Within Brand Experience, I sit within the International Events Team. Our team covers both EMEA and APAC and plans Adobe’s flagship events in region. Namely, Adobe Summit EMEA and Adobe MAX Online (EMEA and APAC). The role is project management focused.

At present, I have two core projects where I am the workstream driver:

1) Managing the SharePoint site for Adobe Summit EMEA, used by thousands of Adobe employees internally as a point of information in the lead up to the event. Given the scope of the event, collating this information involves interfacing with teams across the business. 

2) The ancillary event program, focusing on teams looking to run events at Adobe Summit outside of the core event program (e.g., an industry roundtable). My primary responsibility for this project is ensuring that all side events are aligned with the overall event strategy and curating a program of events across otherwise siloed teams that enhance rather than degrade the experience for event delegates.

Some highlights of my Adobe placement year so far:

1) team offsite at the Paris office where I was able to meet my team in-person for the first time.

2) EMEA intern summit organised by the university team which brought to together interns across UK, France & Germany at the London office.

3) Stepping up as lead Adobe organiser for an early professionals event in collaboration with colleagues at IBM iX.

4) Taking initiative alongside another intern to design and arrange a series of fundraising events for Movember, which we are excited to see come to fruition throughout November.

Challenges faced in my placement so far:

1) The marketing org structure at Adobe is more complex than any other business I have interfaced with before and it is constantly changing.

2) The majority of my team are based abroad or in another office, making building relationships with colleagues more difficult. To this point, where most other interns were introduced to others in the office by their team, I had to take the initiative by myself to meet people, whether that be through saying hi in the office or arranging 121s using email.

3) Calls outside of typical 9-5 to account for colleagues in other time zones.

Key Learnings:

1) The team behind Adobe’s flagship events is world-class and I have been fortunate that the more generalist nature of my role within the team has provided a high-level visibility of the entire event planning process.

2) I’ve realised that my working preferences can change week on week depending on my workload/ energy levels so I appreciate the flexibility that I can work from wherever (I am not forced to work from home or at the office) as my calls are all online anyway.

3) Experience operating in an international team. My manager is based in Germany and this role has been great in learning how best to maintain communication online, which given the increased prevalence of remote working, will support me in future roles whether the team is international or not.

Advice for students following in my footsteps:

1) When you first start, set up 121s to meet your immediate team and snowball out from there to the wider marketing org; it’s nice having lots of friendly faces at the office, especially if your team is not there.

2) Set up a Kanban board or alternative organisation system. I prefer Kanban as you can more easily track what you have accomplished, not just what remains. If you have several projects on at once, split your to-do box by project.

3) Set up folders for your emails e.g. university talent team, room bookings, onboarding etc., so that you can keep your inbox clear. Make a Kanban to-do if the email prompts a task that you cannot do there-and-then so you know to refer back.

4) When you first join, go to the office as much as you can and make a point of saying hi whenever you see someone you haven’t met before so that others become familiar with you as a new face in the office.

5) Have confidence in your ability to complete tasks to a high standard. Marketing placements at Adobe are incredibly competitive and you would not be in the role if you weren’t capable.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend a placement at Adobe within the Brand Experience team.