Filed under: Macworld, Odds and ends, TUAW Interview
Paul Kent gives TUAW the latest news about Macworld 2010
So, when I saw that registration for Macworld 2010 had opened, I immediately jumped on the website and signed up. To me, it's a no-brainer to attend the original and only US conference that is all about Apple. Macworld Expo has been around for 25 years, and all indications are that it will continue for as long as the Macintosh and other Apple platforms exist. Yesterday, I talked with Paul Kent, General Manager, Macworld 2010 and Vice President of IDG World Expo, about Macworld 2010 and how preparations are coming along for the show.
To start with, I asked Kent about the attendance figures so far, and he mentioned that the numbers are very encouraging. To date, over 28,000 pre-registrations have been received for the Expo, which is about two-thirds of the average attendance figures with three more months of registration left to go. That's also already at the level of attendees at Macworld Expo 2009, which saw lower-than-average attendance due to the state of the economy.
The show was moved to February 9 - 13, 2010 from the traditional January date, based on availability of space at the Moscone Center venue and requests from both exhibitors and attendees. Kent said that for many exhibitors, the early January date was difficult as employees needed to work through the Christmas and New Year's holidays in order to prepare for the show. Surveys done of exhibitors and attendees showed that many supported moving the Expo dates to a new timeframe, and IDG World Expo was able to comply.
As of early November, Kent said that there were also about 125 exhibitors signed up, and 480 press pass requests had been processed. But there's more to Macworld 2010 than just a lot of products -- there are free training opportunities on the floor, paid educational "tracks," and talks by a variety of Apple cognoscenti. David Pogue (personal technology writer for the New York Times and well-known Mac author), This Week In Tech's Leo Laporte, and writer/director Kevin Smith are all lined up to provide Expo-goers with their unique viewpoints.
Since Macworld has always had a presence in Apple's home port, the Bay Area, many attendees are from the region. Kent mentioned that by adding a Saturday to the Expo, they hope to attract a new audience of visitors who have not been able to take time off from work in the past. The new schedule, coupled with the additional special guests and events that will be added during the remaining three months before the show, should boost the attendance to all-time highs.
The conference tracks are always popular, and there will be six of them planned for 2010: MacIT, Market Symposiums (discussing deployment of Mac technology in key markets), Users, Power Tools (in-depth 2-day training in popular applications), MacLabs, andCreative Safari.
Kent was excited to pass along the information that the Berklee College of Music will once again present the Macworld Music Studio. This is an on-floor venue where you professional musicians and music educators instruct, demonstrate, and perform music.
As usual, as the clock ticks down to the start of Macworld 2010, you can read all of the latest coverage here at The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Donevan said 8:34AM on 11-11-2009
"all indications are that it will continue for as long as the Macintosh and other Apple platforms exist"
Nice thought but unlikely. I doubt this event has the legs without Apple. While your observations as to Apple's exhibit are unquestionably accurate, the event revolved around the keynote and first sight of new products and the impression it was the annual stage for new Apple products. Take away those elements and you have just another computer show, albeit specialising in Mac products. By 2011 it will be a general computer show if still alive and by 2012 it will be nothing but a memory. Longtimers will remember the original annual London venue back in the 1980s that died a slow death after Apple's withdrawal, then Paris, same fate.
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kmcgrady90 said 9:41AM on 11-11-2009
If the number of attendees are the same (which sounds pretty likely) then there is no reason for them to stop running the event. Only a limited number of people even got the opportunity to see the Apple keynote so that wasn't even the main reason to go. Provided it remains a quality event and the attendance is good (which from the article sounds true) then there is no reason for it to be stopped. And why would MACworld ever become a 'general computer show'.
Greenie said 10:21AM on 11-11-2009
The real test will be whether it can remain "MAC"world.
Last year was good, but there was booth after booth of iPod and iPhone cases. Each year there seems to be more.
I hope that IDG can stay away from greed and not accept hundreds of exhibitors that just show iPod cases. Have an iPod section, fill it up, but sell no more than that.
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edddeduck said 11:01AM on 11-11-2009
I wish I could say different but without Apple as the big draw I can see attendances and the number of exhibitors dropping. The other Apple shows New York, Tokyo and Paris all died after a few years once Apple decided to no longer attend with a big presence.
I wish it the best of luck as it was a great show and enjoyable but based on all the other Apple expos round the world when Apple leaves the show starts to die. As this the biggest show it has a better chance of survival but time will tell.
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Frank said 1:13PM on 11-11-2009
Actually, Moonman and Shawn, I believe you are confusing MS Project (a program for project management, where managers use things like Gantt and PERT charts to manage progress of things like the development of a software program by a team of coders) with something else.
Shawn, what you see in MS Office for Mac 2008 called "Microsoft Project Gallery.app", if you fire it up, is that it lets you manage "projects" of work, as in collections of files composed of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Nothing more. It does absolutely NOTHING in relation to project management as it's known in the industry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management
True, the word "project" is pretty generic, and so is "management". So that sure doesn't help. But "project management" as it's generally understood isn't about Susie or Joey keeping all their files together for that history report in high school. It's about someone typically in management in the business world keeping track of resources from people's time to raw materials, and making sure to make maximum use of time by scheduling tasks that do not depend on each other to run concurrently, while those where step #3 can't be done before step #2 are also defined so they know to focus on getting that #2 done so they can move on to #3 (e.g., can't put walls up on house 'til foundation is done, etc.).
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Frank said 1:14PM on 11-11-2009
To moderators. Please delete first comment.
Crap. That's what I get for using 1Password to fill in my credentials. Didn't realize it sucked in a whole post from eons ago. My bad.
Frank said 1:29PM on 11-11-2009
What I meant to write was that I hope MacWorld Expo is able to cultivate that unique culture and comeraderie that make up the Mac ecosystem. If they could pull that off, then it may continue to exist. They just need to build a branding that says, "This is where the Mac community, both users and developers, come together to share."
True, Apple pulling out was a shame for the Expo, but it wasn't entirely without merit. To be honest, I never understood Apple making key product announcements in mid-January. The Christmas holiday season is over, everyone is back to work, and basically most people are spending the next month or two paying off all the bills for the things they bought over that holiday period. It's the absolute worst time to bring a consumer product to market.
The logical time to make product announcements are in the Sep.-Nov. timeframe, early enough to generate buzz/interest/sales when everyone's already in a shopping frenzy.
Anyway, while everyone associated MacWorld Expo with Apple making a keynote that showed off new products, I suspect for most event attendees, the real draw was that sense of "Hey, we're all in this together." I would hope Linux users feel the same at one of their conferences like Linux Expo, Windows users at one of their conferences, etc. It's what makes a good conference.
The problem, like in most areas, is that once people see that there's money to be made, you get a truckload of crappy knockoffs. This applies to iPhone apps, software, hardware, and expos, among other things. Too much dilution screws everyone.
With the Mac community, it's disappointing that the Paris and Tokyo expos have suffered, as Mac users don't just exist here in the U.S. But here's hoping that MacWorld Expo in S.F. is able to buck that trend, not because it's in the U.S., but just so Mac users have at least one, stable expo they can attend that everyone knows is "the place to be."
I think Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) will always be that for the developer-specific community, but it would be nice for the user AND developer communities together to have a place to meet each other, to share experiences, ideas, etc., and in general to maintain that "community" that drives any industry that thrives.
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SteveMinne said 3:25PM on 11-11-2009
When I heard Apple had quite MacWorld I had the same reaction as Steve Sandee, "So what."
I had barely visited the Apple booth as the years had gone by. No point as I'd already known all the Mac models.
The real business of MacWorld is meeting with third-party vendors. As long as they keep coming then so will I.
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