As I wind up a long day of expo coverage, I thought I’d take a moment to answer some of your questions about this week’s Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo and the fine city of New York.
Q) Is it true that “no one” is at this year’s refocused Macworld and that it’s boring?
A) Absolutely not. Final attendance figures will be announced later this week. The number of attendees are indeed down from last year (no surprise with the refocusing of the show), but the crowd is generally enthusiastic. The conference sessions are extremely well attended, by most accounts. And though the number of vendors are also down, there are several really cool goodies being shown and there are lots of product announcements and updates. No, it’s not just your typical Macworld Expo, but a more … for lack of a better word … intimate event.
Q) Is Apple’s Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Product Marketing, really a cheekily named, hybrid clone of Apple’s co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak?
A) Yes.
Q) Are New Yorkers rude?
A) Certainly some of them are. But then so are some folks in Nashville, the town I call home. But, for the most part, I’ve found New Yorkers to be congenial and hospitable. They simply move at a faster pace and tend to get directly to the point. They simply don’t bother with all niceties Southerners sometimes juggle in their conversation.
Besides there’s the simple matter of the tremendous bulk of people in this city. When I grew up in west Tennessee, you waved at everyone whether you were driving or walking. But in my daily 20-minute jaunt from my Times Square hotel to the Javits Center this week, I pass more people than lived in the town of my childhood (Huntingdon, TN).
Of course, I could do without all the abuse of the car horns. Does it really do any good to honk at the person driving the car in front of you, who’s just as stuck as you are?
Q) Is it hot in New York in July?
A) I’m from Tennessee, where it’s so humid this time of year you don’t breathe the air, you just bite it off and swallow it. So, to me, the Big Apple isn’t too hot. Others may feel differently.