tracks are for you. You'll get the information you need to build your site and application infrastructure so that it is reliable and scalable. Also, if you're working with external data, these are the sessions you need to learn how to integrate data into your Rich Internet Applications. These sessions are also a great way to get into new ways of delivering information in a rich environment through Macromedia Flex and Central.

Developing Rich Internet Applications

While we want to talk about the design of rich experiences, we're not neglecting the nuts and bolts of developing Rich Internet Applications. This track offers 22 information-packed sessions working with Macromedia Flex, Flash, Flash Communication Server, ColdFusion, and Central on topics such as application architecture, debugging, building custom components, embedding instant messaging, and building applications that your users can use offline. If you are working on RIAs, you'll find plenty here to improve performance, security, and functionality. These sessions will help you make better decisions about which technologies are best suited to your project requirements.

If you are already developing with Flex, you'll want to be sure to hear Stephen Webster, co-author of Developing Rich Clients with Macromedia Flex, present on design patterns for robust and scalable RIAs in his session, Architecting Flex Applications. Also, don't miss Flex engineer Matt Chotin's discussion of effective handling of large data sets. If you haven't yet tried Flex, Macromedia instructor Matt Boles will walk you through creating your first Flex application.

Web Application Development

The Web Application Development track focuses on ColdFusion, offering a heady mix of advanced topics and insight into exciting new features coming in Blackstone, the next version of ColdFusion. You will learn better ways to structure applications for maintainability and scalability, the best techniques for creating multilingual applications, and how to integrate ColdFusion applications with Microsoft Office. You'll learn how to create SMS applications and how to take advantage of the underlying Java layer of ColdFusion. You'll also get a jumpstart on Blackstone by learning about the major new features like rich forms and Event Gateways, which will give you new power and flexibility in handling user and system events.

The highlight of this track will be the legendary Ben Forta talking about Structured ColdFusion Development—learn how thinking about application architecture separates the hacks from the stars. Ben gives you a preview of his session in the Developer Center, too. You also won't want to miss certified instructor Rob Rusher's tips and tricks to squeeze maximum performance out of ColdFusion.

Mobile and Devices Session Track

Developers in Japan and Asia know about it, and those in Europe are feeling the tremors, but for those us residing in the Americas, the next wave is just starting to break: the advent of Flash content and applications on mobile devices. This is a new world even for experienced Flash developers, and we are devoting a whole track to it. Here you will learn about differences between the Flash Lite and Flash Player, how to build FlashCast applications, and how to build content that works for mobile device interfaces and the hardware and bandwidth constraints. This wave is big and you want to catch it—learn the techniques now.

Mobile device development guru Bill Perry offers a session on Creating Dynamic Applications with Flash Lite 1.1, and you'll also want to hear David Mannl talk about how to create effective interfaces within the constraints of mobile hardware in his session, Developing Device Interfaces for Mobile Phones.

Training and Collaboration Session Track

Macromedia has long been the leading provider of tools for creating online training, but in past year we've added new products that make it easier than ever to build rich learning experiences rapidly without a degree in rocket science. This track offers sessions on using Macromedia RoboHelp and Macromedia Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) to create sophisticated help, training, and demos quickly and easily. You'll learn how Macromedia Breeze can help you take online collaboration and interactive learning to a new level and maximize the productivity of dispersed work groups. You'll also find out what you need to know about SCORM 2004 to comply with the latest e-learning standards.

In this track you can learn from Breeze development star Peldi Guilizzoni how to integrate current Breeze capabilities with applications or portals, and add extended Breeze functionality using the Breeze XML API in Integrating and Extending Breeze, and RJ Jacquez of the Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) team will show you how to create e-learning faster than you thought possible.

Come Join Us in New Orleans

That's a birds-eye view of this year's content, but the real delight is in the details you'll find at MAX 2004. I hope to see you there—Macromedia Training will be there in force, eager to find what's on the minds of all you Macromedia developers out there in the trenches.

Register for MAX 2004 now ›

About the author