During the rather successfull Flex Camp in Vienna we decided spontaneously that we have to attend Adobe MAX 2008 in Milan. We were invited by Adobe to join their Adobe MAX Bus from Hamburg to Milan and of course we had to accept the offer. To make it a trip to remember we decided to not hop on at an intermediate stop but instead start the ride from the very beginning - from Hamburg, located in the far north of Germany... accompany us on our journey!

Christoph (left) and Florian (right) at Adobe MAX 2008

After a trouble-free flight to Hamburg we were welcomed by our local host Hannes Stockner from Interone. During our extensive city tour by foot we got to enjoy the beautiful city of Hamburg as well as a not so nice snow storm. The walk ended at the world-famous Reeperbahn where we unexpectedly spent all our money.

Florian and Hannes at the famous Dollhouse

This night we got a whole four hours of sleep as our trip with the Adobe MAX Bus already started at 7:00 a.m. On the bus we had great talks with both Toms (Tom Hensel, Tom Krcha) and a couple of other nice guys from the Adobe Community. The trip lasted for more than 28 hours - a lot more than initially expected - partly due to a massive snow storm on Austria´s Brenner mountain pass. Having lots of Löwenbräu Oktoberfest beers in the fridge and temporary mobile internet connection made the trip less painful. Furthermore, a Wii was hooked up to the media system of the bus and people would compete in countless boxing fights in Wii Sports.

Adobe MAX Bus finally arriving in Milan

We finally arrived in Milan at 11:30 the next day (seven hours late) and therefore unfortunately missed Adobe's first keynote. Nevertheless we got a lot of great input/inspiration on the first day and were able to keep our concentration focused until the last session. Our highlight of the day was definitely Alchemy the C/C++ -> AS 3 converter. We finished the first day with a Community Leader dinner, where we met a couple of friends and talked to leaders from all over Europe. While we're at it: thanks for the nice dinner, Adobe!

Entrance to Adobe MAX Europe 2008

On Tuesday Adobe put up a great show with their general session. The Men in Black Agency showed new productivity features in CS4 in a visual appealing and (very, very) loud show. Our 15 minutes of fame were when Alpenflash was mentioned during the huge keynote as being one of the first user groups on their new website groups.adobe.com. Additionally we gained extra fame as we were personally presented as the longest travelled MAX attendees - 36 hours (incl. our trip to Hamburg). The Sneak Peaks which were also being shown this day demonstrated Application Level Clustering through RTMPF, Endless Images and more - all of which were inspiring & stunning.

Men in Black Agency demonstrating new productivity features

After our last session of the day (Wireframing Experiences and Applications with Adobe Flash Catalyst) we were transfered to the Ice-Wonderland Community Party. There were lots of drinks but hardly any toilets, which ended in an information black market about nearest and best toilet possibilities in different bars around the location. During the event we had the chance to have an extensive chat with Jim Corbett (Flash Player Architect) which helped us in pushing the Flash Player's envelope with Platogo. After the party officially ended, our Austrian Adobe person of trust Dieter Hovorka somehow managed to reopen the Enterprise's hotel bar for private partying until the early morning hours.

Florian, Jim Corbett and Christoph (left), Famous Party People (right)

We needed a real cold shower to wake up the next day but somehow made it to the first session: Flash Player Internals with Jim Corbett. The third day was the best one regarding the quality of the talks, topics including RTMFP (Michael Thornburgh), Flash Player security (Jim Corbett) and as an entertaining last session Forms gone wild with Duane Nickull. A little sightseeing tour through Milan and a last dinner with friends (Dieter Hovorka, Christian Menzinger) was the excellent conclusion of our exciting trip to Adobe MAX Europe.

Florian, Christoph and Christian saying good-bye