Neil Bauman, captain and CEO of Geek Cruises, a company that schedules “cruise conferences” that combine work and play, said that initial response to a planned Mac cruise has been “fantastic” following the Aug. 23 announcement of the in-the-planning stages MacMania ocean cruise/at-sea conference.
MacMania will be a seven-day ocean cruise that combines pleasure with 20 hours of conference courses. One conference track will be involve Mac OS X and be targeted to developers. There’ll be five tracks for end users involving such topics as Office X from Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit.
Actor/director/writer John de Lancie has already said he’d be along for the voyage. Other Mac celebrities such as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Guy Kawasaki will also be invited, Bauman said.
The interesting thing about MacMania is that Geek Cruises are letting those interested in participating determine the itinerary of the trip. Four conceivable itineraries include the Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, Alaska, or Hawaii. They’re also compiling a waiting list of those who wish to attend. To get on the list, send e-mail to Bauman. This doesn’t commit you to MacMania, but gives you the chance to shape the itinerary and be among the first to have the opportunity to go.
And though MacMania has been described as “a Macworld expo at sea,” there’s not room for the 60,000 plus who attend the expos. Bauman said there would be room for about 400 MacManiacs. See our Aug. 23 article for details.