Journey to the Creative Edges

This week I did something new – something I have never been able to do before: I went to a convention. This convention was virtual and free and the free part was what allowed me to attend a convention. This was the Adobe Max convention so the topics covered art, design, social media, story telling, collaboration and creativity, but there were some business related topics such as using data.

I skipped the sessions covering how to use their tools, other than the AR tools, because I don’t use their tools simply because I don’t make money off their tools. I went to the convention to see some inspiration because I love looking at examples of design and art. The discussions on data was actually interesting and they did not entail data jargon.

One thing I will say, these designers and artists tend to traffic on the cutting edge or be more forward looking, much more so than regular business or financial types. It could be because Adobe has to be cutting edge to stay ahead of the competition, although I imagine that there are not many competition. It just seems like they don’t have much competition but they are always pushing into new frontiers. I saw some really amazing stuff and frankly, some of it was frightening. The discussions about how their AI can replay a face that is not smiling with a smiling face very realistically reminded me of deep fakes, so that aspect is a bit worrisome. I hope Adobe is thinking about the repercussions of these easily manipulated images.

Otherwise, the AR sessions was interesting even though I’m struggling how I can make use of it. I can see AR for education and such but for the applications for finance is much harder. The things that I would think finance would want to do is not available yet, technology-wise – at least I don’t think it’s available.

I do like looking at the design and artworks because they are so beautiful and fascinating. The other types of sessions that I enjoyed was the storytelling session although those were more video but still, they were awe-inspiring.

I’m debating on going to the next convention next week but I don’t know if it’s free or virtual. I can’t tell if it is or not free or virtual. If it’s neither, then I won’t go.