Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.470 Welcome back to be tob growth. I'm looking lyles with sweet fish media. 2 00:00:08.509 --> 00:00:13.269 I'm joined today by Sergio Cloudyo. He's the global head of enterprise and commercial 3 00:00:13.310 --> 00:00:17.429 experience at Adobe. Sergio, how's it going today, sir? Fantastic, 4 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:21.899 Logan, thanks for having me today. Absolutely Dorothea on your team over there 5 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:25.660 at Adobe recently connected us. I was just looking for you know, I 6 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:30.820 saw that adobe summit was one of the biggest events that kind of caused a 7 00:00:31.219 --> 00:00:35.969 commotion when people saw that it was going from a live event to a virtual 8 00:00:36.009 --> 00:00:41.609 event earlier this year. is as everything was was changing very quickly earlier this 9 00:00:41.770 --> 00:00:45.850 spring, and Doro connected me with you. said that Sergio would really be 10 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:50.079 the best guy to talk to to really unpack the learnings and and what you 11 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:54.200 guys went through in not only taking a big event virtual, but taking a 12 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:58.280 big event virtual very, very quickly. So I'm excited to dig into that. 13 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:00.399 For a little bit of context for folks listening to this. Sergio, 14 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:06.150 tell us a little bit about your role both at Adobe and your role in 15 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:10.109 the summit event, and then we'll get into kind of what the experience was 16 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:15.109 behind the curtain a little bit and get into some of those learnings. Absolutely 17 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:18.310 so. As you said, I come from Adobe. I'm the head of 18 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:23.939 global enterprise and commercial experience for a digital experience business and and, as you 19 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:30.379 may know, adobe is the leading software provider for creative software used by designers 20 00:01:30.420 --> 00:01:34.769 and creatives and marketers around the world. We also have our doc cloud business, 21 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:38.890 which is our digital document business, Wi pdf it. They'll be sign 22 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:42.170 and then we have our digital experience business. Our digital experience business is responsible 23 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:48.599 for technologies that are used around from businesses around the world to transform their businesses 24 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:55.000 into digital enterprises. And our digital summit every year is the culmination of all 25 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.159 of our digital experience products coming to life and and and bringing marketers and technologies 26 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:02.349 from all around the world together to discuss what is going to be happening and 27 00:02:02.469 --> 00:02:07.710 what the future of technology should be for for for marketers, for ECOMMERCE professionals 28 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:12.830 and for it professionals. So our summit, as I said, it goes 29 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:17.259 on every year. It it's typically in March and this year, obviously march 30 00:02:17.379 --> 00:02:21.340 was a bit challenging for us with with everything going on the world, with 31 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:25.020 pandemic, and so in preparation, you know, summit some it typically takes 32 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:30.370 us about a year's worth of planning. So once one summit is done, 33 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:32.490 in the end of March, we'll say, two thousand and nineteen, we 34 00:02:32.610 --> 00:02:37.210 start planning for Summer Two thousand and twenty, and so, you know, 35 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:40.610 plenty of the a lot of the hard work that had gone into bringing this 36 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:45.400 event to life had already been completed, you know, towards the end of 37 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:49.360 two thousand and nineteen, and and was ready to get get ready to launch 38 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:53.240 in in the beginning of two thousand and twenty and so to, you know, 39 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:57.280 be coming into the environment that we were coming into and the the company 40 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:00.909 leadership, you know, keeping a close eye on what was changing and what 41 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:05.430 was happening in the world and what's happening in businesses and wanting to make sure 42 00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:08.949 that we were doing what was best for ends, what was best for employees. 43 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:14.659 The decision came down to cancel the live and in person event but still 44 00:03:14.780 --> 00:03:17.460 deliver the experience and all the goodness that was expected to be presented to our 45 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:23.099 audiences through a virtual environment. Now, for us that was not without its 46 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:28.729 challenge, is being that that call came twenty five days before we were scheduled 47 00:03:28.729 --> 00:03:32.250 to go live. I'm glad you said that because I remember seeing that when 48 00:03:32.289 --> 00:03:37.610 people started talking about it on Linkedin, you know, adobees canceling, canceling 49 00:03:37.650 --> 00:03:40.840 the the summit event, the live version that is, and I couldn't remember 50 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:45.319 how far out it was, but you talked about taking a massive event that 51 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:50.280 takes a year, literally a year's worth of planning, twenty five days out 52 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.240 from when the event is scheduled to happen. That had to give you a 53 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:59.189 little bit of more than just a little bit of a gut wrenching feeling in 54 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:01.789 the pit of your stomach. Am I right? Absolutely so. When we 55 00:04:01.870 --> 00:04:05.110 say massive, some it it typically takes place every year in Las Vegas. 56 00:04:05.669 --> 00:04:12.219 Spans across multiple casinos and hotels and it happens in the Las Vegas Convention Center 57 00:04:12.379 --> 00:04:16.339 and we expect typically, you know, crowds anywhere from nineteen to twenty two 58 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:20.019 thousand people that are there with us for three to four days, you know, 59 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:26.290 gathering all that information and truly immersing that experience so to you know, 60 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:30.009 receive the call that in twenty five days we were meant to, you know, 61 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:34.089 take such an impactful experience like that and Reimagine it quickly for a digital 62 00:04:34.170 --> 00:04:39.560 environment. To be delivered on March thirty one was was, as you said, 63 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:43.720 gut runching but also an inspiring challenge. You know, it's not every 64 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:46.519 day that that. You know and we love the role that we play for 65 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.839 the business. You know, we are, you know, as the leaders 66 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:57.189 for our digital experience in ourbcom experience for DX, we're responsible for helping communicate 67 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.149 the value of our products and help connect those products with our customer needs, 68 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:05.910 and so this was another opportunity for us to use those principles to reimagine alive 69 00:05:05.949 --> 00:05:11.620 and in person experience and deliver and experience in a virtual environment that again connected 70 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:15.019 with their needs and help deliver the value that they get out of this this 71 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:17.420 live, in person event. I want to go off something that you just 72 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:23.529 said. They're Sergio, that word reimagine. I imagine that part of that 73 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:29.050 reimagining for you guys was, okay, this is a live event where digital 74 00:05:29.490 --> 00:05:33.410 has always been the companion. Now it's the main dish, it is front 75 00:05:33.449 --> 00:05:38.319 and center, and that that took a little bit of a mental shift, 76 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:42.560 I'm sure. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, typically 77 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.439 the way that this event is run, we have our adobe corporate events team, 78 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:49.910 which is run by Julie Martin and her team in Adobe and we typically 79 00:05:49.949 --> 00:05:57.629 partner with the the events team in delivering the the digital companion experiences to to 80 00:05:57.709 --> 00:06:00.910 align with the content that's being introduced at the live and person event. So 81 00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:04.699 their team typically will plan all the logistics, all of the content, the 82 00:06:04.779 --> 00:06:09.540 entire experience that someone goes through once they land in Las Vegas and even, 83 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:12.500 you know, a little bit before in terms of the registration and in the 84 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:15.379 marketing that goes behind it. And then typically what we would look at doing 85 00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:20.170 from a companion perspective is to say, okay, what content is being introduced 86 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:25.490 on stage and what are the experiences that they may go through on a show 87 00:06:25.610 --> 00:06:30.009 floor and how do we match that in a digital space so that when someone 88 00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:34.680 hears about a new product announcement or update on stage at summit, when they 89 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:39.279 go to their mobile devices, that they go back home to their their desktops 90 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.519 and they want to research more about that product, they can find that information 91 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:46.759 online. Some of the other experiences, when I say companion experiences, might 92 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.069 be, you know, the experiences someone goes through on their device checking their 93 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:56.350 schedule or kind of wayfinding around the event or the idea that we actually we 94 00:06:56.509 --> 00:07:01.300 still do stream the event live while the events taking place in person, and 95 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:05.060 really that's just that's kind of meant as a value add for people that didn't 96 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:09.339 have a chance to be their live and in person. So, you know, 97 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:14.019 the when I say companion experience is always tethered to a live event. 98 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:17.810 That's happening. But now we found ourselves an environment where that we no longer 99 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:23.449 have that live space. We're no longer bringing people out to centralize location and 100 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:26.410 having them there for four days at a time. So now we had to 101 00:07:26.490 --> 00:07:30.959 look at well, how can digital be a a channel for us to deliver 102 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:36.000 that value that people expect, being able to hear the content and the updates 103 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:41.040 and the thought leadership that they'd be looking for, being able to attend breakout 104 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:46.029 sessions and meet with, you know, experts and specific technologies and understand advanced 105 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:49.189 techniques with the technologies that they're used to using, and then also being able 106 00:07:49.350 --> 00:07:54.790 to connect with product experts on in a one to one basis, being able 107 00:07:54.829 --> 00:07:57.629 to ask questions. You know, those are the types of things that people 108 00:07:57.790 --> 00:08:01.220 tend to really love about these experiences and how do we bring that love into 109 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:05.459 a digital space in a matter of twenty five days. Yeah, absolutely, 110 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:11.139 coming back to that short that short time frame not only a massive challenge and, 111 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:13.850 like you said, and inspiring opportunity. I love that outlook. So 112 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:16.490 do you talk to me a little bit about what you guys went through and 113 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:20.889 thinking through? There's really two things in my mind, as you take a 114 00:08:20.689 --> 00:08:26.370 live event digital and you think about how do we how do we recreate that 115 00:08:26.490 --> 00:08:30.120 experience? You can't just say hey, this is what they expect here and 116 00:08:30.279 --> 00:08:33.919 we delivered the same thing there. You want to get them to the same 117 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:37.480 result, but it might take a different path to get there because you've got 118 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:41.279 to think about the two things. I'm thinking of our what is the technology 119 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:43.789 going to look like to enable what we want to enable, and how is 120 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:48.750 the behavior, if you're going to be different, of the attendees in how 121 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:52.230 easily they can access things, in attention span, how you paste things, 122 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:56.539 all of those sorts of things break down those two for us in what you 123 00:08:56.620 --> 00:09:01.899 guys started to realize envision as you took this and planned it as a fully 124 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:07.100 digital experience. So, speaking to the the last points, that's really where 125 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:09.889 we started. How the last points are around you know, what is most 126 00:09:09.889 --> 00:09:16.250 important to a visitor when they're attending an event and understanding that they're they're traveling 127 00:09:16.289 --> 00:09:20.690 across the world, across the country, to be able to spend three to 128 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:26.799 four days listening to thought leadership content from our executives and from from experts around 129 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:31.679 the industry, and so we needed to be able to deliver thought leadership content 130 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:35.600 that high level, kind of top tier content. They also come out there 131 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.429 for these these workshops and these these labs and working sessions where they get to 132 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:45.350 be hands on and hear these advanced techniques dive deeper into some of the technologies 133 00:09:45.350 --> 00:09:48.029 that they're using. And then the third is to be able to connect with 134 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:52.259 others. And so one of our second principles that that we we often talk 135 00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:58.580 about when we approach is events is at the offline strategy for delivering those experiences 136 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:03.299 doesn't nececessarily translate into an online environment. And so when I say reimagine, 137 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:07.450 we had to look at okay, well, looking at those values that they're 138 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:11.769 looking to receive from the experience. How do we reimagine that for a digital 139 00:10:11.809 --> 00:10:16.409 space? And what are the vehicles to deliver content? What are the ways 140 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:20.570 to connect people? What are the ways to surface those sessions, and so 141 00:10:20.809 --> 00:10:24.360 that led us to our our core strategy of saying to deliver that thought leadership 142 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.799 content or any content, we're really going to need to heavily invest in video 143 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:33.039 for this experience, to deliver that catalog of a hundred and fifty to two 144 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:37.629 hundred breakout sessions. We're going to have to be able to design and experience 145 00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:43.509 that surfaces the right content to people, surfaces learning paths, allows them to 146 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:46.830 filter and search through content, because it's an entire library and they want to 147 00:10:46.870 --> 00:10:50.220 be able to quickly access what's right for them and then follow that path as 148 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:54.419 they would if they were in alive event. And then the third piece was 149 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:58.620 that one to one connection. How do we facilitate conversations between people and and 150 00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:03.340 there there are a number of ways to do that right. We're doing this 151 00:11:03.539 --> 00:11:09.730 now over virtual conferencing, but there's also components like chat, which we have 152 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:13.009 been using very heavily at adobe to help provide even more enhanced experiences. And 153 00:11:13.129 --> 00:11:16.769 so how do we take chat and how do we how do we what conversations 154 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:20.559 can we have in the amount of time that we have that would be of 155 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:24.759 value to our visitors. Looking at chat, it gave a our chat module. 156 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:31.679 It gave us the the opportunity to sorry our chat module, which was 157 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.590 powered by drift, gives us an opportunity to have a driven conversations and then 158 00:11:35.669 --> 00:11:39.710 handoff and to live in person conversations. And so when we we were very 159 00:11:39.789 --> 00:11:43.429 deliberate about think about the conversations that people have when they're at these events, 160 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:48.500 everything from, you know, looking for information desk and wayfinding, you know, 161 00:11:48.740 --> 00:11:50.299 where do I pick up my badge? Where do I find this session 162 00:11:50.299 --> 00:11:54.419 that I'm interested in, to, you know, how do I connect with 163 00:11:54.740 --> 00:11:58.539 an expert on a product that I have a question about? And so using 164 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:03.970 our drift chat module allowed us to script some of those conversations to help people 165 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:07.370 find their way around the the virtual experience, help them find the right content 166 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:11.370 that they needed. But then when they had the specific question around content that 167 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:18.080 they were watching, whether it was additional information on Indovie experience platform or Marquetto 168 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:24.320 then it would then allow them to connect to an evangelist or to a a 169 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:28.799 product representative that would be able to have an in person, live conversation with 170 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:31.190 them to help answer their questions. So those were the three main features that 171 00:12:31.269 --> 00:12:37.789 we focused on. reimagining this because ultimately, for us, our our mantra 172 00:12:37.029 --> 00:12:41.549 was, you know what is going to help deliver the best experience for the 173 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:46.019 user and what is going to de risk that, and so we you know, 174 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:48.580 there were plenty of other features that we could have added to make this 175 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:52.139 a full event experience, but we wanted to focus on those three to really 176 00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:56.860 make this impactful for the visitors. was there anything specific that surprised you, 177 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:01.330 Sergio, about user behavior, either engaging with chat, we're getting stuck somewhere, 178 00:13:01.370 --> 00:13:07.809 or asking a question that the team hadn't really anticipated in scripting out the 179 00:13:07.889 --> 00:13:13.200 first part of those ai driven conversations was was there anything that you guys wish 180 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:16.159 you would have done or something that surprised you that maybe you adapted to on 181 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:22.799 the fly, that other digital event organizers maybe should be thinking about for for 182 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:28.470 their next event, or something that you guys took and are applying to the 183 00:13:28.509 --> 00:13:31.470 future that surprised you along the way throughout this experience, specifically on the User 184 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:37.629 Behavior Front? Absolutely so. You know, thankfully we have adobe analytics, 185 00:13:37.669 --> 00:13:41.139 and adobe analytics allows us to have to get a deep insights around user behavior 186 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:46.580 and how they engage our sites, and we are certainly taking learnings from this 187 00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:50.419 experience and continuing to evolve our future experiences, including an experience makers live event 188 00:13:50.460 --> 00:13:54.970 that we have coming in July, as well as a an adobe Max event 189 00:13:56.210 --> 00:14:01.169 in in October. And so those insights include things like, you know, 190 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:03.850 well, as a result of all the pivots that we had to make in 191 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:11.440 the in the the beginning of as we were adapting to the emerging situation, 192 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:15.320 we had a plan A, Plan B and ultimately we ended up in kind 193 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:20.200 of a plan see, Plan D scenario. So, you know, plan 194 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:22.919 a was obviously doing a live event. Plan B was, okay, we're 195 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:28.110 going to do a live streaming event that's going to be very well produced and 196 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:33.590 you know, we're going to have people in our our speakers and a studio 197 00:14:33.710 --> 00:14:37.429 environment. And then, you know, all of the shutdown orders came through 198 00:14:37.549 --> 00:14:41.820 and kind of the the shelter in place, and so that remove the ability 199 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:48.500 to allow people to be in these produced environments. And so now we were 200 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:52.049 exposed to a number of complexities, how being people being able to film from 201 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:58.009 home, as well as varied Internet connections. I mean, you know, 202 00:14:58.090 --> 00:15:03.009 at that time, I think now there's been such a huge reinforcement of internet 203 00:15:03.009 --> 00:15:07.440 infrastructure and bandwidth speeds and all that what people have available at home. But 204 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:11.440 in the beginning of this, you know, we were certainly concerned about the 205 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:15.960 inconsistency of band with speeds and the sustainability of someone stream. So that really 206 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:20.399 pushed us to go from doing a live event to, you know, our 207 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:22.509 plan see, which is simulive event, to plan D, which was fully 208 00:15:22.590 --> 00:15:26.509 on demand. And the the decision to go fully on demand was deliberate in 209 00:15:26.590 --> 00:15:31.350 the sense that we weren't sure where people were going to be in terms of 210 00:15:31.429 --> 00:15:35.899 their their ability to commit time to this experience, and so, you know, 211 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.259 we were we were very deliberate about shortening the length of our segments, 212 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:45.340 of our content, but also adding in chapters and some flexibility for them to 213 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:48.059 be able to browse through content as they would, you know, any other 214 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:52.529 streaming type of content. Now, what that did and what we learned from 215 00:15:52.570 --> 00:15:58.490 that was that, you know, in a number of few short weeks, 216 00:15:58.529 --> 00:16:02.690 we set an expectation of going from this being a live event, the happening 217 00:16:02.769 --> 00:16:04.679 at this for of the point in time, to a fully on demand event. 218 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:08.240 And a lot of what we were starting to see after the event was 219 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:11.320 live. We received a lot of great feedback, you know, a lot 220 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.120 of positive feedback, but also some some items on a wish list, and 221 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:19.870 one of those were that there are some attendees that really enjoyed the flexibility of 222 00:16:19.909 --> 00:16:23.149 the live experience and that tended to be more of that executive audience. And 223 00:16:23.230 --> 00:16:29.029 then there were some attendees that really carved out a particular point of time and 224 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:33.500 their day wanting to watch that content simultaneously with the rest of the community and 225 00:16:33.700 --> 00:16:40.460 wanted to they wanted to run community watch parties where they were all watching something 226 00:16:40.500 --> 00:16:42.019 at the same time, and so that made a bit challenging to do. 227 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:47.210 And again, you know, people's time. It's precious, especially when you're 228 00:16:47.210 --> 00:16:49.970 trying to balance working from home and being a parent and all the other things 229 00:16:51.009 --> 00:16:55.409 happening around you. So, you know, we'd seen visitors who had carved 230 00:16:55.450 --> 00:16:56.970 out two hours of their day to be there for a moment in time and 231 00:16:57.009 --> 00:17:00.009 then when they got there and they saw it was all on demand, then 232 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:03.440 it was the response that we were seeing. It was that they would have 233 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:07.599 scheduled their time differently if they knew that they could access the content on demand. 234 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.200 And so those are all valuable in sights, you know, things that 235 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:14.799 we're learning from how people were responding to the content, how they wanted to 236 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:19.029 be presented to them certainly, you know, driving us to include much more 237 00:17:19.109 --> 00:17:22.869 of a live component in our future events to be able to deliver on that, 238 00:17:23.069 --> 00:17:26.470 with a healthy balance of that on demand content that people sat down so 239 00:17:26.509 --> 00:17:30.740 valuable. That's really interesting, Sergio. I think it made me think of 240 00:17:32.019 --> 00:17:37.140 two things. One, whenever I've gone to events, to me it's the 241 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:41.779 content, yes, but oftentimes the content can be delivered in other on demand 242 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:47.250 fashions and and the event organizer probably has made made allowances for that. And 243 00:17:47.650 --> 00:17:52.210 you know, just like you guys previously did with previous in person live summits, 244 00:17:52.289 --> 00:17:55.970 with with streaming, not making some of that content available when you're not 245 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:59.920 in those sessions. But the biggest point for me is is the networking aspect, 246 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.960 knowing that this is going to be a focused group, I'm going to 247 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:07.680 be among my peers and not only am I getting content, but I'm getting 248 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.480 it not in a silo. So that's really interesting. Seems to kind of 249 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:17.150 reinforce my experience there as an event attendee and really interesting to see where you 250 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:18.990 guys take that from here. The other thing I just saw, like a 251 00:18:19.109 --> 00:18:23.910 news article or something, that Amazon Prime is rolling out a new watch party 252 00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:29.859 feature where you know you can you can basically have like a watch room where 253 00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:33.859 you can have friends all in the same room and be watching a movie or 254 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:37.259 a show together when you're not in the same place and have some sort of 255 00:18:37.299 --> 00:18:40.660 chat experience. That's really like. I didn't even read the full article, 256 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:45.529 I just saw a little snippet, but that kind of reinforces this this craving 257 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:48.849 for folks who are consuming our content. As much as I am a big 258 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:52.410 fan and a big proponent of on demand content, it's part of the reason 259 00:18:52.490 --> 00:18:57.000 podcasting is been on such an explosive rise, and I think that is still 260 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:02.680 true. But at the same time we're craving that connection and sometimes when you're 261 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:07.640 consuming content with others, either there's an entertainment factor, like it looks like 262 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:12.349 Amazon prime is trying to tap into, or there's there's an enhanced learning component, 263 00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:15.710 which it sounds like your attendees were looking for. How can I consume 264 00:19:15.829 --> 00:19:21.109 this content and chat with my peers about it? So you mentioned when we 265 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:23.819 were chatting a little bit offline, Sergio that you guys had to get pretty 266 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:29.339 creative. You had to adapt very quickly with the the time frame we've touched 267 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:33.019 on several times in this conversation. Had to adapt pretty quickly and bring in 268 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:37.970 people from different areas where you might not have been expecting to work with a 269 00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:41.369 different team. As we round out the conversation, can you tell us a 270 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:47.329 story or two about how you guys were able to pull in different team members 271 00:19:47.809 --> 00:19:51.250 and, I think, most importantly, what were some of the surprises? 272 00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:52.880 Where did you pull someone in that you didn't think you were going to need 273 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:57.640 to and and that led to an outcome in creating this digital experience that really 274 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.960 mapped to the results that you were trying to get to, because what we 275 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.400 want to do here is share with listeners anything that they can take is they're 276 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:10.910 looking to lean into virtual events or execute something similar, maybe at a smaller 277 00:20:10.950 --> 00:20:15.230 scale, but something similar to what you guys were able to to do cross 278 00:20:15.230 --> 00:20:18.710 functionally. There was there anything that surprised you in pulling in other team members 279 00:20:18.789 --> 00:20:23.740 or coming up with creative solutions across teams? Absolutely, you know, it's 280 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.740 some it goes back to that first point that I made, that that twenty 281 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:30.779 five day deadline. It was got rained wrenching, but it was also inspiring, 282 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:37.930 and inspiring in a in a very broad sense of bringing an inspiring the 283 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:45.009 entire team globally. You know that that deadline, that that desire to turn 284 00:20:45.130 --> 00:20:48.769 this experience, this digital experience, into a in experience that was worthy of 285 00:20:48.809 --> 00:20:53.759 Adobe customers, really became kind of a driving mantra and a unifying force for 286 00:20:55.319 --> 00:21:00.160 for for the entire company, and to see the way that team showed up 287 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:06.069 and offered their support, offered their areas of expertise and offered their collaboration. 288 00:21:06.349 --> 00:21:08.589 I mean, one of the things that we found was that this was a 289 00:21:08.670 --> 00:21:12.630 big problem, big challenge that we were all going to have to address, 290 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:17.990 that we had to do so in a in a very constrained timeframe and we 291 00:21:18.109 --> 00:21:22.099 had to reach across two teams that we're not even familiar with working with each 292 00:21:22.099 --> 00:21:25.380 other before. We had people that were coming from the creative club business, 293 00:21:25.380 --> 00:21:26.980 people that were coming from the dog club business, people that are on the 294 00:21:27.019 --> 00:21:33.009 DX business that we're working on this event, as well as people that typically 295 00:21:33.130 --> 00:21:37.769 do not work in digital environments, adapting and and bringing their level of expertise 296 00:21:37.849 --> 00:21:41.450 in terms of, you know, how people want to engage offline and what 297 00:21:41.569 --> 00:21:47.519 we can learn from that to build this experience online. And largely you can 298 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:49.480 have success in small teams and you can have success in large teams. And 299 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.160 on average, our discussions, and we're orkxtreame calls for these teams had anywhere 300 00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.480 between three thousand, two hundred and sixty seven people at any given time on 301 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.150 these conference calls and and working together, you know, very in a very 302 00:22:04.309 --> 00:22:11.430 well orchestrated fashion. We had members from studio. So that's the bizarre adobe 303 00:22:11.509 --> 00:22:15.900 creative team, are adobe digital web product management team. We had our commercial 304 00:22:15.940 --> 00:22:21.339 and enterprise demand teams involved, we had our global events teams involved, we 305 00:22:21.460 --> 00:22:25.900 had our international teams involved, we had our lead routing and marketing operation teams 306 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:33.289 involved and it was amazing to see all of these teams building this experience together 307 00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:37.329 in their own smaller work groups and then coming together and continuing to build the 308 00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:41.569 larger pole. It was it was like watching, you know, a series 309 00:22:41.609 --> 00:22:45.039 of small pit crews kind of going and, you know, putting the lead 310 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:49.640 generation tires on one side of it and putting the video analytics tires on the 311 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:55.039 other side and and you know, contributing the marketing automation strategy and the email 312 00:22:55.079 --> 00:23:00.990 Kateence, email communications perspective, as well as the engineering and the design that 313 00:23:00.069 --> 00:23:04.390 went involved. You know, watching design and engineering collaborate together on this was 314 00:23:04.670 --> 00:23:10.910 was extremely inspiring. Being able to see US LEVERAGE ARE ADOBE XD product in 315 00:23:10.990 --> 00:23:17.740 our our collaboration features and xt having these cloud hosted files, creative files, 316 00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:23.460 where you had fourteen team members at a time that were updating and commenting and 317 00:23:23.900 --> 00:23:30.049 some were creative and somewhere were more client facing and someone more engineering focus, 318 00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:34.769 but they would all come together in one space to help build this experience and 319 00:23:34.849 --> 00:23:38.049 and so you know, it was it was a really great way to see 320 00:23:38.170 --> 00:23:42.240 that these are teams that don't normally work together and they may be dedicated to 321 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:45.480 different parts of the business. Yet, you know, for this type of 322 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.960 effort, everyone kind of put wherever they came from to the side and all 323 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:56.029 focus together on this project. They remove themselves from their own sprint schedules, 324 00:23:56.069 --> 00:24:00.670 they remove themselves from their different priorities and said this is our priority and however 325 00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:04.190 we can make each other most successful is what we will do. I love 326 00:24:04.269 --> 00:24:07.150 to hear that. It's a testament to the team you guys have over there. 327 00:24:07.150 --> 00:24:11.420 At Adobe a testament to the leadership group that's able to rally the the 328 00:24:11.700 --> 00:24:18.579 teams together for for other teams out there, Sergio, for marketing leaders going 329 00:24:18.619 --> 00:24:22.740 through a similar pivot or thinking through something that they're going to have to change 330 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:27.529 in the second half of the year here and get done quickly? Any recommendations 331 00:24:27.650 --> 00:24:33.970 or advice to those folks that you think you know helped help that collaboration, 332 00:24:33.170 --> 00:24:37.329 helped that team work happen on your team as you guys pulled together in this 333 00:24:37.490 --> 00:24:44.480 twenty five day stretch? Any advice for leaders going through something similar that maybe 334 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:48.519 listening to this now? Some of the most important things, who were clarity 335 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:55.630 around the vision for the experience, having all of the leaders be aligned on 336 00:24:56.390 --> 00:24:59.390 what the what the main objectives are, which, for us, it was 337 00:24:59.549 --> 00:25:03.509 to deliver the best experience possible for our users based on the values that we 338 00:25:03.630 --> 00:25:10.900 discussed thought leadership content, breakout session content and one to one connection. Those 339 00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:15.420 were our main values and and as as long as we aligned every detailed the 340 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:18.980 experience to those values, then we were on the right path. The second 341 00:25:18.259 --> 00:25:23.970 was this idea of risk. In large organizations, obviously we tend to want 342 00:25:25.009 --> 00:25:27.009 to include a lot of people in the process and we set a lot of 343 00:25:27.329 --> 00:25:33.809 checkpoints up for ourselves that require certain rounds of reviews and create opportunities for more 344 00:25:33.930 --> 00:25:37.039 inputs. But we had to be very specific that those were going to be 345 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:41.039 our three main principles and anything that did not align with those principles in the 346 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:45.400 time frame that we had would create risk, and ultimately risk to whether the 347 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:49.230 technology would not be supported, may not work, but also risk to those 348 00:25:49.269 --> 00:25:52.869 three things that we were focused on in the experience that. Yeah, so 349 00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:59.109 kind of avoiding those wouldn't it be cool if, like eating, not going 350 00:25:59.190 --> 00:26:02.589 down those tangents, even if it's a great idea, if it could pull 351 00:26:02.630 --> 00:26:06.619 away from those three main priorities which you set by having that clear vision, 352 00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:08.740 then we're not going to go there, as much as it's a good idea, 353 00:26:08.779 --> 00:26:11.619 and it could be cool if we're not going to go there. Right, 354 00:26:12.259 --> 00:26:15.299 correct, right. So conversations around you know, it would be great 355 00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:19.730 to have a social feed solution, but it could create risk with the video 356 00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:26.650 stream deliverability and so we were not willing to sacrifice the quality of the video 357 00:26:26.809 --> 00:26:30.769 content that we felt was so valuable for the audience, and so you know, 358 00:26:30.849 --> 00:26:33.240 that was one of the things that was we configure this out in future 359 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.440 versions, but for this version we need to focus on those three and it 360 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:41.240 was great. It was. It was a great way to unify everyone around 361 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:44.920 what the main deliverables were. And and not to mention, or not not 362 00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:48.509 to skip over one of the very important things, which was also pipeline, 363 00:26:48.789 --> 00:26:52.269 right, the ability for this experience to drive pipeline. I think that is 364 00:26:52.390 --> 00:26:56.269 something that was completely different in this in this environment, than ever before in 365 00:26:56.349 --> 00:27:00.829 terms of what digital was meant to drive. From an event perspective, it 366 00:27:00.619 --> 00:27:06.380 had to make up for that sales pipeline that the the sales teams would have 367 00:27:06.579 --> 00:27:11.460 an opportunity to grow and in person event. Here we had to take this 368 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:15.569 digital experience and not only deliver entertainment value but deliver demand in sales value for 369 00:27:15.650 --> 00:27:19.450 the company. And so that was another area that could not be compromised. 370 00:27:19.529 --> 00:27:23.529 And so all of the content, the strategy for those breakout sessions was for 371 00:27:23.609 --> 00:27:29.009 that to be gated and require information that could can then be used to help 372 00:27:29.009 --> 00:27:34.400 nurtured leads and and so that was another main focus and and if it compromised 373 00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:37.799 our ability to do that, that was one of the things where hey it 374 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:41.720 would be cool if we could do this. Yes, we could do that, 375 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:45.950 but at what cost? It would cost us either our sales pipeline value, 376 00:27:45.990 --> 00:27:48.029 it would cost us our engagement on video, it would cost us the 377 00:27:48.109 --> 00:27:53.509 ability to let users ask questions, and so those were really our guiding principles 378 00:27:53.750 --> 00:27:57.430 through every meeting that we had. And you know, we're very creative company. 379 00:27:57.509 --> 00:28:00.539 There are always a lot of ideas that were coming up and we had 380 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:04.500 to put them in a parking lot and they're certainly being explored for these future 381 00:28:04.539 --> 00:28:08.779 events, but in that twenty five day window it just wasn't realistic. Yeah, 382 00:28:08.819 --> 00:28:11.539 I love that as a great summary, Sergio. I mean, as 383 00:28:11.579 --> 00:28:15.769 I was taking notes here, really the three keys were getting the leadership and 384 00:28:15.809 --> 00:28:21.089 then the broader team aligned on on the vision. What are the top priorities 385 00:28:21.210 --> 00:28:25.089 that we need to if all else fails? What are the three things that 386 00:28:25.130 --> 00:28:27.519 we have to do? So getting aligned on that vision, minimizing risk as 387 00:28:27.559 --> 00:28:32.640 it's associated with those top priorities that you laid out in that vision, and 388 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:37.160 then number three, really focus on what results are we trying to drive? 389 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:41.039 If we deliver what we're trying to deliver, what should success look like? 390 00:28:41.470 --> 00:28:44.750 And keeping that at the forefront of everyone's mind. I think if you take 391 00:28:44.910 --> 00:28:48.470 those three whatever the tech, whatever the size of the pivot that you're trying 392 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:53.109 to make in taking a live event virtual or going from on demand content to 393 00:28:55.309 --> 00:28:59.819 live streaming content, whatever the experiences you're trying to craft, if you keep 394 00:28:59.859 --> 00:29:03.019 those three things in mind, I think you're going to be better off. 395 00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:07.059 Well, Sergio, again, hats off to to your entire team for making 396 00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:11.289 something happen on such a tight window and delivering a great experience to those those 397 00:29:11.369 --> 00:29:15.930 folks that did make it did consume that on demand content. If people listening 398 00:29:17.009 --> 00:29:19.250 to this would like to stay connected with you, maybe ask the follow up 399 00:29:19.289 --> 00:29:25.720 questions on the topic today, or they want to stay in touch and learn 400 00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:29.359 about some of the other online events that you guys have coming later in the 401 00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:32.599 year, what's the best way for them to reach out or stay connected? 402 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:37.759 Absolutely I'm I'm pretty active on Linkedin, so they can find me on Linkedin 403 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:42.109 under Sergio Claudio and most recently posted a recent blog post that is on the 404 00:29:42.150 --> 00:29:48.869 adobecom blog about our story and pivoting and using the adobe technology to power this 405 00:29:48.990 --> 00:29:52.549 event, so they can find more great details. For myself and other leaders 406 00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:56.339 from from the adobe experienced business, and also on twitter at at Sergio Claudio. 407 00:29:56.819 --> 00:30:00.339 I love it. Sergio, thank you so much for being our guest 408 00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:02.980 today. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me, Logan. 409 00:30:06.259 --> 00:30:08.690 One of the things we've learned about podcast audience growth is that word of 410 00:30:08.849 --> 00:30:12.809 mouth works. It works really, really well actually. So, if you 411 00:30:12.930 --> 00:30:17.289 love this show, would be awesome if you texted a friend to tell them 412 00:30:17.329 --> 00:30:19.569 about it, and if you send me a text with a screenshot of the 413 00:30:19.609 --> 00:30:22.960 text you sent to your friend, Metta, I know I'll send you a 414 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:27.000 copy of my book content based networking, how to instantly connect with anyone. 415 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:30.200 You want to know my cell phone numbers. Four hundred and seven, four 416 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:34.039 nine hundred, three and three, two eight. Happy texting.
