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Not only did Acrobat 7 get a makeover late last year, but so did the 1.6 PDF spec and many of the LiveCycle PDF server products. And, dont forget, many third-party software developers of plug-ins and stand-alone utilities and applications have either announced updates based on the new Adobe software or will soon. So lots will be happening at AGIs Adobe & Acrobat PDF Conference this spring, whose program was announced late last month.
Chris Smith, head of AGI Training, says that prepress and multimedia publishing matters always draw strong interest at his shows. But this year, Smith has seen an expansion in interest up the corporate ladder: CIO types are figuring out which business processes can be committed to PDF via servers running software from the Adobe LiveCycle line or other systems driven by other vendors like ActivePDF or Appligent. And the IT people charged with implementing these changes are paying close attention to the PDF world too, as they consider how their businesses can benefit from PDF forms technology and as they wrangle with Section 508 accessibility issues and how to make their PDFs compliant with the regulation.
“Its the first opportunity for PDF users, developers, and IT professionals to get an in-depth look at Acrobat 7 as well as the other technologies that surround the PDF format,” says Smith, who says he changed the names of the shows content tracks to “user,” “technical” and “management” so attendees can better figure out whats for them. “We try to group these sessions using tracks to help users understand what type of content is going to be covered… [but] attendees can move from one track to another while theyre there.”
Accordingly, the conference includes sessions that cover management and ITs specific concerns, such as PDF security and electronic signatures, LiveCycle implementation, paper-to-PDF conversion issues, and designing PDF forms workflows in general. Presenters will also show how early adopters are using PDF/A for archiving and PDF/E for engineering in real life, marking some of the first opportunities on the trade show circuit to see these developing standards in action—as opposed to the mostly theoretical discussions at past conferences.