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.
IDG will have some big shoes to fill without Apple at Macworld: will people still want to come?
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News)Macworld Expo will go on in 2010 without Apple's participation, but what will it look like? And will anybody show up?
We might get an idea Wednesday evening, when IDG World Expo plans to hold a town-hall style meeting open to Macworld attendees to solicit ideas for the future of the show. Apple stunned IDG in December with its decision to pull out of the show completely. It also pulled CEO Steve Jobs from his usual starring role and had Phil Schiller deliver what was widely considered one of Apple's most lackluster Macworld keynote speeches in years.
A handful of conference goers interviewed following Tuesday's final keynote address from Apple cautiously endorsed the idea of an Apple-less Macworld, but said a lot would depend on how the show itself is constructed.
Northern California resident Peter Speros, a cable technician in San Bruno, figured he would definitely stop by next year's show, since it's basically in his back yard. Speros has attended several Macworld Expos to get tips and information regarding his photography hobby, not so much for the Apple experience itself. Still, "it will be a shame not having Apple," he said.
Macworld has always been about more than Apple to a certain degree: it's a gathering place for the famously tight Mac community to swap stories, ideas, and have fun, said Sterett Prevost, leader of the Tucson, Arizona, Mac users group. "I go to Macworld Expo for the Mac community, rather than Apple," he said.
But if Apple isn't there to bankroll Macworld--the company is estimated to spend $25 million on the show and its booth is easily four times the size of any other--will there still be a place for the community to go? Lili Hampel, who came all the way to San Francisco from Melbourne, Australia, for Macworld 2009, isn't so sure.
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"It's different without Apple; it would be a big difference," she said. Her partner, Les Posen, gives technical presentations on Apple's Keynote software during Macworld, and their attendance at future events would depend at least in part on whether the instructional sessions that are a big part of Macworld would continue.
Still, "we come here to meet people," Hampel said.
That means if IDG can find a way to keep Macworld profitable without Apple's contributions, there might be a way to keep a small core group of Mac loyalists coming to San Francisco each January for Macworld. Macworld 2011 will probably have to be in something much smaller than the cavernous Moscone Center, which might bring the community closer together but would likely doom the show's chances of remaining a must-see destination on the technology media calendar.
Apple threw Macworld organizer IDG off balance with its decision to keep Steve Jobs out of pocket.
(Credit: Corrine Schulze/CNET)After Apple informed IDG that CEO Steve Jobs would skip next month's Macworld, the news left the conference sponsor in a state of shock.
The announcement "completely blindsided" IDG, according to a source familiar with the negotiations, coming just weeks before the event was scheduled to take place. IDG World Expo, a division of tech publishing giant IDG, had no reason not to expect Jobs would make his customary appearance at Macworld. Then came the word from Cupertino.
What is not clear is when Apple decided Jobs would skip the keynote. The source indicated that Apple had strung IDG along for weeks, implying that it was business-as-usual concerning Jobs' pending appearance up until the moment that it wasn't.
An Apple representative did not return a call seeking comment. IDG World Expo declined to comment on Apple's decision beyond a statement from Paul Kent, vice president and general manager for Macworld Conference and Expo:
While we are obviously disappointed by Apple's decision not to participate in Macworld 2010, we are on track for a terrific show this year, with strong attendance numbers and nearly 500 exhibitors showcasing their products at the January event. Macworld Conference & Expo has thrived for 25 years due to the strong support of tens of thousands of members of the Mac community worldwide who use Macworld as way to find great products, partake in professional development training, and cultivate their personal and professional networks. We are committed to continuing to serve their interests at Moscone Center, January 4 - 8, 2010.
Apple's decision to end its association with Macworld is not a complete surprise. Gizmodo speculated that Apple was planning such an exit for quite some time. Ultimately, a company's participation in any massive technology trade show boils down to a risk-reward calculation. The experience is often more exhausting than rewarding. And if you must also pay millions of dollars for that experience, it's clear why Apple would conclude that Macworld needs Apple more than Apple needs Macworld.
But for the time being, the part of the story that concerns Jobs remains shrouded in speculation.
When did Apple make its decision to ditch Macworld? And once it had made that decision, when did it decide to have Phil Schiller pinch-hit for Jobs? Did a BusinessWeek report force Apple's hand? And why did Apple decide against billing Macworld 2009 as Jobs' final appearance at the show, which might have provided a lift to what was already expected to be a somewhat underwhelming keynote address?
The official explanation is that Apple didn't think it would be worth its time to invest in putting on The Steve Jobs Show if it was going to be the last time the company appeared at Macworld. Apple just doesn't throw one of Jobs' keynotes together in a couple of weeks; this sort of extravaganza requires months of preparation as product teams work to create demos or finish up projects, and weeks of practice from Jobs himself to ensure every last detail goes as planned.
So if skipping Macworld had been the plan all along, it's likely that Jobs has been focusing his attention elsewhere during the past several weeks. That leaves the question of why Apple would string IDG along for such an extended period of time; the latest IDG World Expo has announced Jobs' keynote speech during the last four years has been December 3, and it has made that announcement as early as October.
Perhaps Apple didn't make the decision to have Jobs skip the keynote until very recently. It's an understandably tough decision: any Jobs absence at a major Apple event would immediately rev up the health rumor engine, but why spend all the time preparing Jobs and Apple for a keynote address that doesn't appear to hold anything exciting?
In any event, there's no love lost between Apple and IDG, two companies that have traded shots for years over the Macworld event. It's not surprising that their final breakup would be acrimonious.
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The yearly Macworld Expo is a place for Apple fans to get their hands on new products, hobnob with like-minded Mac fans--and to see chief executive Steve Jobs in the flesh.
The question is whether the largely local attendee base will still be compelled to attend after Apple's announcement Tuesday that Jobs won't deliver the next Macworld keynote speech and that this will be its final year of participating in the event at all. The Macworld Expo doesn't have a huge economic impact on the city of San Francisco. (It's attended mostly by local people, so the city's Conventions and Tourism Bureau can't track it by hotel rooms booked the way they do for other conferences.)
IDG, which puts on the expo every year, says that this year's registrations are expected to match last year's total if current trends continue. Last year's attendance ended up at around 47,000 people. A large part of that number is made up by last-minute registrations, and with two and a half weeks to go before the curtain raises on the event, there's still plenty of time for people to register. IDG has also already committed to putting on Macworld 2010 in San Francisco, even without Apple.
But without Apple's presence after this year, and without Jobs, there seems to be considerably less of a draw--even for the Mac faithful who normally attend.
Mike Leeds, a Mac technician at a Portland, Ore., college said he doesn't think the trip is worth making anymore.
"Living in Portland means I go for professional reasons (which means I get reimbursed for time and mileage). I don't see how I could justify it without Apple's presence," he said. "Apple certainly brings the critical mass for it to survive, but Adobe and the other software houses are needed to make it flourish. It's been ailing for a few years now, and Apple finally put it out of its misery."
On a MacRumors.com discussion board, "SFStateStudent" expressed what seemed to be a common feeling: "The thing I like about MWSF (Macworld San Francisco) is the opportunity to do 'the hands-on' thing with everything Mac and the other vendors' wares. I enjoy picking up new software, a new portable hard drive, a new laptrap or a new case for my iPhone. Oh well, I'll enjoy Apple's last MWSF '09... :("
Others are sticking to their plans to attend, but may reconsider the arduous line-waiting tradition. Wrote commenter Mike Cohen on MacworldBound.com, "I'm staying...about a block from Moscone (Center), so I'll be going straight there instead of to the Apple Store meetup. Unlike last year, I'm not getting up at 4 AM to stand in line."
What about you? Will this affect your travel plans to Macworld this year or next?
CNET News' Daniel Terdiman contributed to this report.
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