The 2024 Adobe Educators’ Conference involved four days of amazing professional learning focused on the safe and ethical use of Gen AI in any K-12 subject area with Adobe Express.

About 1000 teachers registered for either the in-person or online experience hosted at RMIT in Melbourne on Sept 30 & Oct 1 and at Abbostleigh Senior School in Sydney on Oct 9 & 10.

• 4 days
• 2 cities
• 2 keynotes
• 8 creative catalyst talks
• over 60 workshop options
• over 50 individual presenters
• over 20 support crew

Close to 2000 teachers have accessed the recordings within 2 weeks of them being available.

Here is a summary of the Sydney event …

Melbourne main event recordings

Sydney main event recordings

The four days of the conferencing involved two amazing keynote sessions, eight creative catalyst talks, some Teacher Feature demo sessions, direct online links with the global Adobe Education Team and over 60 workshop options, including the opportunity for teachers to earn the ACE level 1 & 2 badges.

This the 10th year Adobe has been running this event but it was the first time it has been designed as for a large in-person audience.

The Oct 1 & 9 events were exclusively for the Adobe Creative Educators (ACE) Community and were lead by a number of representatives from the ACE-Innovators community around Australia. The ACE community is thriving in ANZ with about 900 new member since the start of 2024.

The Sept 1 & Oct 10 events were the main days of the conference in both cities and open to any teacher and pre-service teacher. The highlights at each of these main events were the keynote presenters, and Dr Catherine Ball (Sydney) and Pip Cleaves (Melbourne). They were both incredibly inspiring, each with a different looks at the influence AI is having on education and the importance of fostering creativity.

The Creative Catalyst Talks by representatives of the ACE – Innovator community were also a highlight at each of the four events.

The ANZ Adobe Education team (Helen Lacey, Tim Kitchen, Molly Turner, Eric Drew, Kim Flowers, Jerry Wong and Kaitlyn Hartley) along with Anna Nakao and Chloe Encarnacion were instrumental in helping to make these conference events a success.

Connecting with the following global Adobe Education team members during the ACE days was also a highlight – Ben Forta, Brian Johnsrud, Mary Cherng, Will Hsiao, Tanya Avrith, Gail Hammler, Ann Kozma, Rebecca Hare & Claudio Zavala Jr.

Recordings of key sessions session are starting to become available via the following links

• Melbourne events
• Sydney events (soon to come)

The raw un-cut main plenary sessions are available to view now via these links:

• Melbourne plenary 1
• Melbourne plenary 2
• Sydney plenary 1
• Sydney plenary 2

Erin Raethke’s summary of the main Oct 10 Sydney event

Feedback highlights from the Sydney events

• The keynote speaker and hearing from the year 10 Photography and Digital Media students I teach present in the Curly Questions segment.
• Prizes and interactive activities for the bingo were fun to accomplish!
• The presenters were so friendly
• Dr Ball’s presentation
• Keynote speakers
• Learning about the features of Express
• Learning firefly from Craig, Keynotes were so inspirational
• Hands on approach!
• Dr Catherine Ball’s keynote was outstanding
• Presentations by Catherine Ball and Michelle Dennis
• Dr. Catherine Ball
• Express was impressive
• Dr Catherine Ball – guest speaker
• Networking with others and learning new Adobe programs- Firefly, ADOBE Express, Podcast
• The mix of the keynote presentations and how little snippets of using Adobe Express were integrated into the talks.
• What was presented today was relevant, meaningful and easily applicable to my teaching practice.
• Podcast with Brett
• Future of tech. Thanks for a productive day!
• The learning in the breakout sessions and having time to practise
• Hands on opportunities
• The accessibility of Adobe Express and being hands on in diving into it further.
• Learning Adobe Express
• It’s always great to see what the wider creative community are up to.
• Catherine Ball and the workshops with Eric
• Becoming level 1 educator
• Getting new ideas for how to use these products in the classroom
• Really enjoyed the podcast session with Brett Salakas
• Connecting with highly motivated educators from across multiple sectors to enhance digital pedagogy.
• Each workshop was authentic and relevant to various current practices that effectively equip students.
• Mixture of presentations and workshops
• The workshops were excellent. Dr Christine Ball was awesome
• Amazing to see Adobes amazing developments with Express and AI
• Seeing the capability of the software and applications in the classroom
• Bingo Challenge
• The interactive workshops
• ACE Level 1 course and Dr Catherine Ball.
• AI talk!
• Dr Catherine Ball’s presentation was particularly eye opening – thank you!
• The break out sessions were outstanding and I have so many ideas how to integrate Adobe Express in the classroom. I will be sharing this with my team!
• Thank you for hands on practical sessions and paddlet
• Dr Catherine’s presentation was amazing!
• The keynote speakers
• Getting my level 1
• Opportunity to complete the badge
• Dr Catherine Ball was amazing.
• Creativity in the Round: Collaborative Student/Teacher Group Projects in Adobe Express.
• Adobe Express
• How easy it will be to use the Generative A.I. content in Adobe Express with my classes in the future, especially for Video Editing.\
• The supportive presenters Erin Raethke and Ben Eyles in the breakout sessions

Feedback highlights from the Melbourne events

• Learning about Adobe products and how to utilise them in multimodal assessment
• The workshops
• Pip Cleaves Keynote was extremely interesting and insightful
• Discussion about AI use in schools
• The keynote speaker Pip
• Learning about Adobe beyond a PDF reader
• Skills which were immediately actionable in the classroom
• Liked the content and activities on AI and Adobe Express.
• Pip Cleaves’ keynote and curly questions
• The event was great with the workshops and q and a.
• I gained a good overview of Adobe product and AI potential
• Curly questions
• The practical learning especially how to construct webpages
• The demos by Drew and Molly were great.
• A key highlight of the conference was its direct relevance to my professional development, particularly in keeping up with the latest AI technology trends. The sessions offered in-depth insights and practical knowledge that not only supported my upskilling but also provided actionable strategies to bring into the classroom, enhancing both personal growth and teaching practice. Similarly, Adobe Express shows great promise as a classroom tool, allowing students to easily create visually engaging projects such as presentations and social media content, fostering creativity, digital literacy, and multimedia storytelling.
• Fantastic that the conference is both free and during holidays so it’s accessible
• A good investment of my time
• The conference was thoroughly engaging, featuring an impressive lineup of speakers who were not only experts in their respective fields but also skilled at delivering complex topics in an accessible and inspiring way. What I appreciated most was the flexibility of the conference format. Whether attending face-to-face or online, the hybrid model ensured that I could fully participate according to my preferences and schedule. This adaptability enhanced my experience, allowing me to connect with thought leaders and peers while gaining the cutting-edge knowledge I sought.