VARs, LiveTV, Publishers, CS3! (and FMS3)
Hello, my friends! Time has simply flown by, here in the Netherlands...but it's been very productive indeed. And now that I can 'reflect' (via the blog), I though I'd take a little snapshot (showcasing my pleasant, happy mood) and re-tell the tale of the last 4 days... (whilst listening to some Last.FM)
Reminiscing about a fab week in the Netherlands....
I spent the first two days conducting presentations with Greg Rewis to some of our Valued Added ReSellers for the region. What was unique about this particular group of VARs was that they were primarily non-Adobe (in terms of what the sell on the 'Production' side) and these sessions were an opportunity to showcase to them the workflows and integration in CS3. For this, naturally Greg and I tapped our resources from the recent 'Master Collection' tour and showcased all the coolest, real-world workflows for ingesting/authoring, producing and deploying content. Needless to say, these sessions were FAB - great interest, great 'Wow'-factor, and it looks like we've definitely 'inspired' many of them to take a taste of (and begin selling) CS3 ;)
Now, upon arriving in Amsterdam, it was snowing like crazy. Bizarre, for sure. So much so, in fact, that this has been documented as the coldest 'Easter Holiday' in more than 100 years!
I *should have* photographed the landscape, taking the train in from Schiphol to the city (as it was early in the morning, and just blankets of white snow! I swear, it looked like Bergen, Norway, or something like that!). However, I was a bit too tired (and too 'post-plane') and just didn't manage to snap any pics. I *did*, however, snap a bunch on the next day @ the Adobe Amsterdam office...
From the entryway of the Adobe office in Amsterdam. Wickedly snowing!
Evangelists in the snow...in late March?
So, braving the snow and chilling rain, we continued spreading the word of CS3 & FMS3 at a special event held yesterday in Plantage/Kerklaan. This event was held in the studio where one of Holland's most popular daily news show called De Wereld Draait Door is recorded. The studio is run by DutchView, an Adobe FVSS partner. (DutchView were also responsible for filming and streaming our presentations at IBC last year)
Basically, we taped a live TV show in front of a closed audience of approximately 160; multiple TV cameras, lights, awesome backdrops, screens everywhere (as the audience was 'in the round', so they could see us from all angles) and it was just really cool. I mean, we were literally 'on set', but presenting CS3 and FMS3 to a host of different attendees; many were in some kind of broadcast profession, with others focusing more on the marketing side; there were also a host of 'other' creatives and engineering-types. Great mixed audience, which made the responses to FMS and CS3 all the more raucous!
Following the TV show, we spent today talking with one of the top news publishers here in Holland. They too got a look at the power of FMS3, and also saw how CS3 (and the integrated production workflows) can extend the capabilities of *everyone* in their organization (from the print/design people all the way through production and IT). Again, another really successful meeting, and yet another opportunity to seed some CS3 Master Collection ;)
As always, a major thanks to our colleagues here in Holland (Paul, Ronald, Klassjan, Roel-Jan, Ton, et als) and we look forward to returning soon (in fact, we'll be back in late May, doing some additional seminars, as well as an event in Kortrijk, Belgium called "Multimania"...more on that later!)
So, I'm going to grab some Falafel and/or Shoarma with Rewis (big surprise there), take in some of the cool weather, and chill to some of my recent purchases from FAME (which reminds me...there's another blog post coming about that!)
Until next time,
Blog On.