Filed under: Macworld, Cult of Mac, Developer
Macworld 2010 moves to February
IDG World Expo has just announced the dates for Macworld Expo 2010, shifting the conference's historical January jaunt to February. The Macworld 2010 Conference and Expo will take place in San Francisco from February 9 - 13.
When I spoke to Paul Kent, the General Manager for Macworld Expo, earlier this afternoon, he stressed that IDG is answering a call from exhibitors and attendees to move the event to a less stressful time of year. Developers won't have to rush through the holidays to finish up software demos that might not be ready for a few months anyway, and exhibitors won't need to balance the holidays and booth-planning all at once.
The date change isn't the only new development: the Expo will run from Thursday February 11 - Saturday February 13 (the conference will run from the 9th - 13th). This means that attendees who are full-time professionals won't have to take off as much time from work. Can't make it on Thursday? Come on Saturday. Paul told me the real goal for Macworld 2010 is to make Macworld about the community.
After Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be its last expo, the Mac community (and tech community at large) started speculating about the future of the event. Emerging from all this speculation is an interesting opportunity for Macworld to reinvent itself.
IDG announced during Macworld 2009 that Expo-only registration would be free. Already, more than 10,000 people have registered for the 2010 show.
Losing the largest show exhibitor does mean that the Expo floor will be scaled down. The Conference will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center West, while the Expo will be in the North Hall (rather than the North and South as in years past). I think scaling the Expo down is a good idea. It's easier to interact with fellow show-goers in one space. In this economy, scaling down just makes sense.
Paul emphasized that there will be a real focus on independent software developers. I think this is a good thing and that Macworld has a real opportunity to define itself as not only a Mac community Woodstock, but also as a place for developers to talk, discuss, learn and show-off their wares. With iPhone development as hot as it is, a stronger focus on that audience has real potential.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin said 1:27PM on 3-30-2009
So MacWorld, without Apple, in February.... Either we're going to see something new and better, or MacWorld has started a death spiral.
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Justin said 1:27PM on 3-30-2009
I guess I also could have been an idiot and said FIRST!! but I'm not sure why I would have done that.
mark said 1:31PM on 3-30-2009
You wrote:
"exhibitors won't need to balance the holiday's..."
But I'm sure you meant:
"exhibitors won't need to balance the holidays..."
Apostrophes are never, ever needed for plurals. This is a trend on the internet that needs to be nipped. :-)
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Christina Warren said 1:42PM on 3-30-2009
Right you are, and I know better. Being in a hurry is never an excuse for incorrect grammar.
Changed.
Thanks!
Jon said 1:40PM on 3-30-2009
Except when you're talking about something belonging to a group of people such as:
His friends' luggage went missing at the airport.
James said 6:39AM on 3-31-2009
Well, if we're getting picky here, internet should be capitalized. After all, it's a proper noun.
Jon said 1:42PM on 3-30-2009
Is this to avoid Macworld clashing with CES in January?
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Christina Warren said 1:43PM on 3-30-2009
That's definitely part of it too. It's hard for two shows to go at once and compete for airtime, so to speak, and it's hard for companies that might have a presence at both shows.
Jon Niola said 3:03PM on 3-30-2009
I was thinking the same exact thing but you beat me to it by over an hour - for some reason I did not notice this post.
But yeah, it is probably not a good idea to go toe-to-toe with CES especially sans keynote from Jobs et al.
Andre said 2:33PM on 3-30-2009
I hear that's when they're announcing iPhone Software 3.2, and they promise to include push notification.
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Taylor said 10:45PM on 4-14-2009
If you didn't read the post, Apple aren't actually going to be present there, so no announcements by Apple at Macworld '10.
(Also, on a side note, you can't say Macworld ten, just doesn't sound the same as when you say "oh nine" or "oh seven"...)
Jon Niola said 3:00PM on 3-30-2009
I wonder if part of is is to avoid overlap between CES and Macworld Expo.
You have to figure that without Apple as an official participant they might have even less of a draw than normal and going up against CES without the hallowed Macworld keynote from Apple would probably be a bad idea.
I think these changes are pretty nice - will make the flight cheaper since weekend stay is involved too!
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Ben said 3:55PM on 3-30-2009
OMG! Will we finally see a 64 gig iPod touch here? Or OS X 10.7?
(Kidding, of course.)
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