By Anuka Roy
The Grand Hyatt Mumbai played host to the Adobe Symposium on April 27 and 28 and almost everyone who was concerned with the world of digital marketing was in attendance.
The first day was reserved for an executive panel discussion and Q and A session with select media groups.  The panel comprised Paul Robson, President, Adobe Asia Pacific, Aseem Chandra, Adobe Vice President, AEM and Target Business and Umang Bedi, Adobe Managing Director, South Asia. The interaction started with a presentation by Robson who gave an introduction to what Adobe has been doing for the past 30-odd years. He said, Adobe tries to provide, “Technology that allows creating great contentâ€. Robson referred the present time period as the ‘Experience Era’, an era where ‘experience starts with great content and experience is powered by data’. After Robson, Chandra spoke on the current products that Adobe offers and how their clients have been satisfied with the latest technology they have to offer. He also touched upon the innovations that they are working towards. “From the business point of view, experience needs to look consistent, continuous and compelling†said Chandra. Lastly, Bedi discussed the opportunities that India has. He shared some of the Indian brands for which Adobe has played an instrumental role in terms of digital transformation.
‘Experience’ was the buzzword in symposium on Day Two. The day started with speakers from SpiceJet Ltd and IDFC bank explaining how they are making major strategies and adapting new technology to ensure a fulfilling customer experience. There were other speakers from different brands who stressed on the importance of being an experience centric business in the digital era. Tamara Gaffney, Principal Analyst, Adobe Digital Index, spoke on how data has helped businesses to evolve digitally. She released a study in context of India showing how mobile traffic is on the rise across all industry sectors, especially in the banking sector, people are investing more on mobile related services and mobile optimisation is playing a big role in helping consumers complete their digital needs faster and saving their time. According to Gaffney, Voice Assist Technology is the new battleground. “It will take time to penetrate into India but it surely will be big in the future†said Tamara about the same technology coming to India. She also touched on the topics of augmented and virtual reality which might be our future.
Post-lunch, there were parallel sessions on creating rich content and getting it to the customers, the various apps being developed for mobile and various other relevant digital topics.