IDG World Expo on Friday announced that Macworld Conference & Expo will take place in Boston in the summer of 2004 instead of New York. The fate of a New York-based expo has been up in the air since last October when IDG World Expo said they were moving the show to Boston — Apple told MacCentral at the time that they would not participate in a Boston expo.
The dates for the summer expo have been confirmed for July 12-15, 2004 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
“After research and discussions with key stakeholders, including vendors, consultants and attendees, it is clear that Macworld Conference & Expo in Boston will provide great value to the Mac community,” said David Korse, president of IDG World Expo. “We are excited to move ahead with our plans to present a Macworld event in Boston that will provide valuable education and networking opportunities for Mac enthusiasts.”
Although a fiery battle between Apple and then IDG World Expo President, Charlie Greco followed the planned move to Boston — including Greco’s statement that he would ban Apple from Macworld San Francisco — cooler heads finally prevailed. The two sides came to an agreement about Apple’s participation in an East Coast show for 2003 and continued talks for San Francisco.
Macworld Conference & Expo changed its name a couple of times before settling on Macworld CreativePro as IDG World Expo moved the focus of the show more on the Macintosh creative community. But CreativePro was apparently not successful enough to continue on in New York.
“While there was some uncertainty about the event coming to Boston after the successful launch of Macworld CreativePro in New York this summer, we have decided to continue the Macworld tradition on the East Coast as originally planned,” said Korse. “We look forward to the Macintosh community gathering in Boston.”
In a statement given to MacCentral on Friday, Apple reiterated the stance the company took earlier this year: Apple will not participate in Macworld Boston.
“When IDG initially announced its plans to move summer Macworld to Boston in 2004, we were very clear that we didn’t think it was a good move,” Apple said in their statement. “Our position stands and Apple will not be participating in Macworld Boston. We are 100 percent committed to Macworld San Francisco in January every year.”
Update: Added statement from Apple.
IDG World Expo and MacCentral are both owned by IDG.
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