Macworld Expo Boston: The First & Last
Posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2004 at 23:15.
Nick Rhodes, a lovely lady friend, and I headed to the brand spankin’ new (and uncompleted) Boston Exhibition & Convention Center for Macworld Expo Boston 2004. Sure, Apple (and Alias and Macromedia and Adobe and…) would not be present, but surely there would be something worth seeing, right?
Having never been able to actually tour the whole show floor at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2003, I figured the three hours I allotted for this year’s show would not be sufficient. Alas, I finished the show floor in an hour and a half. Besides AIGA Boston‘s table and Peter Cohen (who is even kewler in real life), the show lacked chutzpah. SpyMac had the coolest booth, but SpyMac does not use Mac OS X internally for the Wheel Internet Service it pitched to Apple fanatics and the kid they had handing out CDs was a smart ass. The Xerox guys were asses too when Nick asked about Bluetooth options. I think the vendors were just upset at their decision to attend, not that this is a reason to be rude at the attendees. Everyone on the shuttle bus (which as a waste of time because it took forever to essentially go over a bridge) talked about how disappointed they were at the show this year.
If there is a Macworld Expo Boston next year, I probably won’t attend. Let this fiasco be a lesson to IDG and others who think they can outwit Steve Jobs and not get hurt.
I plan to cancel my .Mac subscription when it comes up for renewal. I won’t switch to anything. I have an iPod, so I don’t use online storage. I have too many e-mail accounts. I don’t need virus protection in Mac OS X. I use a free, open-source backup application. My web server has WebDAV enabled to share iCal files. I use a free, open-source, insanely powerful but easy to use WordPress for blogging. No one needs .Mac or SpyMac Wheel if they have even the crappiest of hosting companies. A standard web hosting account is more versatile than either of these services and most certainly cheaper.
Why do you blame IDG for this? I have it on good authority that high-ranking Apple executives were involved with the negotiations right up until the last minute, and gave IDG their support for the move. IDG went ahead and signed a deal with the Boston guys, and made the PR. Somewhere in there, someone told Steve Job about it – it made good business sense (vendors were already pulling out of NY expo because of the high costs associated with it), etc – and he just put his foot down and said “no”, because he “likes New York”.
When Apple issued their PR saying they weren’t going to attend, IDG were as flabbergasted as anyone.