About MAX 2003

One of the greatest joys of the year is always Macromedia's annual developer's conference (formerly DevCon, now simply called 'MAX'). Over two thousand uber-geeks attended this year's festivities in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 19-21. Before the conference began, attendees had a chance to find others with common interests by using Macromedia's 'Intro' Rich Internet Application. Attendees could fill out short bios with their interests, and sort people based upon proximity to their profiles. It was a great chance to meet new friends and hook up with old ones. The application let you send and receive messages, and Webcams were set up at the event to leave audio/video messages for your Intro pals. Macromedia also created a special Central application for the conference, which provided us with a (ahem) central location to receive news, find rooms, view sessions, and more.

The Intro application was a big hit at the conference, bringing attendees from all over together and proving that RIAs can be fun.

Wednesday's keynote kicked off with some demos of what Sony has been doing in Japan with Rich Internet Apps, including a virtual walkthrough of a living room decked out with Sony equipment that you can interact with in real time. It was mentioned that the samples that were shown were created with a beta version of MX2004, so it looks like the sky will be the limit with the final version. Product managers walked through some of the new features in the new MX2004 line - Dreamweaver and its enhanced CSS support, Flash and its data connectivity with Web services, and a brief glimpse of a new ColdFusion code-named 'Blackstone' (which was naturally shown against a Red Sky). Most of the details on Blackstone were vague, but it did seem that there would be enhancements to source code protection and integration with Flash Paper.

After the MX2004 rundown, it was time for the first new product announcement - Flex. Flex had been referred to as Royale previously, and uses an XML language currently called MXML to create SWF files from the server, or, as it says on Macromedia's site: "[Flex] extends the Macromedia MX platform by delivering a standards-based programming methodology for building the presentation tier of Rich Internet Applications". A demo was performed, creating a stock lookup application complete with drag-and-drop elements and accordion navigation. They showed how a product (codenamed Brady) could be used to modify the interface without destroying the code - always a big hit! Representatives from IBM then came out to talk about RIAs.

Next up on the new product announcements was a product that isn't really new, but is new to the Macromedia family - RoboDemo. Silke Fleischer of RoboDemo demonstrated how the product can caption and export screen capture videos automatically, enabling a richer type of online help. eHelp's product line will make a nice addition to Macromedia's offerings, especially for developers in the eLearning and Sales/Presentation fields.

Last on Wednesday's agenda was Central - Macromedia's new client application for RIAs. After showing some basic features of Central, they showcased some of the actual applications available for it, including a blog reader, and representatives from AOL took the stage to announce the AIM/ICQ SDK for Central, which will allow RIAs to have IM capabilities (as well as interact with standard AIM clients). The Central SDK is now available on Macromedia's site, and the Central application itself houses an application finder to find new RIAs that are built.

Conference attendees then spent the day attending various sessions, chatting, checking their e-mail and Intro mail, and, of course, blogging. Maxbloggers.com was formed to create a central area for MAX-related blogs. After Wednesday's sessions, attendees were given the challenge of collecting ten stickers (one from ten different User Group managers) to receive a Macromedia sweatshirt. Pictures of the conference were placed on http://www.markme.com/vision/ as events unfolded, including a shot of the very bright shirts User Group managers got to wear. After that, the hardcore went off to flex their coding muscle at an all-night codefest. The rest of us hit the town to see what all of this 'bar membership' business was about...

Thursday's keynote was the same as last year's news/entertainment show parody of D!ET (Developer! Entertainment Tonight). Macromedia's RIA 'Into' was showcased, where people can make short bios of what they're into and others can vote on their favorites. (Do not confuse this with the "Intro" application mentioned above; this is a separate application that is available on Macromedia's website.) The remainder of the Macromedia product line was reviewed, with information on Contribute, Breeze, and Director. After a fake advertisement for 'Go-Away Spray' (that ever-popular but unfortunately fictitious product that repels pesky co-workers), the first annual MAX awards were presented. The highlight of the morning was the parody video 'Designer Eye for the Developer Guy' -- a show unfortunately not on any cable channels in my area.

Aside from the regular sessions, there were birds of a feather gatherings and sneak peeks for more in-depth product news and demonstrations. For Thursday night's sneak peek, the presenters wore antennae and crepe paper stripes (to represent Utah being the beehive state, not to represent bugs!).

What would a Macromedia conference be without the Big Night Out event? This year, we hit the Salt Lake City Olympic Oval, where we were treated to a show of skaters before hitting the ice ourselves (unfortunately, some took that term literally...). There was also a hockey shoot and curling lessons, and a bungie jumping area for the brave. The dance floor was packed, and many of us got our first taste of a Polygamy Porter.

Friday came way too soon - how could it already be over? Utah gave us a small display of snow in the morning as we wound down the last of the sessions. Another wonderful conference, with many new things learned and friends made along the way. I look forward to seeing you all at next year's event!

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