Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Hey folks, welcome to Arbor Digital Experiences. This is episode 17 and this is our Adobe Summit Port Prep podcast where we give you tips about how to get the most out of Adobe Summit. Because Adobe Summit is only two weeks away. So with us today we got a bunch of our crew which is going to be coming with us to Adobe Summit from AR Digital. Got our cmo Hank, Toby, we've got our solution consultant, Brandon, and our Edge delivery developer, Justin Ranley. And and so this is four out of the five Arbore Digital folks that you're going to be seeing at Adobe Summit this year. And so hey, I wanted to give everybody here a chance to introduce yourselves because if you're coming to Adobe Summit, you're going to be seeing all of us. So Justin, you want to go first? Sure.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: As it says on the screen, my name is Justin Ranley. I've been a developer in technical solutions operator for Arbery for the last two years and recently just came off a nice project with Tad and a couple other members of our team doing some fun work with Edge delivery service for Adobe. So it's been a interesting last few months for me coming onto the project a little late and really getting thrown into a brand new world, which is a lot of fun. So really looking forward to what I can find out at Summit about that as well.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Oh yeah, and I'm going to do my best to not talk about that project on this podcast because it's. Having just launched that site, it's like I'm still energized from actually successfully launching that site. It is. And I'm going to shut up before I actually start talking about it because it was, it was great and. Yeah, and just to tease, just a tease, just a tease. It was such, it was a brand new world going on to this. Obviously Justin, nobody, nobody coming onto that project could have had experience with it because we were working with all new tech. We were the first people to implement a site based on Adobe's new document authoring tech. So this is, this is the first non Adobe site to be launched on that. So a lot of, lot of brand new things, a lot of brand new concepts and. But it was super exciting and the result was great. Customer loves it. It's 4 to between 4x to 8x faster than their old AM 6.5 sites. Yeah, it's cool.
It was fun. Anyway, that's it, that's all I'm going to say about it. All right, good move on.
Hank, you want to go next?
[00:02:44] Speaker C: Sure. I'm Hank. Toby. I'm the CMO here at Arbor Digital. I also work as a project manager with one of our customers as well. Happy to be here. Happy to be headed back to Summit. This will be my second summit.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Indeed. That's right. And Justin, you've not been to Summit, right?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Correct, Correct. My first. So I'm actually really excited. Yeah. Kind of can't imagine what it's going to be like, but I know that it's going to exceed my expectations, let's put it that way.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: We're going to hope to make sure it's that way, but yeah, it's. Yeah, it's, it's going to. It'll be a zoo. It's going to be great. All right, Brandon, why don't you introduce yourself next?
[00:03:21] Speaker D: I'm Brandon Langel. I joined Arbery Digital in October. Just came off a career transition myself. Coming from more of an operations management and training background, so learning the depths of the AEM and technical world. And this is my first summit too, so I'm really looking forward to it. I know I'm going to learn a lot. It's going to be awesome.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: That's awesome. It is awesome. All right, kid. So, so to set the stage a little bit. So, so, yes. So we're two weeks away from Adobe Summit, which is a big dance in, in marketing. If you have anything to do with marketing technology at all, whether you are in the Adobe world or you're in other worlds of WordPress or Drupal or Optimizely or anything else, there's a lot of tech that is going to be relevant to you and a lot of direction that the market is going, that's going to be relevant to you, that's going to come out of Adobe Summit. So this is it. This is something where there's a lot of eyeballs that are in this, in this space that are going to be going, we. About two weeks ago, something like that, we did a podcast and we're soliciting some Adobe Summit tips from, from seasoned veterans. So. And we ended up with a whole bunch of them. And so we're going to go through a bunch of their, their tips and discuss them and, and, and, and platoon of our own. But before we get into that, did Justin or Brandon, did you want to have, you know, get any burning questions that you have out the door first?
[00:04:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I think for basics, like, what's a good gear list that you carry around day to day? Because I know there's a lot of moving, there's not a lot of chance to go Back to your room or go back to wherever your base is. It's just constant on the move. So what did you guys carry with you throughout the day?
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Okay, that's a brilliant one.
Especially since in our list of comments of how to get the most out of Adobe Summit that folks made, almost everybody mentioned physical preparation for Summit of like gear, clothes, etc of like what do you want to make sure you have? So I think let's, we can just get into that. Hank, you can. Let's. So okay, so probably the first thing is that yes, you're right, you're not going to be able to get back to your hotel relatively easily unless you're one of the fortunate few that have a hotel in the Venetian.
And even in Summit, I don't wear a Fitbit anymore, but the Fitbits that I had before were usually logging on average 25 to 30,000 steps across a day of Summit.
It's real. You definitely are gonna move. So the first part of the gear list is definitely this is not the time to wear your fancy like Cinderella shoes or something like that. You wear the most comfortable walk in shoes that you own. And, and even if they don't look as dressy, that's. Those are the ones that you come with.
[00:06:15] Speaker C: That was one of my questions.
Are tennis shoes fine do you think? Even with the kind of formal tire.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And even the folks that are on stage, most of them, you see them wearing, wearing comfortable long distance walking shoes. So even, even when they're like in their suits and stuff along. Yeah, for sure. Tennis shoes, absolutely. Okay. You're. Yeah, so yeah. Comfortable.
[00:06:41] Speaker D: Watching fancy shoes would become a, would become a self correcting problem. It sounds like.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just not going to go very many places at Summit. You're going to stay in one place for a while. Yeah. Or you're going to end up coming out of Summit in a wheelchair. But, but still. Yeah, but, but also in terms of, in terms of dress. I mean, I mean everybody does their own thing at Summit. But. But yeah, this is not, this is not a fancy dressing. This is everybody being relatively casual. So. So yeah, comfortable shoes are a plus. But also. So most of the conference is happening inside of conference rooms. So with the exception of the keynote which is, I mean there's 15,000 people in a room in the keynote, so it's kind of warm in there. But, but for most of the other conference rooms they have the AC like cranked. So that's one of the things that was Roman Mueller from Adapt to he actually went and brought this one up for Debbie. Somebody says, yeah, especially Europeans, you're not going to be ready for the way that Americans do air conditioning. So the, the air conditioning is real. So even if it's warm outside, you bring a jacket.
[00:07:48] Speaker D: Yeah. So I think people who have in not only the AC inside, but people who haven't been to the desert before underestimate that when the sun goes down, the temperature drops a lot.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: And it's usually beautiful in, in Vegas in April or March when, When summit is. But it, it also is doing its blind thing. Like last year, right before summit, I went out for a bike ride right before summit, and it was hailing on me before being sunny, so.
In the desert. Yeah, I was getting hailed on the thunderstorm in the desert. So, yeah, that.
But I guess the other thing, though is that. So because you, you may have a jacket that you may take off. That's another thing. I, and I get this is. This is my own personal opinion on equipment, but I want to bring the most comfortable backpack that I own. Also, because you're going to want a laptop, you're going to want to be able to take notes, you're going to want to be able to. To bust out an email or something like that. Some people go light and just have a. Have a lightweight tablet or something like that. But you're going to want to backpack because you're going to end up either with your jacket in there, you're going to end up with vendor swag in there, all kinds of other stuff. So you're going to want a backpack. So. And the other thing about bringing a backpack is that you can bring a water bottle because that's the other thing you're going to want is, is you're going to get. You're going to need to get hydrated. There are sometimes some places where they've got like, you know, sodas and stuff like that, but you can't hydrate yourself on Coke. So.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I do think they have a fair bit of like water fountains and things like that, too. Cups for water, but bringing your own so you have it on. On demand is pro tip for sure.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, definitely.
[00:09:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I saw some of the comments, too. Especially not just for how long the day is, but how, how much talking you do with other people and just like wearing your own voice out, like, if you don't stay hydrated, that's gonna, that's gonna bite you by the end of day one.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So. So plenty of water Plenty of water, but yeah, so. So in terms of. Yeah, I guess so. I guess that would be my gear list. Make sure you bring something long sleeve that, that you can take off if you want to bring a water bottle and have your most comfortable shoes.
[00:10:00] Speaker D: All right, good one. Thanks.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: What about you, Justin? Any burning questions?
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Oh, I've got many. I've got many because now just from the shoe conversation, I'm thinking about, you know, me, I'm trying to make sure that I don't show up improperly because I haven't been there and Brandon asked in the same thing.
Is there a dress code?
[00:10:24] Speaker A: There is no dress code. I mean you're, you're meant to wear something on your bottom and something on your top and you should wear shoes. But aside from that there is no dress code. So. Yeah, so there, there's plenty of developers there that are just showing up and you know, T shirt and jeans and then there's plenty of other folks that use the occasion to show up in their three piece suit. So it all just depends on what, what your ideal conference wear is and what, what, what you, what you like to roll with in terms of your image. So. Yeah, gotcha.
[00:10:52] Speaker C: I know I'll be rocking a suit most days, but Ted, you tend to dress down a bit and I don't think any are looked up to or sat down upon. It's all exactly whatever you're feeling. Whatever's comfortable.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was, I think it was Summit 2019 or something like that. Which was the first time that I was like, you know, I'm gonna dress in a, I'm dressing a suit. And, and then somebody said, you know, hey, where's Tata? And, and Bryce sent this mass text out that says like, hey, just look for the dude in a cycling cap. And I'm like, all right, well I guess that's my dress code now.
So. Yeah, so that's that. All right, good. Well let's, let's. So that's, that's gear. But let's, let's start talking about some of the other things to, to as far as summit tips. So unless you have any other burning questions, Brandon, or, or Justin that we can just dig into right away.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: You know, I, going into my first summit, I had a of my biggest questions was what's it actually going to be like, how many people are going to be there?
What's the layout like? And I was actually really surprised to see things like the cafeteria or things like the, the big, what do you call them like the big conference rooms where it's like a. It's almost like going to a rock show. There's concerts, there's lights, big screens. All of that was pretty surprising to me. And then the layout, the multiple floors where all the breakout sessions are, where all the actual sessions are, was also pretty amazing. There's tons of rooms in this place, tons of space. If you've never been to a conference before, or even if you have been to a conference, this is quite the. Quite the show, quite the layout they set up for us over there.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And I guess that's one thing. So. Because of how big it is. So first of all, just to set the stage, there's anywhere between. And who knows, we don't have the numbers until it happens, but there's going to be anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 people at summit. It's a big deal. It's not quite as big as, like, reinvent or something like that, but it's still, it's still pretty massive. I mean, it's still the same turnout as like your average NBA game. So it's, it's a, it's a. It's a pretty. It's a pretty solid turnout. The, the keynote. There's two different keynotes. There's a day one and day two keynote, and those basically everybody comes to. So you've got a massive, massive conference room with 15,000 people on it. So that's. That, that's one bit. And then. And then there's all the breakouts that happen afterwards. And, and so. And those all happen in other little rooms. And as, as Hank was saying, those are on four different floors. And so. And they're. So. They're all over the place. So one of the things that you gotta know before you go on this is that is you need to know where all your sessions are. There's an Adobe Summit app, generally, and also there's the ability on the website, you can go and download your whole schedule and stick it in your Outlook. So if you've got Outlook on your phone, then you've got your whole, like, I'm supposed to go here, I'm supposed to go here, I'm supposed to go here. Because a lot of times when you're going from 1, 1, 1 conference to the next, and it's like you're in, you know, palazzo, you know, F314 or whatever, you're like, oh, my goodness, where the heck is that? And then, you know, you only have, you know, 10 minutes to be able to get there. And it's three fours away and it's packed escalators and stuff. So yeah, knowing, knowing where you're going is a, is a, is a really good idea.
[00:14:13] Speaker D: Do they put maps up around on the floors for you to follow?
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Not really, but they are our assistants all over the place. So this is where if you, if you at least know where you're supposed to be. You say, I'm supposed to be at something, something, something. And you're like, I don't even know if that's a name of a person or a name of a conference room. And then they're like, oh, yeah, that's the conference room. It's just, you know, this way. So, so there's that.
[00:14:40] Speaker D: I know casinos are supposed to be mazes that keep you in.
It'd be nice for the conference to actually have a map or a visual display.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Better wayfinding would be nice. But yeah, it's okay. You do get the hang of it after a little while. Again, presuming you've got your schedule all mapped out.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: Shout out to A.C. feeney and Tom or Ishi Feeney and Tom Johnson. They both mentioned this. On that. On that.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: So. And on that. Though I haven't had a hard time trying to pick it up again on Android just now. I think it's still, it's on iPhone, but I don't know if they just, you know, take it off the app store for a little while or something like that. So. Yeah, but just make sure it's out there as a backup. I would just make sure to have all your stuff in Outlook.
Okay, good.
So let's see anything else then that on, on the, on the burning questions list?
[00:15:43] Speaker D: Yeah. Is there a no miss part of summit for first timers?
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Yes. So, okay, so, so definitely I would say the keynotes. You don't want to miss the keynotes. The keynotes are great. There's two different days of keynotes. Don't schedule anything. Don't try to think, oh, I'm. The keynote's just going to be marketing floof or something like that. And don't go to the keynote. Absolutely go to the keynote. So on both days they always line up great speakers. Both the Adobe CEO, but a lot of times they'll pull in all kinds of other people. Definitely go to the keynotes. That totally. Especially if you're not even in the Adobe world and especially also if you are watching this online.
Just block time on your office calendar right now to stream the keynotes because they are, they're, they, they are kind of important for setting the stage of marketing tech for the next year, I would say. So I guess, you know, so that, and that's another thing too, is that to assume that this is going to be your life while you're there is, is the best way to, to, to schedule this. Like, like, don't assume that you're gonna juggle some work stuff while you're at Summit. It would just be a disaster because it's going to be. You're going to be so busy. There's stuff happening all the time. I mean, I've been a consultant for years and years, and, and the first couple times I was there, I'm like, you know, I can get a meeting in, in the morning, you know, and I could probably knock this one other thing out. And then it's like, no, that was a terrible idea. It was an awful idea. Yeah, so, so, so, yeah, but, but so the keynote, definitely, I would say go to the keynotes. There's another one called Summit Sneaks, which is awesome.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they, they, every year they have, they get a guest, some sort of a celebrity guest that comes on and, and there's another Adobe employee and they bring on Adobe engineers who've been working on like, total, like mad scientist stuff behind the scenes, a lot of which has ended up in the product in one. In one sort or another. But, but, but the stuff that gets brought up at Summit is just mad scientist stuff that they're like, okay, I brought up a way to, whatever, browse 3D or something. I used AI to. There's all, all these crazy projects and they're. They have to pitch basically this crazy project to the celeb that they have on the stage. It's hilarious. It's hilarious.
[00:18:13] Speaker D: Yeah, that sounds excellent, but that, that sounds like a really quality way to give credit where it's due. Also, like you said, it's the people behind the scenes that probably never get facetime with the people who actually use their products and don't get credit outside of their own circle. So that's. That, that's pretty cool to hear that they put the people who do the actual creative and engineering work up for everybody to see. Like, hey, that's. That's the person who did it. That's. That's who made the new Whiz Bang thing. That's pretty.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. Just imagine if you're like an engineer. So last year it was Shaq who's on stage last year they're pitching these crazy engineering ideas.
So that's Fantastic. It's Ken Zhang from who is in the Hangover. So yeah, so it, this is going to be, it's going to be a riot. So excellent. Definitely don't miss that. That's another one. Yeah, but, but in terms of other stuff to like not miss and is so the ex. The, the expo floor where all the vendors are out there.
Make sure you don't have your entire Adobe Summit blocked wall to wall with sessions. Yeah, because getting a chance to talk to people in there and not just vendors but everybody because you get to talk to people who've actually implemented this stuff. They're like oh okay, I just, I just went to a session about Adobe commerce this and that and, and I. Okay. So I can read the brochure. I can see the, the features that says but you've done it. So what was it like? Like, like it's, you have to actually ask real people and they can say oh yeah, this part. Oh you know how they're saying it's this, it's actually way better than that. But this part, it's not really bull. It's not baked yet. And so like to get that kind of intel, you're not going to get that anywhere else. That's stuff is the reason why to go to Summit.
[00:20:07] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's one of the things I'm, I'm looking forward to most as you kind of touched on it is just being in person rather than virtual on everything. You know, been working virtually for a couple months now and it's great for the flexibility that it provides to everybody. But you know, humans are herd animals and we thrive on in person connectivity. So that I, I think that's the thing I'm looking forward to the most is just being around in the crowd and seeing people face to face and just getting to talk to people.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: I mean that's nice. Just within this team, Brandon, you and I have never met in person. Now we get the chance, right?
[00:20:57] Speaker D: Yeah, that'll be excellent.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Same here.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, here we go.
But, but here let's, let's, let's dive into some of these other tips that are, that are scheduling, scheduling tips and other things. Okay. I mean one of them is okay, so in between sessions you're all, you're. So some of these sessions like day two starts at 8:00 in the morning. First, first sessions are at 8:00 in the morning. And so that means that you got out of your hotel room, you, you've already been, you already got up at 6:30 after being up late talking to people. So you're basically on no sleep. So everybody is going to hit the first session, probably having skipped Starbucks.
So, okay, there's only one Starbucks that's close by and that Starbucks has a line that like basically goes around like the entire Las Vegas strip and comes back.
So yeah, I think so out of. What do we have? Let's see, Fred Faulkner brought it up.
There's, there's a bunch of people that brought it up on our, it was.
[00:21:59] Speaker D: In there a couple of times. Yeah, Starbucks line.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Starbucks. Just skip Starbucks. And I know there's probably some Starbucks fans, people who want to use their stars or whatever. Also, I didn't think your stars work and that Starbucks.
[00:22:11] Speaker D: But, but anyway, yeah, there's better coffee out there anyway.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: There's better coffee. Especially if you go further down the strip. You get, you can, you can find, you know, Starbucks before you arrive and then you don't have to wait in the stupid line. But there's an illy coffee that's like, that's like maybe 40 yards away from Starbucks and they never have a line. So there's that. And if you go a little bit further, there's a coffee bean and tea leaf and that is pro move sound.
[00:22:34] Speaker D: Seems like to have a, a good thermos fill up at your own hotel and just bring coffee with you, that's.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Probably the pro move. That's the pro. All right, so yeah, so in, in the backpack, water bottle, you know, insulated coffee mug. Shink. Yeah. So yeah, there we go.
[00:22:51] Speaker D: All right.
That's how it's going to be.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Oh, so another one too on the subject of sustenance. So Mikhail brought up planning your meals. So this is the other thing too, is that. Yeah. So, so first, so summit starts and, and then it just rolls. Um, you're gonna get, right after keynote, you're gonna be like jazzed and you wanna go browse things and you're gonna totally forget to eat. Eating happens. So the meals are provided. The meals are actually usually pretty good. And I have to do like, usually no gluten and I'm light on dairy. So like I, I, I, I have restrictions and the meals are still pretty decent. So, so, so yeah, plan your meals and make sure you eat breakfast beforehand. Cause you're, you're the, the, the, the day will be a high physical stress day. So.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: What if, I have a quick question. What if say you go and you've scheduled a session and when you arrive at summit you run into someone or you Hear about, well, oh, did you book this? Did you get into this session or this demo or what have you? Is there a way or is there a possibility that is it set in stone when you make that schedule or is there a little more affordance?
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Okay, there is affordance and the only time when it's a problem is when the session's full copy. So there are some very popular sessions, like usually the, the, the top new features sessions for, for am, for Marketo, for Adobe Commerce, for Assets and so forth. So all those like top new features sessions, those fill up.
So if you're trying to get into one of those ones, almost certainly it will be all the way booked by the time Summit starts. And so you could say, oh, I was supposed to get into that one and then you try to go there and you'll just be waiting outside.
So but for most of the other ones, like if you're like, oh, somebody told me about the, whatever, the Gen Studio for Performance Marketing, and I didn't think it was for me, but now I realized it's for me. Can I go? And you could just go, okay, nice. Yeah.
And oh, the other, the other ones that fill up a lot are labs. Labs, Philip. So, so if there are. So I would look through your schedule right now and if there are labs that there are technologies that you're interested in getting your hands on, because they have a bunch of these labs where they've got, you know, a whole rack of just like tables full of computers and you, and they'll run you through like, okay, we're going to set up an Adobe Commerce site. We're going to set up a, a rapid development environment or whatever and then you walk everybody through. But there's only a certain number of computers and in there.
[00:25:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: So, so once that's full, it's full and they don't let anybody else in. So, so if there's labs that you're interested in, like make, make sure you're registered now, because those are ones that you can't change your mind.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Okay, good to know.
[00:25:45] Speaker D: Yeah, good one.
Yeah, that's nice that they do build in that flexibility though, because that, that would be a bummer to that if it was set in stone that you couldn't adjust on the fly based on someone that you met or talked to. So that's.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Right, right. And just be.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: I mean, go ahead. I was just gonna say. So I had one on my, I don't know, it was like second or second summit or something like that. Or maybe it was my first One. Anyway, I was trying to, so I was trying to get into a session about Adobe's launch Foundation services, which, which were at the time the services that they would use to help people stand up new AEM sites when you're first launching. Right. So I wanted to know about that at the time.
Little did I know there's like five things at Adobe that are called launch. And so I went to a lab about launch and I'm like, yes, I'm in and I sit down. It's about different launch, which, which is the thing which is now called Adobe Experience Platform Tags, which is their tag management solution. I'm sitting there in this lab, I'm like, what am I even doing here? What is, what is, what are you talking about? Anyway, so, yeah, so I, I had to, I had to change, I had to change things. So, and they, they, they, they do a comic, two funnies.
So. Okay, let's see. But you know what though? So that reminds me of something else that would, I, I would say as a tip, and this is probably something that everybody could do even with this little time, even if your sessions are already in stone, which is to go through in your mind and think of technical problems and things that you're already trying to solve, product limitations, you've already run into things where somebody's told you that it can't be done, things where somebody's told you that it takes a really long time, things that somebody told you were too expensive, just, or, or, you know, just requirements like that of like, oh, these are, these are problems because those are the ones that you keep in mind when you go to keynotes and you go to people's sessions and stuff like that. Because, because sometimes you need something to, to tag some of this stuff to like, like you're just getting a fire hose of information and you got to be able to pick out stuff that are like, oh, that's important. I knew that I needed that, you know, stuff like that.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: So I think it's also important, Tad on the same questions, is to realize if you're not getting it from a session or there's not a session on your particular problem, you'll have access to people who maybe solved that problem before, whether it be the speakers of the sessions or just everybody around you. So like ask questions to people while you're getting a meal, while you're getting your coffee, while you're going up the escalator, whatever it might be.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Yes, it's a. Well, yes, yes. Okay, so that leads into two, probably two of My favorite tips that most people somehow ignore because I. Because so one of them is you go to sessions. A lot of people like to like, go to these sessions and then just sit at the very back and try to be invisible.
The best part about being at Summit is to be there and experience the person there and then ask them questions. So I generally like to sit right in front and. Because then you can then, then right afterwards you can just walk up and just start asking the person some questions about, about. Because this is the person generally who was the engineering manager who wrote it, or who ran the team that, that made it, or the product manager who's, who's been, who's been finagling the thing all the way through to fruition and so forth. You can ask all these great questions and then let's just say they get mobbed with people and there's no way to get there. They're almost always down at the Adobe booth, that is, that is in the expo hall. So you can just say, okay, good. Oh, it's that guy. Okay, I'm gonna hunt those guys down afterwards and I'm gonna ask them questions. Because a lot of times too, you're just like, you're full of questions and there's like too many questions for to, to, to, to bother the speaker about. So you want to just go and hunt them down at the Adobe booth later so that using, using the Adobe personnel who are there is, is also huge. Because, because they bring up a new feature, you're like, oh my gosh, is that really released? Can I really do that right now? Can I do that with my license? Is this, does it work in China? Because I have a thing in China. Does it work there? Or, you know, like all these little questions you might have, you just go down, just go straight to the Yavi booth and ask them afterwards and don't keep them in your head.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: And even if they don't have the time to, to cover it in that instance, get their information, follow up afterwards on LinkedIn or whatever platform it might be and make that connection.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. So absolutely, use, use that booth a lot of times too. Like, you know, you go to, you go to some of these, because there's implementation stories afterwards too. And then the implementation story, sometimes, you know, it'll be a, whatever, some, some vendor or something like that. Who's, who's done that sort of thing. You can just go and talk to them and just say, good, well, you know, how did that roll? And obviously they'd be happy to have those conversations with you.
[00:30:50] Speaker D: Yeah. And I think that gets to Tad. I think what one of the other comments that you were going to get to is like the lateral networking, not just staying within your very own circle of expertise, but talking to anybody and everybody, even though they're not in your direct field. We're all there for the same products in the same environment. So that lateral networking can open a whole lot up.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And, and, and, and it, to me, it tends to validate a lot of experience that we already have.
[00:31:26] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Because a lot of us, like the first summit I ever went to, I, I felt like I was just like a rank and file, you know, do what I'm told kind of a guy. And, and I, you know, I did. I didn't have any idea that I had any expertise ever that anybody should ever listen to. I just, I'm just gonna, just work on stuff and fix it. And it's only, it's only through talking and it kind of validates the experience that I already have in, in, in realizing, you know, the breadth of problems that I might have solved or something like that. And, and so it, it, I think it's talking, talking to as many different folks as possible is a, is a, is a great. Again, hydrate because you're going to be, be running yourself worse.
[00:32:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: See, let's see other great. So many good things. Oh, oh, see, Fred Faulkner had another good setup. So go to CVS and Walgreens and pick up, pick up water and snacks. Okay. This is the other thing. Vegas is so expensive. So for dinner a lot of times, fine. You know, you might get lucky enough to get taken out to dinner by, you know, find, you know, some, there's some vendor or something like that like that's running a dinner.
[00:32:35] Speaker C: You might even get taken out to dinner by Arbery.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: You might, might even happen.
So, but the thing is though, is snacks and stuff, like all they're gonna have is trash right in the hotel. But there's a CVS out on the strip and that's like that, that's the cheap way to go. So, so, so getting stuff off strip is, is definitely the way. Like I'm bringing my bike, I'm gonna go way off strip and grab myself some gluten free stuff. So it, so there's, so that's, that's definitely the way to go. Is, is definitely don't save it for being in the hotel because you'll either starve or just eat nothing but junk food.
Let's See, let's see.
[00:33:22] Speaker C: I found a lot of good, like, wellness tips. Obviously, comfortable shoes came up a lot, but good sleep, hydration, things like that, just to keep the body moving. And.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that that is. I mean, we always work behind a.
[00:33:39] Speaker C: Desk and sit down all day. Pretty much everyone there does the same thing. So it's like, make sure you're preparing yourself for the, the unexpected movement.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:50] Speaker D: For the miles that we're about to put on.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: That's a lot of steps.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: It is a lot of steps.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: That's a lot of steps in a day.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
Like I said, especially if you're not staying in one of the, you know, the Venetian Palazzo hotels, you're gonna be. Yeah. You're gonna be walking and. Yeah, yeah. So definitely. So I don't know. I don't know. The thing is, though, everybody's different. Like, obviously when I was in my twenties, I. I was, I was all into partying and staying up all night and. And these days I'm more into, like, I'd much rather go to bed early and get a bike ride in the morning, so. But again, everybody should, should, should do them, but recognize that it's, it is going to be a, A, a physically exhausting but fulfilling event.
[00:34:35] Speaker C: You know, that's one of the things I wanted to bring up before going to Summit, and I didn't see in the comments. I think it's really important to assess what your goals are for Summit.
So I think a lot of people go there strictly to learn the new features, that kind of thing. Great reason to go to Summit. A lot of people go to their network. We're going there to make connections and partnerships and, and find potentially our next customer. It's important to be mindful of what your goals are and, like, work to meet those goals. Get out of your comfort zone to meet those goals.
I think we've talked about that internally a lot heading into this year's summit, and we've done a lot of preparation to meet those goals. But I think for anybody, it's like really try to think what you're trying to get out of it and then go get that. It's easy, I think, just to go to sessions and take it in kind of passively. I think more active approach will get you better results from the investment, both in time and in money to go to something like Summit, so.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Oh, totally.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: I encourage people to take that into consideration too.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that that helps because like I was saying earlier on the Firehose aspect of Summit like it. It can just seem like, you know, just standing and just a full. Just blast of. Of info. And unless you have some of those goals kind of predefined, it's tough to. Tough to hang anything on anything. It's tough to categorize any of the information that you're getting or pick any of it out as more important than another thing. But also the other thing too is, is that like, so like I said, the Expo hall is such a resource. It is so important. Like it's almost as important as the sessions and in some ways more important than the sessions because of all the cool people that are there doing really cool things. However, if you don't have those goals like you said in mind, then it almost gets reduced to, well, that dude's got a cool T shirt. I'm just gonna go visit their book because they give me a squishy for my daughter. You know, that, that sort of thing. So.
[00:36:30] Speaker C: But you know, if one of your goals is to have fun and collect cool stuff, not a bad place to go. But it's important to be mindful of that.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: It's true. And fine. When Covid happened and all the things shut down, I mean, I actually had to buy shirts for the first time. It was really weird. You know.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: A man's living on swag.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Actually buy pens, notepads, and things like that. Who does that?
[00:36:59] Speaker B: You can't say things like that. Living on swag. Well, the first thing I had was Bon Jovi and living on swag.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Like, yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. That's too funny.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Well, good. Well, I think that is a solid set. I think we missed anything then. Then I, I hope folks will chime in again in our, in our lively comments section, but I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at Summit. This is going to be great. We're going to be doing. We'll be doing a pre summit bike ride. Uh, so, uh, we're gonna go down to, uh, Hoover Dam. So anybody wants to get on that in the last minute, I will absolutely accommodate. So we're going to get our skits and O2 before for being inside of an air conditioned conference hall for three days. But it's going to be great.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that will be for sure.
[00:37:48] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: All right, y'all. Well, next time, next time we all talk in a big room, it's going to be in person.
[00:37:57] Speaker C: Looking forward to it.
[00:37:58] Speaker D: It's going to be great.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: Looking forward to it, you fine gentlemen and hopefully anyone who's listening, reach out to us.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we look forward to. That's right.
All right, y'all good. We'll see you at Summit.
[00:38:10] Speaker D: See you guys.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Thanks.
