Creativity to the Rescue

Creativity is helping us through these tough times.

Two weeks ago, Adobe held its annual MAX conference. This year, to keep everyone safe, the event was 100% virtual. All sessions, presentations, keynotes, labs and entertainment were broadcast online with no in-person attendees.

The event was also free. So it was an easy decision to register and attend from the comfort of my home office. Adobe reports that over half a million people joined me in registering.

I enjoyed the conference a lot, attending 29 sessions over the three days. Though I missed in-person networking and celebrating, it was great experience overall. I learned quite a bit, and ‘met’ many new creatives.

During the keynote presentation on the first day, I was moved by remote interviews that Adobe assembled into a short feature film. People from all over the world talked on camera about how they used creativity to cope with the many challenges the we are experiencing in 2020. The featured artists and their work dealt with lock-downs, social unrest, and other sources of collective anguish with beautiful images and ideas expressed in a variety of media. These creatives (and many others who were not featured) gave voice to those who need to be heard. They also helped many people by sharing their work publicly, at no cost.

Creativity is often unleashed during history’s darkest moments. And we need not be creative ourselves to benefit from this phenomenon. Just look around: There is a vast trove of new creative content available for us all to enjoy on social media, on artists’ own websites, and elsewhere online. ◼︎