2009 MAX Awards Official Rules

Participation in the MAX Awards Contest (the "Contest") constitutes Contestant's 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"). View 2009 MAX Awards Official Rules (French) View 2009 MAX Awards Official Rules (Japanese) View 2009 MAX Awards Official Rules (Portuguese)	MAX News MAX Awards Winners Selected! Get the MAX widget Win a free pass to MAX 2009 along with some of the software used to create this widget, a copy of Flex Builder and a copy of ColdFusion Standard! Stay connected:

Terms and Conditions

Contest begins the week of May 26, 2009 and ends at 11:59 pm Pacific Time on July 31, 2009. All entries must be uploaded to the competition website no later than 11:59 pm Pacific Time on July 31, 2009. DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 7, 2009, at 11:59 pm.

Contest is open to all individuals 18 years of age or older. The contest is not open to any resident of the following countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. U.S. export regulations prohibit the export of goods and services to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Therefore residents of these countries/regions are not eligible to participate.

Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its affiliates, and legal advisors, the judging panel, and the immediate family members and persons living in the same household of such persons are not eligible to participate in the Contest.

Independent contractors, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion and fulfillment agencies affiliated with a MAX 2009 sponsor may enter so long as the submission was not commissioned by Sponsor or MAX sponsors named prior to August 17, 2009.

Additionally, projects that are funded or sponsored by Adobe or designed specifically for Adobe are not eligible to participate in the Contest. All federal, state, provincial, autonomous, and local laws and regulations apply. Void where prohibited.

Each entry must meet the requirements, as specified below in Section 4. Any non-conforming entries will be disqualified. Altered, defaced, mutilated, illegible, or incomplete entries are not eligible and will result in disqualification of entry. Entries that contain any content that is pornographic in nature, lewd, or sexually explicit, in Sponsor's sole discretion, will be disqualified. After each entry is screened for compliance with the entry requirements, it will be judged by a panel of judges selected by the Sponsor. The judges' decisions are final and binding. Judges retain the right to reclassify entries from one category to another or to select only components of the submission for honors. Each of the eight (8) categories will have three finalists selected and three honorable mentions awarded, unless the judges determine that the entry quality does not warrant the award of all prizes. Category winners will be selected from the category finalists through online public voting. Adobe reserves the right to not award any Honorable Mentions. The entries, whether submitted by an individual or a group, shall be judged together in each category on a points system based on three criteria applicable to all categories (Quality of User Experience, Breadth of Adobe Solutions Used, Quantified Business Impact) and a category-specific criterion. All point calculations will be kept confidential. The categories available for entries are as follows:

1. Advertising and Branding

   : Advertisements and the brands they support need to break through in increasingly crowded, global markets, where users have unprecedented control over their own experiences. Adobe delivers solutions that enable brands to connect with their customers in rich, interactive, and memorable ways. In this category, we recognize brands that use Adobe solutions to break through -- creating innovative communications and building lasting customer relationships. Winning submissions will include examples of communications or campaigns that have been effective at engaging customers and building loyalty.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: Innovation in technique or concept

2. Education

   : Across education institutions worldwide, technology is transforming the way we teach, learn and experience campus life. In this category, we will look for ways in which Adobe solutions are improving learning, facilitating access to information and services, and enabling better collaboration across the institution. Winning applications do more than just communicate information to students; they engage students to become active participants in their learning or greatly simplify institutional productivity and administration.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: 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.

3. Enterprise Productivity

   : This category will look at applications that enable business users to better respond to business requirements and improve performance. By applying the right technology, organizations are finding ways to boost employee productivity, improve collaboration, and drive new revenues by automating end-to-end processes. Winning applications will use Adobe solutions for critical functions, such as automating new account opening, product ordering, correspondence management, and other activities aimed at reducing costs and processing time, as well as providing better services to external users. Central to the application's success is integration of Adobe solutions with enterprise systems to strengthen the impact and reach of services. Applications submitted by third-party developers must be accompanied by a real-world customer example.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: Extent of integration and adoption - number of key enterprise systems integrated with Adobe solutions and number of employees or customers impacted by the solution

4. Entertainment

   : This category will look at how Adobe solutions are helping to transform the entertainment experience. Whether in movies or TV, on computers, or on handheld devices, winning submissions will highlight programs, applications, or projects that push the boundaries of what audiences and consumers previously thought was possible, and at the same time reach as broad an audience as possible.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: Immersiveness of the experience -the visual impact of the entertainment and boundaries its pushed.

5. Mobile

   : Mobile service providers today are challenged to deliver easy-to-use applications that provide expressive and complex capabilities. Tapping into features such as location, touch and motion detection, high-speed networks and others, service providers are looking to appeal to increasingly sophisticated customers who rely on their devices to access and share information, participate in social networks, be entertained, and for work. Winning entries in this category will demonstrate how Adobe solutions are being used to raise the standard of interactivity and quality for mobile services, brining indispensible new services that improve the daily lives of consumers.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: Value delivered by mobile device application to corporations or individual users.

6. Public Sector

   : The challenge of doing more with fewer resources is long familiar to government agencies and not-for-profit organizations, particularly in the current economic climate. Here, technology plays a vital role in delivering higher-impact, more engaging services, while keeping costs in check. In this category, we will want to see applications that highlight how Adobe solutions have enabled an organization to boost the quality and variety of services and still address the reality of tighter budgets.

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

7. Social Computing

   : Online communities are growing rapidly worldwide, bringing together people sharing similar interests, activities, and goals. In this category, we will want to see how Adobe solutions are used to deliver new social computing experiences to communities via PCs, mobile phones, televisions, and other consumer electronics. The aim is to foster improved communication and collaboration among individuals engaged in one-to-one or one-to-many interactions. Richness of experience and ease of use are integral components of winning applications.

   Category- Specific Judging Criterion: Uniqueness of application, relevance and reach: is the social computing app making it easier for people to stay connected and share ideas with their communities? Or, is it creating a new form of social computing experience that will change how people interact online and offline? Innovation is endless.

8. Social Responsibility

   : In this category, we are looking for applications that use Adobe products to enable change, provide solutions, and engage people around a social issue. Winning applications will include clearly defined social and technology problems and innovative uses of Adobe solutions to address these goals. Quantitative impact on the social issue is ideal, if applicable.

   Category -Specific Judging Criterion: 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 issue, how lives have been positively impacted or reduction in environmental footprint.

All entrants must complete the official online form for the 2009 MAX Awards available at http://www.adobemaxsubmission.com/submission. Entries must include a URL to access the submitted work. If the project is not publicly accessible via URL, the project may be submitted via a Web URL with a special Adobe-only login

Each entry MUST include the following:

• Submissions will be judged on four criteria. Three criteria are applicable to all categories: Quality of User Experience, Breadth of Adobe Solutions Used to Develop Application, Quantified Business Impact of Application. The final criterion is category specific. (see Category Descriptions)
• You must be able to attend the Adobe MAX 2009 conference and show the project to attendees at the conference. Some amount of code should be able to be viewed by attendees.
• You must supply a computer, mouse, speakers (if necessary) and extra power supply to show the project at the 2009 MAX conference. Adobe will supply the connection to the Internet, monitor, and an additional power supply. If a submission requires more than the peripherals provided by Adobe, the submitter must supply the necessary items. No additional promotional materials are allowed at the conference, including but not limited to flyers, giveaways, etc.
• Each project submitted must contain at least one product from Adobe. Projects completed with multiple Adobe products of the most recent version are encouraged.
• Your project must be in production or in an active pilot stage by the start of MAX 2009 and live and accessible up to 120 days after the conference.
• All work must be original (no plagiarized images, text, or other content).
• No projects containing pornography or other offensive materials as solely determined by Adobe will be considered for a MAX Award.
• Projects cannot be created specifically for or funded by Adobe.

Any entry not complying with the above entry requirements will not be eligible for consideration or any prize. Entries may be submitted for consideration in more than one category but will only be selected as a finalist or other distinction in one (1) category. Each project will only be recognized once. If the same or similar project is submitted by two independent organizations, at Adobe's discretion the project and each organization will be at risk of being disqualified from the contest. Sponsor accepts no responsibility for entries that are lost or damaged in transit. Sponsor shall use reasonable care to prevent any loss or damage to entries received by Sponsor; however, Sponsor shall not be liable for direct, indirect, or consequential loss that results from the loss or damage to any entry.

By submitting an entry by a sole creator to a category, Contestant warrants that Contestant is the sole designer, creator, and owner of the artwork, including all visual and auditory components, or has permission to use copyrighted components, and further warrants that the artwork does not contain information considered by Contestant's place of business or any other third party to be confidential. By submitting an entry by a group of creators, the Contestants warrant that they jointly designed, created, and own the visual and auditory artwork or have permission to use copyrighted components, and further warrant that the artwork does not contain information considered by Contestants' place of business or any other third party to be confidential.

The top three finalists will be selected from each of the eight (8) categories ("Finalists") and invited to attend the Adobe MAX 2009 Event in Los Angeles, California, USA ("Event"). Each finalist will receive one complimentary conference registration to the Event and will be featured at the Event. One MAX Award will be granted in each of the eight (8) categories to one ("Category Winner") of the top three Finalists in each category as chosen by online public voting. Each Category Winner will be presented with a MAX Award at the Event.

• Finalist: The top three finalists will be selected from each of the eight (8) categories ("Finalists"). Each Finalist will receive one complimentary conference registration to Adobe MAX 2009 and will be featured in the Event, conference, and marketing materials and on Adobe.com. Trip expenses to attend the Event will be the responsibility of the Finalist.
• Category Winner: One of the top three Finalists will be selected from each of the eight (8) categories through online public voting ("Category Winner"). Each Category Winner will be presented with a MAX Award trophy at the Event, recognized in conference and marketing materials and on Adobe.com, and be included in an Adobe issued press release announcing the winners.
• Honorable Mention: Three (3) projects will be selected in each of the eight (8) categories as Honorable Mentions. Each Honorable Mention will be listed on Adobe.com, along with a logo and short description of the project. In addition, Honorable Mentions may be featured in the Event, conference, and marketing materials and on Adobe.com. Adobe reserves the right to not award any Honorable Mentions.

Because this is a contest of skill, winning is dependent upon the quality of entries received. All prizes will be awarded unless there are fewer eligible entries for a Category than prizes for that Category or the judges determine that the quality of entries does not warrant a prize. No alternative prize, cash, or other substitution is allowed except by Sponsor in the event of prize unavailability. Prizes are non-assignable/non-transferable. All federal, state, provincial, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winners.

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.

Sponsor is not responsible for and shall not be liable for:

(i) lost, late, delayed, damaged, incomplete, illegible, unintelligible, or misdirected entries; (ii) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties of any kind (iii) failed, incomplete, partial, garbled, or delayed computer transmissions; (iv) any condition caused by events beyond the control of Sponsor that may cause the Contest to be disrupted or corrupted; (v) any injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising in connection with or as a result of a prize, or acceptance, possession, or use of a prize, or from participation in the Contest; (vi) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Contest (not applicable in Spain); (vii) any regional, state, autonomous, or local laws or regulations violated during the creation of the entries by the Contestant(s). Sponsor reserves the right to suspend, cancel, or modify the Contest if fraud or technical failure corrupts the administration, security, or proper play of the Contest, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Each Contestant agrees to release and hold Sponsor harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, and actions of any kind in connection with the Contest or resulting from acceptance, possession, or use of any prize, including without limitation, personal injury, death, property damage, and claims based upon intellectual property infringement, publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the preceding release of liability will not apply with respect to personal injury, death, or damage to property caused by Sponsor negligence against Contestants residing in India and will not apply with respect to personal injury or death caused by Sponsor negligence against Contestants residing in Hong Kong or Portugal. The preceding release of liability only applies to ordinary or minor negligence caused by Sponsor against Contestants residing in Spain. Each Contestant agrees that Sponsor's only obligation is to submit entries from eligible Contestants to the judges according to the procedures and criteria set forth in these Official Rules, and award the prizes set forth herein to winners, subject to the terms and conditions herein. Contestant agrees that Sponsor's obligation is fair and adequate consideration for any entry submitted, and that Contestant is not entitled to and shall not seek any further compensation.

Each Contestant agrees that if his or her entry is selected as a winning entry, as a condition of receiving a prize, Contestant shall sign a license agreement granting to Sponsor a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, modify for purposes of publicly performing and publicly displaying, and prepare derivative works based upon winner's entry, for the purposes of advertising and promoting Adobe products, and for inclusion in and distribution with Adobe products. To the extent that such a perpetual license is ineffective or unenforceable, Contestant shall sign a license agreement providing to Sponsor a royalty-free, non-exclusive, two-year (2), worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, modify for purposes of publicly performing and publicly displaying, and prepare derivative works based upon winner's 2009 MAX Award entry, for the purposes of advertising and promoting Adobe products, and for inclusion in and distribution with Adobe products. Each Contestant further agrees to execute any and all documents necessary to effectuate such license.

Each Contestant agrees that by submitting a 2009 MAX Award entry, he or she allows the use of his or her personal data, name, likeness, and/or voice in publicity or advertising relating to the Contest without compensation. Except for issues affecting Contestants residing in Portugal or Spain, all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation, and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of Contestant and Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction), that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California. Where permitted by law, Contestant agrees that any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, or any prizes awarded, other than the administration of the Contest or the determination of winners, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose Division) or the appropriate California State Court located in Santa Clara County, California.

A Winners list will be posted on the Adobe MAX website after October 7, 2009.

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