Challenge Accepted: Maalavika Manjunatha’s Winning Path to Adobe MAX
Maalavika Manjunatha’s Instagram got a glow up during the summer. She began posting more frequently, and the technical quality of her content improved.
What inspired the change? An invitation from Adobe to participate in the “Summer Social Superstars” challenge, a social media skills-building opportunity for Adobe Student Ambassadors.
Despite not being a social media influencer — or even that active on Instagram — Manjunatha decided to give the challenge a try. It was summer break, so she had free time. Also, since her mother was visiting from India, she had some good photos she was excited to share. “I thought, let me use this opportunity to post about the different activities we did together, like kayaking,” she said.
Manjunatha is currently earning her MS in Project Management; she also works on campus as an IT specialist. Prior to entering the program, she had built a career in procurement and supply chain. In many of her academic and professional activities, her analytical skills are first and foremost. But she has a creative side, too, and she was happy to have a chance to explore new artistic tools.
For the following five weeks, she shared these photos in creative ways using Adobe Express (Adobe’s platform for creating videos and graphics), learning as she went and teaching others what she’d learned through engaging video tutorials.
Leveling up her skills
As her posts became more professional, her friends celebrated her progress. “Absolutely loved how well you edited this!” one commented. “Each week your reels are getting better and better, Maal,” another added. Adobe’s community engagement specialists also noticed her, occasionally even reposting her stories to their own Instagram accounts.
For Manjunatha, their encouragement alone made doing the challenge worth it. But — and she didn’t find out until later — a reward greater than Instagram recognition awaited her and four other participants at the end: a trip to Miami to attend Adobe MAX, the company’s annual creativity conference, all expenses paid. “I had no idea,” she said. “I just wanted to give my best.”
Her dedication, not luck, helped her make the cut. Out of the five winners, she was the only one selected for having grown the most as a content creator (the others won by a lottery system).
Adobe to the MAX
In Miami, Manjunatha attended not just the conference, but exclusive pre-conference events, including a yacht party and focus group sessions.
At the yacht party, she met the other four winners and mingled with dozens of inspiring creatives from a variety of professional fields — all while getting the best view of Miami’s coastline.
At the focus group sessions, she explored and gave feedback on Adobe products that have not yet been released — an exciting opportunity for her as both an Adobe software evangelist and an aspiring product manager.
The conference itself — huge, encompassing nearly 100 sub-events — provided her with even more opportunities for learning and networking. In addition to immersing herself in Adobe tools and technologies through keynotes, sneak previews, and hands-on workshops, Manjunatha met key Adobe employees, including product managers and the VP of Product Marketing.
She also got cool gifts from companies like Gatorade, Epson, and SanDisk, which set up DIY stations. “The lines were long, but worth it for the custom swag,” she said.
The event ended with a huge party — the MAX Bash — Manjunatha’s last chance to hang out in person with new creative friends. “We had the time of our lives.”
A creative fire rekindled
More than just another tech conference, Adobe MAX 2024 was the culmination of a journey Manjunatha began in September 2023, when she first joined Adobe’s Creative Cloud Community as an Adobe Student Ambassador.
Before that, she had been actively involved with the Northeastern University Adobe Club, stepping into the role of club president in June 2024.
While these roles gave her insight into Adobe and its products, MAX gave her deeper insight into the company’s culture and values. It also helped her reconnect with a side of her personality that she had always wanted to nurture. “Ever since childhood, I never fit a mold and have always felt I belonged with those who were doing something creative,” she said.
Currently enrolled in the Master of Project Management program, she’s excited to apply her business background, project management expertise, and creativity to a career in product management, ideally at Adobe. “Ever since MAX happened, there’s this deep fire within me,” she said.
