Community Blogs: Kurt Foss: Going hybrid at Acrobat & PDF Conference

Posted: 2008-09-23

Going hybrid at Acrobat & PDF Conference

I hadn't really stopped to think that it's been more than 20 years since I lived and worked here in Minneapolis. But in riding the city's light-rail train from the southern suburbs to downtown in less than 30 minutes today, I sampled for the first time one of the new (and very nice) transportation options that didn't exist in 1987.

Soon thereafter during the opening morning keynote address by Ali Hanyaloglu, Acrobat product evangelist at Adobe Systems, I experienced this conference in a way that was in at least one high-tech way different from the many other Acrobat-oriented gatherings I've attended since the product's earliest versions shipped.

Given the changing times, the 200 or so registered attendees seems an adequate turnout for such an event. Not all were in the main ballroom this morning as Ali was making a final test of the microphone and computer hookup for his upcoming presentation on "Interactive Workflow: Acrobat 9 and Acrobat.com."

He immediately noted to those physically present that we were being joined by a group of 150 or so virtual attendees, logging in live via Web browsers from across the country, as well as from more distant places such as Trinidad, Brazil and Australia. If so, then Ali's online audience exceeded the one scattered across circular tables in front of him.

So even though I was watching Ali in person, I simultaneously accessed the online version of the presentation in order to follow along -- a sort of hybrid-viewing experience -- to get a firsthand feel for the pros and cons of each. I didn't notice, but I suspect there were a few others in the room who might have been doing the same thing (and thus slightly skewing the virtual attendee numbers!).

There proved to be benefits and shortcomings from the differing vantage points. During a live demonstration where Ali showed how to do live sharing by connecting to and collaborating with a remote colleague, only the online audience could actually view the two screens side-by-side being controlled by either party. However, it wasn't always smooth sailing online. Seated behind me, Thom Parker took an urgent cellphone call from Lori DeFurio of Adobe Systems, who was part of the virtual community. She said the live audio had suddenly dropped off for the online attendees. It was quickly restored, but they unfortunately missed some of Ali's informative overview of the new PDF Portfolios feature in Acrobat 9.

The audio glitch aside, it was interesting that when Ali posed several questions to people in the room asking for a show of hands, the online folks also had an option in Acrobat Connect to "Raise Hand" (and several other feedback options)--and many did.

Only the two morning keynotes--another to open tomorrow's final day--are being webcast live (and subsequently posted for on-demand viewing). But many of the other speakers have already made copies of their presentations and/or related resource files available for download from the Adobe Acrobat & PDF Central Conference website. Check back later to get additional speaker presentations.