[MW Forums]

IDG World Expo on Friday said they have cancelled Macworld Expo Boston and will instead focus their efforts on a single conference and expo in San Francisco. The event, which has been a mainstay of East Coast conferences for almost 20 years, has been axed just two years after returning to Boston from New York City. more

[OM_user]

No surprise here. We all saw this coming. The only surprise is that if memory serves me, IDG swore they would continue the East coast show. Ya, well we see how that turned out. I'm pissed at IDG for moving it from NYC. They effectively killed the East coast MacWorld show. So many people saw this coming, except for the people who get paid the big bucks to figure this kind of stuff out!
I suppose Apple contributed in some way to it's demise as well, but I have to wonder if Apple would have continued to at least have a presence there if they had kept in NY. Maybe not, but we'll never really know for sure.

[sosumi]

Boo. I rather enjoyed just having to get on the subway to get to the Expo. 'Tis a sad day for East-coast enthusiasts who can't justify a trip across country to attend.

[liminal]

the pictures posted from the last boston expo told the tale -- the event looked pretty weak all around. given that the mac market is still a small niche and that paradigmatic moments are still entirely dependent on Apple, it didn't really make sense to have two Expo's with no apple participation at one of them.
The decision to go ahead with the Boston show without Apple always felt to me like a poker player who has had his bluff called, but plays on bravely hoping for a miracle.

[jedi228]

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I'm pissed at IDG for moving it from NYC. They effectively killed the East coast MacWorld show.

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Some people blame NYC for killing off MacWorld. Some people blame Boston for killing off MacWorld. Some people blame former Expo President Greco. Some people blame Steven Jobs for not attending East Coast.
These are all erroneous blames!
All technology shows have diminished greatly in recent years. (Even CES is not what it once was) Many shows have disappeared, others have shrunk. The dotcoms that provided most of the funding for shows--most of them no longer exist.
Shows are an expensive undertaking that promote some good for a few days. This kind of spending is just not possible in a post-dot-com-hype world.
Don't blame IDG!

[SPOOF]

Quite plainly...this sucks.
While I always wanted to make it out to the MW SF show, which I may finally do this coming year thanks to a nearby wedding I'll be going to...
MW Boston was much closer, and I went to both it and the NY show, and have enjoyed them both. The move from Boston in the first place was not easy...it took a while for it to come back up in attendance and relevance. Unfortunately, without Apple, this was unlikely to gain relevance back when moving to Boston again. I will be very sad at not being able to go to a MacWorld event each year from now on. All I have to say is that Apple and/or IDG had better put up for the live keynote coverage online now that they've been trying to get away from in past events. It is not too important not to.

[hautster]

My first instincts on the demise of the expo was the move from NYC to Boston on one point: accessibility.
From NYC, you had within a four-hour range Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC, not to mention densly populated areas of CT, RI, NJ and southeast PA, making it a perfect place to make a day trip out of it. From Boston, your day trip possibilities only came from NYC and New England, cutting by more than two-thirds the people able to come for a day. I know more than two dozen people from rural PA who went several times to NYC, but never to Boston because of the distance. For many, getting a hotel room was an expense they just couldn't swallow.
just my 2

[fribhey]

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All technology shows have diminished greatly in recent years. (Even CES is not what it once was) Many shows have disappeared, others have shrunk. The dotcoms that provided most of the funding for shows--most of them no longer exist.

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yeah that's true BUT you are completely throwing out the window the fact that apple users are FANATICS who support anything apple. with the market flooded with 'technology' shows and the economy down the tubes people stopped going BUT if the expo stayed in NYC they would have kept on drawing large crowds.

[moose_n_squirrel]

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Shows are an expensive undertaking that promote some good for a few days. This kind of spending is just not possible in a post-dot-com-hype world.

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I bet it has less to do with post-dot-com budgets and more to do with the fact that if you want to find out about cool new products, you can either spend thousands on hotel, airfare, and show admission only to engage in a futile attempt to extract useful information from a clueless marketroid at a booth who only knows the PR-opaganda spin, or now that we have the Web you can now stay home and get actual useful new product information from web sites and forums. Let's see, which is better......hmmm...

[cseeman]

Right you are hautster!
NYC metro is about 20 MILLION people. Including nearby smaller major cities it's even larger than that.
Even NAB is exploring NYC with NAB Post show this November.
By having a show in NYC, thousands of small businesses that either use or are interested in the Mac were able to attend without shutting down shop for a long travel. My understanding is that Apple pulled out because the show was moved from NYC to Boston. I do hope Apple pushes for a NYC show, if not with IDG, then with another expo company.

[cseeman]

Disagree STRONGLY moosensquirrel
On the web all I get is marketing material. Maybe I get a free demo to download and no easy way to figure out if the software does what I need without time to learn it. I have no one to ask questions to while using it.
At Macworld NYC I was able to see a demo by someone who KNOWS the software. I was then able to try some hands on and ask questions.
For example, there has been no other way for me to decide between Phlink and Phone Valet as an answering system for my small business. There's no way I can learn what I needed to know on the web.
While NYC has 1 Apple Store with 2 more on the way, the sales people there know Apple but DO NOT KNOW 3rd part software.
The show was the best way to talk directly with the developers, listen to others talk to developers, asking questions I wouldn't have thought of, etc. The NYC show resulted in my spending of thousands of dollars getting software/hardware for my business. Since the show left NYC it takes me much longer to make purchase decisions and that slows income for the 3rd party developers.

[moose_n_squirrel]

I guess you are right about the smaller companies. They are more likely to have actual knowledgeable people in their booths. Talking to booth personnel of larger companies can often a waste of time, though.

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I have no one to ask questions to while using it.

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Yes you do. That is why I mentioned forums. It can be easier to get the real scoop from other experienced users on a product forum than from company personnel.

[cseeman]

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Yes you do. That is why I mentioned forums.

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Words on the screen can never match hands on example showing me the answer.
The closest I've seen on the web to interactive web answers has been from SmartSound (SonicfirePro). They have a LIVE streamed demo at specific times in which, once completed, you can ask questions and you HEAR and SEE the answers.

[Peter Cohen]

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All I have to say is that Apple and/or IDG had better put up for the live keynote coverage online now that they've been trying to get away from in past events.

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IDG isn't involved in that.