Adobe Summit Inspires, Educates at Salt Palace

More than 4,500 people are gathered this week at the Salt Palace for the 2013 Adobe Summit Digital Marketing Conference. This year’s Summit is the largest the company has held so far, said Brad Rencher, Adobe’s general manager of digital marketing. The event has more than 5,000 registered attendees from 27 different countries.

Rencher delivered the conference’s keynote address Wednesday morning, and was joined on stage at times by other Adobe representatives, including CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Rencher’s address focused largely on what he called “the last millisecond,” the moment between a customer’s action (such as a mouse click or a smartphone tap) and the experience that follows. It’s now possible for companies to use technology to customize users’ experiences in that millisecond and ensure that they’re being presented with marketing that is suited to them.

Digital marketing has changed significantly in recent years and continues to change quickly, Narayen said. It’s no longer enough for marketers to try to drive customers to the company website in hopes they’ll become paying customers. Instead, companies should engage their customers everywhere. “Having a direct relationship with all of our customers has been increasingly important,” Narayen told the crowd

For companies to succeed in digital marketing they must break down organizational walls that often separate marketers, analytics professionals, creative professionals and other employees, Rencher said.

Much of the keynote was dedicated to demonstrating Adobe’s Marketing Cloud products, which are intended to allow employees from different departments within a company to collaborate better.

The conference continued after the keynote address with dozens of breakout events and general sessions on a variety of topics throughout the day. In the evening, the “Summit Bash” featured a performance by Grammy-winning musical duo The Black Keys. The conference continues all day Thursday and is slated to include appearances by daredevil skydiver Felix Baumgartner, comedian Carrie Brownstein and others.