Insights From the 2019 Electronic Document Conference

EDC at a Glance

The Electronic Document Conference (EDC), a two-day educational and networking conference featuring over 50 sessions focused on PDF-related electronic document technologies, took place June 17 – 18 at Adobe’s Seattle, Washington offices.

Hosted by the PDF Association and sponsored by several software, consulting, and technology firms including SEAL Systems, EDC was attended by corporate technical managers, product managers, company executives, and document/content experts.

The educational sessions and keynote presentations gave attendees a comprehensive view into the world of PDF – new enabling technologies; best practices for implementation, integration, and collaboration; and how to unleash the myriad capabilities of PDF to create, secure, and distribute business-critical information.

A Dinner Cruise on Lake Washington

Following the opening day sessions, most of the attendees enjoyed the three-hour dinner cruise on Lake Washington. On the menu were delicious hors d’oeuvres including shrimp and chicken skewers, sushi, and vegan eggrolls, plus an open bar and excellent service.

The casual setting, clear skies, and warm weather provided an ideal setting for networking and sightseeing topside. The captain was on the mike providing a running commentary of significant points of interest and celebrity homes, including the estates of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

SEAL Systems’ David Salamanek and Brad Bowen were privileged to spend the evening with the project leader from a key customer. Discussion topics included EDC’s sessions and PDF capabilities, SEAL product information, pending customer projects, and… a shared passion for street motorcycling.

Key Themes at EDC

EDC’s technology focus was on PDF, and the educational sessions and group discussions emphasized the capabilities and extensibility of PDF beyond that of merely an archival tool or document repository.

Presentations and solution demonstrations provided detailed information about customer use cases, best practices, and lessons learned. The excellent morning keynote address on June 18 was presented by Kenny Swope, Senior Manager & IPT Leader for Boeing, titled “Boeing’s Digital Transformation Journey.”

Key themes during the conference included:

• PDF as a key component for artificial intelligence systems, from accessibility to automation
• 3D PDF as an enabling technology to expedite processes and streamline operations
• Harnessing PDF’s capability to store, exchange, and leverage machine-readable data to drive corporate collaboration and business intelligence

Transform Your Supply Chain with 3D PDFs

SEAL Systems’ David Salamanek presented a session entitled “Transform Your Supply Chain with 3D PDF”. The session highlighted the need for sharing information across applications; demonstrated how using 3D PDFs to combine engineering drawings with business intelligence can help streamline procurement operations; best practices for delivering 3D PDF files to suppliers; and options for receiving and viewing 3D documents.

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Final Thoughts

Overall, I found EDC to be an excellent and informative event – well-organized, engaging, and packed with technical content, best practices, and use case examples. In short, the sessions and keynote addresses were highly relevant and applicable to EDC attendees.

From my perspective, the key takeaway was the fact that PDF has some highly useful capabilities not readily known to all: it’s a versatile, flexible, and highly usable solution for creating, managing, distributing, and yes – even archiving – corporate information… Indeed, PDF is not just your grandma’s file cabinet!