Judging

Judging Process

2009 MAX Award Finalists will be determined by a series of eight MAX Awards Judging Councils, one for each category. The Category Winner will be selected from one of the top three finalists from each of the eight (8) categories through online public voting. Online public voting will open on September 28, 2009 and run through October 6, 2009. The 2009 MAX Conference in Los Angeles begins on October 4, 2009. Each application will be first reviewed by members of the MAX Awards team to determine which submissions will enter the semifinalist round. The semifinalists will be reviewed by the MAX Awards Judging Councils for each category. Council members may be on the Council for more than one category. Judging Councils will review and rate each submission. The Category finalists will be selected from the three highest scores in each category, with all scores kept confidential. Entrants will also be eligible for Honorable Mentions. Honorable Mentions honor outstanding achievement, granted at the discretion of the Judging Councils and are announced prior to the MAX Conference October 4-7, 2009. Adobe reserves the right to not award any Honorable Mentions.

Each Judging Council consists of a team of Adobe Executives and Industry Representatives with comprehensive knowledge of the category.

Industry Judges:

Advertising and Branding:

Ken, Martin, Blitz Agency




Education:

Rob Noble, Society of Digital Agencies




Entertainment:

Ben Grossman, The Syndicate




Enterprise Productivity:

Kaveh Vessali, SalesForce.com and Michael Cote, RedMonk




Mobile:

Rob Toole, Forum Nokia




Public Sector:

Bob Gourley, CTOVision.com




Social Computing:

Josh Elman, Facebook




Social Responsibility:

Beth Kanter, Blogger and Consultant and Valerie Casey, The Designers Accord

Judging Criteria

Submissions for the 2009 Max Awards will be judged on four criteria. Three criteria are applicable to all categories and one criterion is category specific. View Category descriptions.

Overall Criteria:

• Quality of User Experience
• Breadth of Adobe solutions used to develop application
• Quantified Business Impact of Application

Category Specific Criteria:

Advertising and Branding:

Innovation in technique or concept

Education:

Innovative applications of technology to improve teaching and learning, communication and collaboration, or to enable education institutions to reduce operating costs and improve faculty and student services

Enterprise Productivity:

Extent of integration and adoption number of key enterprise systems integrated with Adobe solutions and number of employees or customers impacted by the solution

Entertainment:

Immersiveness of the experience -the visual impact of the entertainment and boundaries its pushed.

Mobile:

Value delivered by mobile device application to corporations or individual users.

Public Sector:

Specific value constituents have received from the applications-effect of the application on enhancing or changing their lives.

Social Computing:

Uniqueness of application, relevance and reach: the social computing app makes it easier for people to stay connected and share ideas with their communities; or the social computing app creates a new form of social computing experience that changes how people interact online and offline. Innovation is endless.

Social Responsibility:

Clear problem and solution; why or how it is innovative; role software played; level of creativity and social impact(s). This might include number of people engaged and/or served around social or environmental issue, how lives have been positively impacted or reduction in environmental footprint.

Finalist Notification

Entries will be judged between July 6, 2009 and August 21, 2009. Twenty-four Finalists, three in each category, will be notified by e-mail or telephone the week of August 24, 2009. Finalists will have 2 days (48 hours) from receipt of notification to acknowledge finalist status and must confirm attendance at the Event by e-mail. E-mail should be sent to maxaward@adobe.com. Finalists will be notified that they have been nominated for placement but will not know what their winning placement is until the actual Event. Sponsor is not responsible for and shall not be liable for late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winners. If a selected Finalist cannot be contacted, is ineligible, fails to acknowledge status, or fails to comply with any term or condition of these Official Rules, prize may be forfeited and an alternate Finalist may be selected. Finalists will be required to sign and return a liability release, declaration of eligibility, license agreement, and, where lawful, a publicity consent agreement, all within 10 days of receipt by finalist as a condition of receiving prize.

2009 MAX Awards Official Rules

Participation in the MAX Awards Contest (the Contest) constitutes Contestants full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules. Contest is sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA USA 95110 (Sponsor).