Why MAX 08 SF has been disappointing, or MAX Day 01 from the business side

It’s late even by PST so I will keep this brief, perhaps another post later along with my photos from Max Day 1. This is my second time attending MAX, the first being last year in Chicago. According to other sites my reviews of MAX last year were full of ‘breathless enthusiasm‘ so it may be surprising that my comments regarding MAX this year have been largely negative. So here’s the short list:

• At MAX last year, we had some issues with the WiFi – it would go out intermittently. This year though, the question is more like Internet? What Internet? There is maybe one place in the entire convention where you can sit and receive a decent WiFi signal. Even speakers on the wired lines had issues getting a network connection. For a company who’s business is all about the Internet, this is just sad. We can live without the gaming area, just give us a network connection already.
• At MAX last year, the entire convention was held in a single location. This year, there are at least three different geographical locations. I am guessing that the McCormick place in Chicago must be vastly larger than the Moscone Center…or is it? McCormick has two halves, an old half and a new half, only the new portion was used for MAX last year. Moscone has three separate buildings, only Moscone West is being used for MAX this year. However many, if not all, the labs are being held in the Marriott a couple of blocks away, and tomorrow night’s event is being held in Golden Gate park. As one fellow attendee mused to me today, I wonder at the logistics of bussing over five thousand people from Moscone to Golden Gate Park. As for walking to the Marriott, a complaint last year was that the rooms in McCormick were too far apart so it was hard to get to sessions on time. How about a ten minute walk to a totally separate location?
• Last year Adobe gave lots of cool stuff to the attendees, including a laptop carrier bag. This year we got a grocery bag (at least it was cloth, not paper). The city of Los Angeles, in celebration of holding MAX ’09 next year, also threw in a funny looking pen made out of used toilet roll cardboard and a half Popsicle stick.
• Last year when we would come out of a session, there would be tables and tables of yummy treats to grab and munch on. Lots of drinks, too. This year, the few treats there have been, there is a mob swarm briefly and then everything is gone. Complete opposite of last year. This morning at breakfast there was a huge line for the orange juice. You’d think there was a session on Degrafa people were waiting to get into, but no, its just the Orange Juice, man.
• Last year there were lots and lots of vendors, and they all gave out shirts and many other cool prizes like USB drives and fun toys. This year, it seems like there are far, far fewer vendors, and they are mostly giving out nothing, or small things like peppermints or those cheap aluminum buttons that political parties like to give out to their supporters. There may be a reason for this, see below. I could have missed them, but this year I did not see Yahoo, nor Google, though Google seemed to be one of the most talked about companies other than Adobe itself at MAX this year.
• In general, my impression has been that this year’s MAX has been rather thrifty, if not trimmed down, and less organized as well.

So what are the reasons for this? I would have assumed that with each progressive year, MAX would be bigger and better. There was a lot of hype on Adobe blogs about how there is record attendance at MAX this year. My guess was that one reason is the poor economy. I ran into the owner of a major award winning studio (hint, they are a finalist in the MAX awards) and he had some interesting comments on this as well. For example, he said that the attendance at MAX this year was lower than expected. Yes, it might be more than last year, but it’s less than the increase that it should have been. Again, he agreed that the economy probably had a major impact on this. Another attendee commented, regarding the vendors, that apparently this year the union rates have sky rocketed. In other words, the cost to move a box from one end of a room to the other has gone up exponentially, hence the vendors costs have gone up greatly and therefore they have brought fewer and smaller items. Still, what about the apparent disorganization? I was commenting about this to one of our team members as we came out of a session into the crowded hall and a lady in front of us turned around and said, “I’m an Adobe employee, and even I feel that way!” This is pretty disheartening considering that we’ve come all the way to Adobe’s home town. A big disappointment after traveling from the other side of the country. On the other hand, at least we are enjoying San Francisco…Muir Woods and many other things to see here. Finally, why is MAX being held in California AGAIN next year? Do they already feel that the economy is going to slump further, and hence everyone else should bear the expense of coming to Adobe?