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Macworld After “The Last Macworld”
By Dave Peterson | January 10, 2009
A final turn around the Macworld Expo floor on Friday afternoon afforded me one last look at a few of the things I had missed up until then. It also gave me a chance to make a couple of last minute purchases, one of which I’ll be reviewing in depth in the next week or two.
When the show closed at 4:00 and scattered pockets of applause broke out around the floor, it was impossible not to drift over to the big area at the center of the South Hall, for a last look at what might be the last ever Apple exhibit at Macworld. There was a sense of significance, as employees who’d worked the show hugged and promised to keep up with each other on iChat, and passersby stopped to take their last photos of the glowing Apple logos looming over rows of Mac demo machines.
People kept referring to this as “the last Macworld”, despite IDG’s repeated references to the 2010 show. I believe the show next year will happen, but with Apple’s absence, it will obviously have a different feel. I think the answer will lie in a more grass-roots Apple user community experience, with less corporate direction. Cali Lewis has suggested the SXSW model for future Macworlds and a lot of people have responded positively to that idea. For a great number of the people who attend this show the real lure isn’t seeing what the companies have to sell (which can often be a little disappointing), but connecting with friends, many of whom may have never met in the analog world. Nothing there needs to change. The parties and meetups will continue, revolving around a core whose shape remains uncertain. No corporate cost-saving measure will end the spirit of Macworld, those moments, planned or not, when a group of friends fall into face-to-face discussion of electronic life.
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