As founding editor of Creative Boom, I last went to Adobe’s creativity conference in 2015. Here’s why I’m going back – and why I’m happy to let a few things slide.
There was an email in my inbox I read about six times this week. I had to clean my new glasses twice just to make sure I’d read the message right. It was from the senior marketing team at Adobe, and it asked, politely and warmly, whether I’d like to come to Adobe MAX in Miami this November.
I haven’t been to MAX since 2015. That’s 11 whole years. Two US presidents have come and gone since then. (I’m not even going to think about how many UK prime ministers we’ve had.) There’s been a global pandemic, too. And an AI revolution. So you’ll probably understand why I was surprised by the invite. Happy, but immediately thinking… why now?
The thing is, Adobe and I have history. Nothing sinister or dramatic. We’ve worked happily together for nearly two decades. But, like most relationships, we’ve had our ups and downs. You see, I’m a journalist, and I’ll report on facts. That means I won’t always write what they want me to. The subscription model. The introduction of Firefly. I walk a tightrope between being fair to brands I respect and supporting the creative community I’m here for.
The LA years
My first MAX was in Los Angeles in May 2013. Creative Boom was just four years old and still very much a side passion project. I remember walking into the convention centre feeling like I’d blagged my way in and shouldn’t really be there. I met journalists from other media titles who took the whole thing very seriously, as you would. I don’t think I quite appreciated the privilege of being invited.
It turned out to be quite the year to be in the room. That was the MAX where Adobe announced Creative Suite was over and everything was moving to Creative Cloud, subscription-only. Gosh, you could feel the tension in the air. Journalists scrambled to the press room to file. It was, to put it mildly, a scoop.
The next time I went was in 2015, and the event had seriously grown up. It had become a festival with Sneaks, keynotes and celebrity guests. That was the year I met Tom May, who has written for Creative Boom for more than a decade; Tom Banks, former Design Week editor; and Ashleigh Allsopp, another brilliant tech journalist.
Adobe MAX 2015, LA. Katy Cowan with Emma Wilkinson from Adobe
Katy Cowan at Adobe MAX 2015, with Tom May, Tom Banks, Ashleigh Allsopp and Emma Wilkinson
What happened next
I came home both times full of ideas and inspiration, pretty sure I’d return for another year. Then the invitations stopped. Was it because during The Black Keys I found a cardboard pig’s head and encouraged all the other journalists to dance with it? Was it because I re-enacted Baywatch, fully clothed, on the famous beach? Was it because I didn’t stop giggling with much of the marketing team and had the time of my life?
No. I suspect none of the above. It was nothing personal. And I wasn’t alone. Plenty of us from the smaller titles found the same. This was purely about strategy.
Back then, Creative Boom had no Instagram or YouTube channel and certainly no podcast. We were strictly words and pictures on a screen, so there was no competing with the brilliant content creators who came along and were miles ahead of us. Around 2016, things changed for companies like Adobe. Why fly a journalist halfway around the world to write a few articles for a trade magazine when you could invite a YouTuber with two million subscribers?
A creator can be briefed. They can be steered in a certain direction. But a journalist can’t. So one is marketing, the other is risk. I get it. It meant influencers and content creators became part of marketing, and the press list got a lot shorter.
I had to watch Adobe MAX from my laptop in Manchester for the next 11 years. Yeah, sometimes I felt like the friend who hadn’t been invited to the wedding and was pretending not to mind.
But I must admit… I did sort of mind. Not at the people I’d met at Adobe all those years ago, who were lovely, but at the silence. Creative Boom has championed Adobe’s tools and the people who use them since we launched in 2009. OK, so some of those articles have been sponsored. It’s how we keep the lights on and are able to continue supporting the industry. But slowly, without even realising it, you start prioritising other things. It’s not out of spite. You just lose touch.
Shantanu Narayen, Adobe MAX 2023
Scott Belsky, Adobe MAX 2023
Except we never really did. Through it all, Adobe has kept showing up in Creative Boom. It’s sponsored our podcast. Supported our small team with editorial partnerships. And everyone we’ve ever dealt with has been friendly and professional.
What’s changed?
So why go back now? Because they asked, and I couldn’t say no. As for why now? I have no clue. My guess is it’s a mixture of things. Creative Boom is more than a magazine these days. There’s a podcast and a community that, funnily enough, looks a lot like the reach Adobe went looking for in 2016. Besides, in a year when someone can clone your apps with AI? Well, a bit of independent, credible journalism might be worth something again.
I have a soft spot for Adobe. When it announced its subscription model, I thought it was a sensible move. Technology was moving fast. It couldn’t keep churning out software like it used to. Its new approach meant it could keep improving the tools. Being married to a software engineer, I’ve come to respect how much effort and resources it takes to create a product like this, and so I’m OK with it.
I’ve always defended them when prices have increased, too. I think the product is excellent and, for what it does, good value. I know plenty of freelancers and creatives who’d argue with me on that. It’s why we’re always shouting about alternatives.
As for its other products, I can’t sing Adobe Stock’s praises enough; it’s the only stock image site I’ll ever use, because its terms and licensing are clear and fair, giving an independent platform like mine complete peace of mind.
I didn’t jump for joy when someone used AI to clone Adobe’s apps, either. I just thought of all the thousands of people Adobe employs and how that might affect them.
That doesn’t mean I’ll arrive in Miami all starry-eyed. I’d still love to see us journalists given the same access as creators. I’d love the occasional press breakfast and a chance to chat with leading people at Adobe.
And I’ll call them out if I think they deserve it. I’ve written plenty about Canva lately and said more than once that Adobe could use some healthy competition. It’s not black and white. Like with everything on Creative Boom, we take a nuanced view. And we reserve the right to change our minds.
It’s certainly a fascinating time to be a creative. Disruptive, exciting, uncertain. I have so many questions and so much I want to write about.
Adam DeVine, Adobe MAX 2023
Hopefully, Miami will present some of these opportunities. I get to be a reporter in person again, rather than being invited to online presentations.
What’s happening in Miami
Adobe MAX 2026 runs from 10-12 November at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with pre-conference training on 8-9 November and the famous Sneaks on the evening of Wednesday 11 November.
There’ll be the usual keynote full of updates on Firefly and whatever Adobe has been working on lately. There’s the Creativity Awards ceremony and hundreds of sessions. I can’t wait to see the full programme.
If you can’t make it to Miami, you can watch it online for free. It’ll stream the keynotes and many of the sessions on 10-11 November. Register at max.adobe.com.
Aaron Draplin at Adobe MAX 2023
As for me? I’ll be there all week, reporting live for Creative Boom. Alongside all the serious journalism, I’ll be letting loose. I’ve taken inspiration from the content creators over the years. I’ve seen how much fun they’re having. I wanted some of that, too. And so, I’ll be running around with my mic and camera. Doing a few vox pops. Meeting a load of creatives from all over the world. Maybe I’ll bump into some old friends. Hope so.
Back in 2015, I flew home from LA thinking Creative Boom had made it. It hadn’t. It took another decade to get there. We’ve now got a podcast that’s passed a million downloads, a thriving online community where people meet every day and hundreds of meetups worldwide from New York to Hong Kong. We reach more than a million creatives every month. We got there through a ton of mistakes and a hard slog, figuring out independent publishing during endless rocky times. So Adobe, thank you. It’s been a while. I’m looking forward to causing mischief in Miami.
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