Macworld of the future: Music, pros, schwag
Macworld attendees listen to IDG's Paul Kent (standing, left) discuss the future of Macworld.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News)A middle-aged man in a faded NeXT T-shirt raised his hand for the microphone. If IDG wanted to save Macworld, he said, it should hold a "schwag-fest," where Macolytes could bond over swapping tchotchke from Macworlds past.
The Mac community had its say Wednesday night, at least for one evening. Whether IDG, the organizer of Macworld, takes up the suggestion is another question.
IDG World Expo vice president and general manager Paul Kent hosted the discussion, which saw several hundred people pack into a room at San Francisco's Moscone Center to discuss the future of the event.
IDG has a few of its own ideas for next year's show. Kent revealed that next year's Exhibit Hall at Macworld will be free for those attending this year's show; a similar pass cost $25 this year. The New York Times' David Pogue has committed to give "The Anti-Keynote," which presumably will be one of Pogue's trademark song-and-dance satirical routines. And 60 companies have pledged their support, including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Intuit.
But there is no plan right now beyond 2010. Kent confirmed our story that Apple's decision caught IDG totally by surprise, speaking often of the "new business reality" that has been thrust upon the company in a very short period of time.
It sounded like Kent would like Macworld to get younger, capitalizing on the popularity of the Mac with the under-30 set, who were sorely underrepresented during Wednesday's meeting. He suggested future Macworld shows as music or art festivals, showcases for digitally created art.
That suggestion was met with a lukewarm reception by meeting attendees who seemed to want IDG to focus on preserving the existing community. A handful of suggestions included:
• Smaller, more focused meetings held more frequently in multiple locations. New York, Boston, and Texas were mentioned: Kent said IDG was committed to San Francisco for the 2010 show but had no commitments beyond that.
• A return to Macworld as a conference for professional users of Mac technology, such as educators and design professionals. That category used to be the most significant portion of Apple's customer base but has been neglected over the past few years, as the Mac drew more and more consumer attention.
• Developing a way to let exhibitors know that their products were purchased online by someone who saw them at Macworld, giving them a reason to keep coming back.
Despite having to scramble in the aftermath of Apple's decision to leave Macworld, IDG and the Mac community have plenty to time to consider what lies in store for 2011 and beyond.
And although Apple seems to think it can reach the majority of its customers through its growing network of Apple retail stores, several attendees expressed a desire for the type of interaction that they can't get at those stores: deep, meaningful conversations with fellow technology enthusiasts who share similar passions and knowledge of the Mac. That bodes well for the conference because it would seem that those people are willing to travel and pay some sort of fee for the experience.
One interesting thing: not a single attendee or IDG employee at the town hall meeting mentioned the iPhone, even though several attendees checked their e-mail throughout the hour-long discussion on iPhones. Macworld offered a session on the iPhone during this week's conference, but if that segment of Apple's business continues to grow there's an awful lot of territory there to explore that has only been done at local levels, such as the iPhone Dev Camp.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Good riddance.
No, seriously - unless it has something useful in it (like workshops that aren't thinly disguised advertisements), what's the point?
Now if you already live in Silly Valley, hey, go for it. The rest of us can't quite justify the time and expense (at least and do so honestly). Then again, the same goes for most other trade shows (like CES nowadays...)
SCHWAG = Low quality Marijuana.
Interesting choice of headlines !
- by MacLawyer January 14, 2009 9:16 PM PST
- The reality is that Apple cannot communicate with its business customer base at the retail stores. I'm a partner in a law firm that switched over to Macs 4-1/2 years ago. We initially made a large purchase of machines, and then again last year bought new machines to replace the older ones. The "business" sales staff at our local Walnut Creek store was a joke. Some 19-year old kid without a clue as to how to deal with business people with respect to our hardware or software requests. While I love going to the Apple store for myself personally, I cringe every time I have to deal with the store on a business level. MacWorld has always offered me the opportunity to deal with intelligent, knowledgeable and professional people ? manufacturers, developers, etc. -- that I have no other way of connecting with outside of the show. It would be a tragedy for MacWorld to die off and leave us business customers even more frustrated than we currently are.
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