My (selfish) Thoughts on Adobe MAX 2011

* Way too many people....attendance should be limited or capped in some fashion to preserve a good attendee experience. If there were 5,000 people at this year's MAX, I would say it should probably be limited to about half of that....maybe 3,000 tops.

* Food was sub-par. It was cold most of the time and didn't taste very good. While I don't exactly attend Max for the food, a little extra effort here would have made the event a bit more pleasant.

* Max Bash was OK....I think I'd rather have the money spent on the Bash in the form of swag of some type (devices, software suites, etc...). And, again, the food was cold, though this may have had a lot to do with the fact that the Bash was held outdoors on a chilly night.

* Wifi for this event was horrible. When I was able to get a connection, it was slow enough to be considered unusable. In addition, it ruined a couple of the demos I attended as certain key features of the software being demoed could not be carried out.

* Hotels for the event were WAY overpriced. This may just be a drawback of Los Angeles.

* Hotel shuttle service was excellent.

* Logistics for food service and moving people from point A to point B throughout the conference was excellent.

* Not wild about LA....need to vary the location from year-to-year. San Francisco and Chicago were nice locations in the past.

* I resent that I could not attend all the sessions I wanted because of "wait-listing" and otherwise full sessions. If you accept this amount of money from someone who expects to be able to participate, sessions should NEVER fill up.

* Not enough ColdFusion coverage. Is this a sign of things to come for the platform?

* It was re-assuring to see the direction being taken with Flash Builder and the Flash platform, particularly around mobile development.

* The number of greeters and people providing direction was a bit excessive, as was their feigned enthusiasm welcoming people and upon their departure. If Adobe is spending money on this, it could be better spent elsewhere. (It reminded me of those over-enthusiastic new Apple Store employees at a store grand-opening....just a pet peeve of mine I guess).

* The sessions were excellent for the most part. In particular, the Sencha presenter, Ray Camden discussing the next version of ColdFusion and the panel discussing Flash vs. HTML 5 were excellent. Easily the best sessions I attended.

* One or two of the Adobe "Evangelists" seemed a bit unfriendly and at least one of the Product Managers was a bit full of himself. I like my vendors to pander to me. This event is not about Adobe, it's about Adobe customers. The information provided at Max, and the manner in which it is provided, are important for users and IT managers to be able to make rational decisions about development direction and such.

* What happened to Tim Buntel?

* Overall, I'd give Max 2011 a grade somewhere between C+ and B-. I probably won't go again until it is held somewhere other than LA.