[CraigM]

I appreciate Dreyfus' points but i have to side with cv here. Big tradeshows, especially in the tech area, are losing their value. With the economy tanking, i'm expecting a lot of companies to cut back on tradeshows -- a step they've been wanting to take for some time.

[luckylindy]

Costs are up; time is precious; not enough bang for the buck. True. Yet there is still value in a community coming together. Hey, Paul Kent, how about something like this:
http://www.unisfair.com
Virtual trade shows. I looked into this for our company (a big 4 accounting firm). It is completely immersive and adaptable to everything the current Macworld Expo offers (from a learning track and vendor pov).
Trade shows need not remain in the Dinosaur Age. Think about it.

[Duncan8146]

Jason, you didn't acknowledge the important part, I realize there are no guarantees if you just submit an item. But if one of your people whom I have a bit of a relationship with communicates to send it to them on the Saturday before MacWorld, "so it does not get lost", I took that to mean I would see it. I know you folks have challenges you must deal with, and I have to respect that. But please know, my business is much like a store that does 75% of their business in December. If they have a bad Christmas they can go under. A posting in and around MacWorld can add a significant amount of income and keep small developers going. I would even be in favor of macworld.com creating a subsection of "News" we can count on getting into called "Boring Press Releases from Insignificant Developers Who Think they are God's Gift and Did Not Make the Main Page" My kind of section ; )

[montgomery_burns]

I would like to see Apple's internal memos and details of meetings leading up to this decision. Those would be a lot more believable than all the canned PR responses or after-the-fact rationalizations put forth by Apple sycophants who feel it is their duty to blindly defend and explain away everything Apple does.

[rfrmac]

Poor Timing
If I where a vendor of a small to medium size company showing my product at MacWorld in January, I would be asking for my money back. Apple, your timing and delivery was very poor. It reminded me of how Microsoft would handle it. Wait until there is just a few days before the show and make an announcement like this. You are insensitive. Have you forgotten what MacWorld means to the people that have supported you all these years. And don't give me the money thing, you have plenty. Maybe you have to much now. You have forgotten the Mac evangelist that get charged up at this show that are the ones that really sell your product. None of this happens at the Apple Store. It is not all about exposer. It's about a sense of belonging. In case you have forgotten, these are the people that have been carrying your flag all these years. Your special events just don't do it. They are for the Press and not for the users like MacWorld is. If you've got nothing to show this year, just say so. To me this kind of action means the death of the Apple Computer Company that I loved. We have a new type of company that doesn't need the old type of loyal customer any more. What should have happened Apple is that the keynote should have gone on a usual. Steve Jobs does his thing and at the end he announces that this was the last MacWorld for Apple and explains why and walks off the stage. The way you have handled this Apple has really struck a nerve with me. The lack of class is astounding. I can't explain it but I feel just a little bit different about the box I am typing this reply on.

rfrmac

[neutrino23]

I totally agree that from a business sense Apple no longer needs MWSF. Nuff said on that.
From an emotional side it will be greatly missed.
MWSF does need to reinvent itself. There is not much value in simply hosting a hall full of exhibitors. The same information can be gathered easily via the internet.
What is really valuable about something like MWSF are the user conferences and the networking. Until a few years ago the Apple booth used to be a great place to meet and speak with some of the developers of the hardware and software. The same can be said for many other companies' booths.
The user conferences should be expanded. They could add higher level courses. Teach some of the style of using Keynote, Pages and Numbers, not just an introduction to making it work. The hands on photography sessions give photographers a chance to work with professionals and to have their work critiqued by professional. These sessions are always sold out.
When Edward Tufte comes to San Francisco he pulls quite a crowd (~500?) paid attendees for a one day session about the style of printed communication. MWSF could have sessions like this for Aperture, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, book creation, public speaking, creative writing and on and on.
Perhaps they could partner up with universities and community colleges who could offer one day courses. This would give you some solid training and it would show you what could be gained from signing up for a full semester. Maybe University of Phoenix could offer some half day or one day courses in how to use the Mac effectively. This could help them sell longer courses. Maybe even Dr. Tufte could be induced to have his course coincide with MWSF even if he didn't associate himself with it.
MWSF is a little different from other industries I've been involved with. In most cases it is the user group itself that runs a program of papers and courses along with an exhibition. In this case we have the commercial exhibition organizing the courses and there are no papers being presented. IDG should consult with a number of professional societies to get ideas for running successful educational programs.

[hilltoons]

With regard to the "disclosure" at the beginning of this column, if you work for IDG, you're kidding yourself if you think that their overall revenues, (and financial health), are not related in any way to MacWorld Expo or other ventures owned by IDG. To say that the parent company set up different budgets and managers is splitting hairs. Your company's well-being is not independent of IDG's other ventures.
If you have followed the demise of many print media giants in recent years or even recent days, (Tribune Media for one, having to declare bankruptcy because some of their other holdings have not done well...Time/Warner, AOL, Scripps Howard, etc.), you know that trouble in one area can bring the whole ship down.
Not to say that this news dooms the Expo or anything at IDG. But as much you might like to, any journalist employed by IDG is not able to comment on this as someone completely independent of the situation.

[cseeman]

Fast forward a few weeks later during the Super Bowl telecast. It's the commercial break just before halftime.
Steve Jobs walks on to the white void set as gaunt as grizzled as he's ever been.
He starts with "About Mac . . ."
phone rings.
About Mac . . ."
phone rings
He pulls it out of his pocket
It looks like the iPhone but it's noticeably smaller.
He answers. Say Hello.
The voice on the Phone Nano is Paul McCartney
Paul: "Hi Steve"
Steve: "I was about to say when you interrupted . . ."
Paul: "How you feeling"
Steve: "You really have to bring that up now . . . uh old"
From Paul's end of the phone you hear Ringo counting in and they start singing "When I'm 64"
It goes on for a few seconds.
Steve: "Please Paul, Ringo, I was about to talk about . . ."
Paul: "You could just download the song when you're done with the commercial."
Steve brings up iTunes on the store and goes to a Beatles section and starts downloading.
Steve to camera: "Some keynote"
Steve winks and walks off.

No one even watches the half time show.
ITunes server takes a big hit with everyone trying to download Beatles songs, the TV Spot, Paul and Ringo mini live version of "When I'm 64"
AT&T and Apple store are swamped iPhone Mini orders.
The commercial coming out of the half time show has a short Apple spot.
It's Justin Long an John Hodgman, John start crying, Justin hugs him.
John: I love the Beatles
Justin: There there. You have iTunes too.
You can see the iPhone Nano in Justin's hand in the arm wrapped around Hodgman.
Nobody remembers the 2nd half of the Super Bowel. The news of the iPhone Nano and Beatles on iTunes dwarfs news of the game. Note Steve never even mentions the name of either product. It's there for the viewer to figure out. Beatles are mentioned in the 2nd mini ad though. No one saw this coming. Steve Jobs delivered more info to more people around the world in 60 seconds than the keynote would ever reach. He pokes a little fun with an allusion to an unfinished comment on Macworld and the keynote he didn't give. He even pokes fun at his own health. It's really not THAT great an ad but the impact raises it above Apple's other Super Bowl "one shot" add "1984." The news buzz lasts for days and Apple sales are the biggest shinning star during the horrible post Holiday shopping period. Other stocks continue to dive while Apple's climbs.
What a fitting and brilliant Touché

[neutrino23]

I've been wondering how long MW would last. Part of it is that the world has changed. The exhibit hall used to be filled with fairly expensive products. $5,000 laser printers, $5,000 CRTs, multi thousand dollar graphics cards, multithousand dollar graphics packages. Those high prices paid for the booths and people to staff them. At the same time there were enough gaps in the products that a second tier of vendors could survive supporting them. I remember a guy who had a plug in of sorts that would add dead leaves blowing in the wind across your video. Another guy did fog. Another group had a gadget that plugged into the ADB port and would let you turn things on and off with Applescripts.
Now most of those things are so cheap they can't support a booth. Scanners are $100. Laser printers are sub $500. Monitors cost a few hundred dollars. Graphics cards are built in. Terabyte hard drives are under $200. Gigabytes of RAM are well under $100. Multigigabyte flash memory is around $10. Browsers are now built-in. Many of you don't remember when Netscape sold the browser for a profit.
We are the victims of our own success. The products are so good and prices are so low there is no money left to support the conference. As it is a lot of the booths are filled with people selling computer bags and iPhone cases. No knock on them but they are not new high-tech industries.
IDG needs to reinvent MWSF along the lines of the WWDC. Those attendees pay to attend because there is strong educational benefit to help them with their careers. There is room for a similar conference based on using the Mac. The current conference program is nice but it is a little light weight and unfocused for me to try to get my company to pay for it as career training.
I don't need another session about the inspector panel in Keynote. How about a session where each attendee makes a three minute presentation and gets critiqued on style and given suggestions for improvements? Whenever David Pogue gives a session about making an iMovie he draws a huge crowd. How about expanding that to a half day session (whether it is David or another instructor). How about having some marketing people come in and talk about how they communicate with customers in print, video and on the web. Bunches of similar sessions could be conducted for educators (not my area).
I think if it was done really well that Apple would want to participate. After all, if that is the place that leading edge applications are being discussed then that is where Apple's product managers have to be.
Anyway, my two cents.

[NickMtl]

One of my past starup companies exposed twice at a big trade show and even won best of Show for one of them.

The only advantage of a trade show for me is to meet business associates (distributers, etc.) and the press. However, now that selling online is more lucrative and with bloggers doing the job of the press, there's less of a need for trade shows.



Nick

[farlander]

My personal opinion: Apple got cocky. It's been fairly cocky for awhile now, actually, but it looks like they've reached the point where they no longer care about anybody.
I've tried to work with Apple as a business awhile ago, and was met with INCREDIBLE arrogance. I've cancelled all my plans on using Apple servers in our company because of that arrogance. I've cancelled all plans on switching our users to Macs. We currently are 99.999% Dell company, and we could have been a 99.999% Apple company.
On the other hand, the quality of Apple products has been diminishing year after year. Leopard is the buggiest version of Mac OS X ever. Every single hardware product they release requires recalls and numerous fixes, because NOT A SINGLE PRODUCT works the way it is expected to work out of the box.
Quite honestly, I'm myself considering switching to something different. Perhaps I'll switch back to where I came from to the Macs: Unix (OpenSolaris is a pretty nice system nowadays, for example). Or, as funny as it might be, even Vista.

[plazamac]

"Apple has taken a 25-year-old event that has been the single best meeting place for the entire community of users and vendors of Apple-related products..."
Excuse me? I've been a Mac user since day one in 1984 and I have never been to a Mac Expo. Like all "product" conferences, it's about the press, the die-hard geeks, and the elite. Those of us who actually use a Mac and make a living doing so don't need a trip to "Mecca" to legitimize what we do. I don't need to schmooze for a few days with people I'll probably never see again to blather over new hardware and updates and feature sets.
Let the conference go. It's a smart move on Apple's part. The everyday users (you know, we MILLIONS who buy their products but don't go to the Expo) couldn't give a rip about this show. Just keep giving us a quality product, and we won't go anywhere.
And don't get me started on those Mac luxury cruises. ;)

[dshan]

Funny how many are assuming that it must be ill health that's prompted Steve to drop out of MacWorld Expo, and that Apple are taking the opportunity to get out of it too. It might be, but it could also be that rumors from several weeks ago about Jobs taking a job with the Obama administration are correct (I don't think Obama has announced a new NASA administrator yet), or maybe the shrinking three in Detroit (one of them anyway) are about to get a real big CEO shake up!

[jldinsdale]

Jason, good article. Congratulations on the rosy outlook for the possible future of the Expo. I for one hope the show keeps going, as indicated in the posts for another article i get personal gratification out of attending the expo when I can, and I know of a lot of vendors, exhibitors, and conference speakers that rely on the Expo to share their vision to the world.

What it comes down to though is that without Apple (and Adobe this year BTW), I expect that no one will really care enough to make the pilgrimage to the huge underground halls south of the Oakland bridge. In my personal experience, THE highlight of the Expo has always been the Jobs keynote, regardless of how lame his announcements may have been. The Apple booth is okay, but it's not really the crowd pleaser: regardless of its size, it pales in comparison with the sheer volume to the hundreds of other booths in the Center, each driven by individuals or groups of people that work MUCH harder and MUCH leaner than Apple does to make their living.

As interesting and varied the vendor booths are, however, they in their entirety do not hold up a candle to the Jobs keynote. The Jobs keynote is, quite frankly, the key.

There's nothing like sitting in an auditorium with what seems like THOUSANDS of people watching the man work his magic on stage, to a mostly stunned, quiet audience.

There's nothing like the feeling you get as an audience member in a Jobs keynote. You're experiencing history. Remember when Jobs took the stage as CEO after Amelio left the company? Remember the feelings when Bill Gates appeared on the video screen? Or when Bungie presented Halo as a Mac-first game? The switch to Intel? The iPhone announcement?

Despite the draw the vendors, presenters, and keynote speakers Macworld has lined up every year, there is no denying that the biggest draw to the show is not the exhibitors, not Apple, but Jobs himself. With Jobs out of the picture this year, astute readers will notice that what happens to MWSF in the next 18 months will read EXACTLY the same as what happens to Apple after Jobs withdraws from the company. Massive re-organisation, a tremendous, yet futile attempt to market a re-invented event (or computer company), and, eventually, disintegration.

I'm sorry to be the harbinger of doom here. I respect IDG, Macworld, Apple, all their employees, and everything each of those separate corporate entities represent. I honestly do hope for the best in these uncertain times.