SEA Connect Creative Confe-rence 2017 welcomed about 600 participants from the creative community to the Connexion Conference & Event Centre at Bangsar South City, Kuala Lumpur.

The conference was conceived by Acestar Sdn Bhd founder and chief executive officer Natalie Sit who aims to make Malaysia a creative industry hub and bring back talent to the country.

The guest-of-honour was Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan while Bert Monroy, a digital painter recognised for his creative skills in producing photo-realistic pictures using Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, was the key speaker.

The top 10 winners of the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Championship Malaysia 2017 were also announced during the conference.

Key speaker Monroy giving his presentation during the conference.

The ACA is a global competition to identify the next generation of design professionals using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.

It was organised by Acestar, the only Platinum Partner of Adobe Systems in Malaysia.

Last year, more than 230,000 total entries were received and 33 students were selected to compete in Orlando, Florida for the ACA World Championship title.

Acestar-sponsored Nicholas Ng Hwa Ee was awarded the second prize title in the prestigious World Championship.

Hewlett-Packard Malaysia managing director Kym Lim providing some valuable tips to the audience.

This year, 50 schools enrolled for the ACA Championship Malaysia 2017 with a total of 600 participants.

Low Yi Ling from UCSI University topped the competition and will be going to Anaheim, California, US to participate in the ACA World Championship 2017, sponsored by Acestar and worth RM18,000.

The first runner-up went to Farid Rahman Hadi from the International Islamic University Malaysia who walked away with a HP Z Workstation, worth RM6,299 while the second runner-up was Muhammad Noor Haikhmal M Satar from Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan who won a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 worth RM4,028.