Great tips, Great Community at CreativePro Week 2017

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Excerpted from Erica Gamet’s article on CreativePro Week 2017 in issue 98 of InDesign Magazine (coming soon).

What do you get when you combine four of the best creative conferences into one megaconference? Why, CreativePro Week of course! The inaugural outing of CreativePro Week was held May 22–26 in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.

Atlanta’s Westin Buckhead. Site of CreativePro Week 2017

Organized by CPN, the event was comprised of four separate, but complementary shows: Photoshop + Illustrator Conference, The InDesign Conference, PePCon: The Print + ePublishing Conference, and The Creative Developers Summit. Featuring over 40 speakers, the multi-day event did not disappoint. Each conference included a core set of sessions with optional pre- or post-conference tutorials. The tutorial days seamlessly overlapped the other conference days, which blended into a cohesive event full of learning and networking.

CreativePro Week 2017

Ps/Ai: The Photoshop + Illustrator Conference

The week kicked off with the Photoshop + Illustrator Conference for Designers (Ps/Ai). Unlike a typical Photoshop-centric event, this conference set its sights on the production end of each of these flagship products. Expert speakers on these core apps included Paul Trani, Bert Monroy, Von Glitschka, Jesús Ramirez, and Mark Heaps, among others.

Mark Heaps shared some mind-bending things you can do to improve photos with Camera Raw.

From Dave Cross’ “Power User Tools” opener to sessions on 3D and interactive design, the topics were laser-focused on the production tools and techniques for mastering Photoshop and Illustrator.

Dave Cross revealed the secrets of Photoshop and Illutrator power users.

The last session of the day was the always fun—and competitive—”Three Minutes Max,” where speakers try to one-up each other with a spectacular tip or trick. Playing for specific attendees, the stakes are high as the best tip—which is determined by applause—wins that speaker’s attendee/partner a full year of Adobe Creative Cloud.

CreativePro Week swag bags full of goodies for attendees

The one-day Ps/Ai event was capped by a networking reception which is often a favorite of any CreativePro event. Anyone who has attended any CPN Conference in the past is familiar with “Networking Bingo,” where attendees try frantically to fill their bingo card for prizes. Spaces include gems such as “Has over 1,000 Twitter followers,” “Has their passport on them,” and “Can sing a song from the musical ‘Hair’ right now.” One slight change was that the cards were filled out over the course of the entire week, which presented more opportunities to play and win but without the intensely competitive nature of prior versions.

If you’re a fan of Bert Monroy (and who isn’t?) you were in the right place!

At the core of CreativePro’s events lies the advantage they have over other similar industry events: community. From its earliest days, PePcon—and later The InDesign and PS/AI Conferences—has always been about bringing together like-minded creative professionals. Whether an attendee’s objective is to cram their brain full of tips and tricks, find the workflow solution that’s perfect for them, or have the chance to pick the brains of world-class speakers and others who are dealing with the same issues, the opportunities to do so are around every corner.

Nigel French showed how to make Photoshop and Illustrator work together smoothly.

Wrapping Up The Wrap-up

The four separate conference communities always had some overlapping topics and attendees, but the combined event truly succeeded in blending everything together to create a cohesive learning experience. Most of the attendees I spoke with were pleased with the combining of the conferences into one big show. The reasons given included not having to choose between the individual conferences, and gaining access to such a varied pool of experts and enthusiasts.

Von Glitschka gave away signed copies of his posters.

As usual, at the end of every CPN-spearheaded conference, I am both exhausted and invigorated. The week was a lot to pull off—and a lot to take in. But the amount of creativity, new ideas, different perspectives, talent, and information available at CreativePro Week gave me the fuel I need to make the coming year great and full of exciting creative endeavors. C’mon 2018! Where will CreativePro Week venture next? Stay tuned.

Paul Trani wants to see you at next year’s CreativePro Week!

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Couldn’t join hundreds of your creative colleagues in Atlanta?

Attend CreativePro Week 2017—Virtually!

CreativePro Week 2017 virtual pass

The premier “how-to” event for design and publishing professionals, CreativePro Week 2017, has come and gone. But if you couldn’t make it to The InDesign Conference, PePcon, or PS/AI: The Photoshop + Illustrator Conference for Designers, you can ensure you didn’t miss out by booking a Virtual Pass. You get video recordings of the sessions, speaker handouts, a private attendee/speaker forum, and discounts and show specials from our sponsors! Details and registration options are on our Virtual Pass page.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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  • lena says:

    this is awesome

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