I just attended Adobe MAX 2025 – here’s what it’s like, and what to expect

Here's a peek behind the curtain at what it's like to attend Adobe's biggest event of the year

(Credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

• 🎪 Matt and I just got back home from Adobe MAX 2025 in Los Angeles

• 📣 It’s Adobe’s biggest conference of the year

• 💡 It serves as the stage where new features and innovations are unveiled by the company

• 3️⃣ We spent three days attending the show and got to do a lot of cool stuff

• 👀 Here’s what to expect if you’re attending MAX one day, or just curious what it’s like embarking on a press trip like this

As a tech reporter, I’ve attended a good number of keynotes and conferences over my 10-year career, yet I’ve never had the chance to visit Adobe MAX.

The conference, which was first held in November 2003, is home to major announcements about Adobe’s products, informational sessions, hands-on experiences, and more. It’s one of the biggest tech conferences of the entire year, drawing in over 150 different exhibitors and 10,000+ attendees.

This time around, Matt and I had a chance to attend MAX, which Adobe offered to accommodate for us (which, importantly, has zero influence on any content that came from the show). Seeing that it was our first time, we documented our experiences, and I kept a log of the biggest moments and coolest parts of the program. Whether you plan to visit MAX one day yourself or are just curious about what it’s like attending such a major show, here’s a peek behind the curtain.

More Adobe MAX 2025 coverage

• Adobe Firefly gets huge upgrade with custom AI models and generative speech

• Photoshop and Lightroom get big AI upgrades at Adobe MAX 2025 – here’s what’s coming

• Adobe Express gains an AI Assistant to make editing your projects even easier

What it’s like to attend Adobe MAX

(Credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

🎪 Get ready for keynotes. Adobe MAX gets a ton of attention from creators and media alike thanks to three individual keynotes, all of which aim to offer something a bit different from one another.

• 📰 Day 1 generates the headlines. The kick-off keynote is where Adobe makes a number of announcements about its products. This year, the company went over a slew of new AI features in Firefly, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and more. We had our reporter hats on the entire time, collecting information about all the new features being released to report it in our newsletter. We also got to hear the audience react to all the features. The biggest gasp? AI-generated labels for your layers in Photoshop.

• 🎨 Day 2 gets creative. The second keynote address Adobe hosts typically leans into creativity tips. This year, the company had Stacy Martinet, Lara Balazs, Brandon Baum, Mark Rober, James Gunn (yes, that James Gunn), and Jason Levine in attendance to walk creators through delivering bold ideas and endeavors in their content. It was an interesting conversation, one that was filled with enough tips for virtually every type of creator to walk away with something useful.

• 👀 “Sneaks” is absurdly fun. The most fun keynote of them all is Sneaks. It’s Adobe’s annual tradition to give those in attendance (and those watching online) a sneak peek at brand-new technologies and features the company is working on. From wildly impressive object removal to purely-genius audio editing for videos, Sneaks was met with many cheers and gasps from the in-person audience, including from Matt and I. Whether any of the features eventually roll out is unclear, but it was exciting to see what the company is working on regardless.

🗣️ Informational, nuanced sessions. Adobe MAX also hosts a wide variety of sessions that touch on more nuanced topics that aren’t covered in any of its keynotes. For example, Matt attended a session on building your Substack brand, which is something right up our alley. Other sessions covered topics like designing logos, connecting your brand to an audience, future-proofing your career in the age of AI, and more. There’s no way to attend every single session at the show, so you have to pick and choose which ones resonate with you most, which helps make MAX a unique experience for each attendee.

(Credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

💡 Trade-show tradition with demos galore. Like any good trade show, Adobe MAX had a plethora of exhibitors showcasing new technologies that integrate with Adobe’s products. This year, the company hosted exhibitors at the Los Angeles Convention Center as part of “Creative Park,” with big names like Microsoft, Nvidia, Logitech, and even Coca-Cola making an appearance. It felt like walking through CES (the big tech show held in Las Vegas), except in a much more focused and organized way. Matt and I were fans of the layout and how well everything was spaced out. It was one of the most pleasant trade shows I’ve ever attended.

🎡 Fun exhibits to keep things interesting. Of course, like CES, there are some fun things to do at Creative Park. Nvidia let us customize our own scenes from a music video using Photoshop and Premiere, Logitech demoed the haptics on its MX Master 4 mouse while we snapped clips together in Premiere, and Coca-Cola helped us customize our own Coke cans with Adobe Express. Plus, there was so much merch to collect along the way that our bags were at least 10 pounds heavier than when we arrived (maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the gist).

(Credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

🎉 Having a Bash. No tech event would be complete without a good party. The first night, Adobe hosted us at the Hollywood Roosevelt for a magic show downstairs, then led everyone to the rooftop for food and drinks. The second night, it was time for Adobe’s big MAX Bash, featuring a performance from St. Paul & The Broken Bones. There were a ton of different activities like a human-claw machine and coloring wall, but Matt and I were only there for the seesaw.

🎙️ The media experience (and a disclaimer). As Adobe’s guests, Matt and I were offered travel accommodations and passes to the event. This is ordinary behavior for a lot of tech companies who work closely with media, and as is the case with anyone else who offers us these arrangements, they had no affect on the content we produced. The press also had access to a special lounge to work in which, quite frankly, was the nicest I’ve ever been in, if only because it didn’t feel like a corporate board room.

(Credit: Matt Swider / The Shortcut)

📅 See you in 2026. Adobe MAX 2025 was both informational and a lot of fun to attend. It was a hectic couple of days in the City of Angels, and we’re excited to fly back out next year for MAX 2026.

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Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.