It’s finally here—Photoshop World Week, where thousands of designers, photographers, developers, video editors, and Photoshop freaks (like me) all gather for a Photoshop love-fest. I can’t wait!

Here’s a couple of things to keep an eye out for, as we head into the conference:

• First, if you’re going to Photoshop World, check out the short video above from NAPP’s Executive Director Larry Becker called “Getting the most out of Photoshop World.” He created it for NAPP members attending the show, but anybody going to the show will get a lot out of it.
• Adobe often uses the Photoshop World keynote to announce a new product, or give us a sneak peek at some new unreleased technology (for example, at the last Photoshop World they announced the Lightroom 2 Public Beta). Well, Adobe’s VP of their Creative Business Unit, John Loiacono is our featured keynote presenter at the opening keynote, so I’m really excited to see what he’ll be sharing.
• Don’t know if you caught Matt Kloskowski’s “Insider Guide to PhotoshopWorld” (link) or Dave Cross’s advice on making the most of Photoshop World (link), but if you’re going be sure you do.
• If you are going; make sure you download Dave Cross’ Free Photoshop World Planner PDF. I promise—you’ll love it (and it will make choosing which classes to attend much easier).

Here are some Photoshop World tips that I can pass along:

1. You gotta go to the opening keynote. It’s one of the highlights of the conference, and it sets the tone for the whole conference. If you miss it, you’ll be hearing everybody talking about it all week, so make sure you’re there for it.
2. If you want one-on-one answers to your questions, make sure you stop by “Help Desk Live!” right outside the Expo hall. This is where the instructors, including Help Desk guru Peter Bauer himself, hang out to answer your Photoshop questions.
3. The reason we don’t make you sign up for which classes you want to attend in advance, is so you can customize the conference to suit your needs. Sometimes you go to a class, and you like the instructor so much, you want to catch all their classes, and this way—you can. However, if you wind up in a class that doesn’t suit you—just get up as quietly as possible, and change to a different class on a different track. Don’t sit in a class that is too advanced for you, or a class where you already know what’s being taught. In short; take advantage of that flexibility.
4. There are special classes offered on the show floor, in one of our three theaters. These aren’t demos—they’re training classes, most of which are taught by our official Photoshop World instructors. Also, there are theaters all over the Expo floor that are doing both demos and techniques, so really take advantage of these. NOTE: Even if you’re not going to the full conference, you can visit the Expo floor for free, if you sign up in advance at the Photoshop World site.
5. This is an opportunity to make some “Photoshop Friends.” We all need friends that can help us in learning, and there is no better place to make friends than Photoshop World. Just walk up and ask anyone “So what to you use Photoshop for?” and you’ve got a conversation going. The Photoshop World crowd is an amazingly friendly group of people. The first step, is just saying “hi.”

Well, that’s it for this Photoshop World update. I hope to see you there this week, and if I do, and you read this blog, make sure you come up and say “hi.” I wish you safe travels, and a career-changing, learning-filled, fun-filled week!