The InDesign Conference 2015 Wrap-Up
|
Another successful InDesign Conference—held in Denver, Colorado and co-located with the Photoshop Conference for Designers this year—has come to a close. The 350+ attendees left the event with brains full of InDesign tips, production techniques, and design wizardry; hearts brimming with the warmth of community; and satisfied stomachs. The Colorado weather threatened to put a damper on the event with a so-called blizzard, but this tribe of artistic folks was determined to engage in all things InDesign despite a bit of meteorological menace.
On November 16th and 17th, the Marriott City Center conference rooms filled with many familiar faces and even more newcomers to the Creative Publishing Network family of events.
Everyone was there to learn, share, and be inspired while basking in the community surrounding our favorite page design and layout software. And, to make sure no one missed a thing, breakfast and lunch were provided…and what a spread for each of those meals!
Day One started out with a breakfast session sponsored by movemen’s MathTools. Ferdinand Schwörer demoed the equation editor for InDesign and gave everyone a sneak peak of the upcoming version, MathTools V3. With already full bellies, the attendees were then treated to a dessert spread of InDesign treats from Adobe’s Senior Director of Product Management for the design products Michael Ninness, typophile extraordinaire Nigel French, Adobe sage Russell Viers, and tables guru Diane Burns.
More food, and more in-depth sessions covering interactive PDFs, GREP, MS Word, and animation from Mike Rankin, Erica Gamet, Anne-Marie Concepción, and Keith Gilbert rounded out the conference portion of Day One.
But, as is typical of CPN events, five o’clock meant things were just getting started, as the attendees filled the main reception area to partake in a networking reception. Not to be confused with humdrum mixers with everyone blithely exchanging business cards, this event kicks off with a bingo ice-breaker game. As people tried to fill up their bingo card spaces labeled, “Someone who crossed an ocean to get here,” “Someone who has used GitHub,” or “Someone who is a vegetarian,” conversations were started and connections were made. I overheard someone say that was her favorite part because it forced her to talk to people and that led to having new friends to hang out with the rest of the conference.
The cherry on top of the Day One sundae was the InDesign/Photoshop Ignite session. This fast-paced series of talks gave attendees a chance to do the talking for a change. Based on Ignite events held all over the world, topics at the conference ranged from photography to table styles. Prizes are given to the brave few who take the Ignite challenge and it’s a regular favorite of other CPN events, such as PePcon. It was a most welcome addition to the InDesign Conference this year and a great way to wind down from the first day of conference programming.
A sampling of Ignite presentation slides
Day Two kicked off with another sponsored breakfast, this time led by PixelSquid, a collection of design-ready “spinnable” objects for use in Photoshop. The speakers from Day One were joined by InDesign masters David Blatner, Chad Chelius, and Chris Converse as multiple concurrent sessions delivering even more InDesign goodness were available for attendees to choose from. Long documents, troubleshooting, add-ons, fonts, PDFs, typography, and digital publishing secrets were laid out in a veritable InDesign buffet.
And speaking of (metaphorical) food, not only did attendees dine on another wonderful lunch spread, but had a generous helping of the Adobe Dev Team during the lunchtime panel. Attendees were able to interact with and ask questions of the people that are responsible for the products that we use every day. The Dev team was there to not only explain their vision for the future of InDesign (and Photoshop), but also to hear what features attendees have on their wishlist for future versions.
Day Two wrapped up the “official” end of the main conference with “Three Minutes Max.” This fun session pitted eight of the speakers against each other as each showed a tip meant to wow the attendees. With a time limit of only three minutes, each speaker was playing for an individual attendee. Tips were then voted on by the attendees by way of applause, with the victorious speaker’s attendee winning an annual subscription to the Creative Cloud. One speaker went far beyond the allotted time limit (cough, cough, Michael Ninness), and ended up winning. Being the great guy Mr. Ninness is, he made sure the runner-up also received a subscription.
Day Three featured optional add-on full-day tutorials covering EPUB, Kindle, and tablet publishing apps led by Anne-Marie Concepción, Keith Gilbert, Kevin Callahan, and Chad Chelius. For those who hadn’t had their fill at the main conference, these in-depth sessions delved deeper into their subject matter than the shorter sessions could possibly go.
Next year, the InDesign Conference and Photoshop Conference will be held separately, which can only mean more of each topic to tuck into. The InDesign Conference will be held November 7–9 in Washington DC and the Photoshop Conference for Designers will be July 11–13 in Minneapolis. If you didn’t attend this year, ask yourself if you aren’t starving for more InDesign sustenance, then make a plan to curb that hunger in 2016. Like eating Chinese food, you’ll come away feel satiated in the moment, and then ready for more immediately afterwards. And Creative Publishing Network will be pleased to be your server for all the courses you can possibly take in. Bon Appétit!
This article originally appeared in InDesign Magazine Issue 80 (December 2015)
All photos by Eric Shropshire
 |