Back home after a week at Macworld Expo Boston 2004, and a few things stick in my mind. First off, everybody seems to have had a much better time than they expected to have.
The exhibitors I talked to, from Quark to JBL to iScienceProject.com, were happy with how many showgoers were stopping and talking. Perhaps the relatively small size of the show floor reduced the pressure on everyone to run around the floor as fast as possible. I know that was the case for me — for the first time in a long time, I felt I could take my time, visiting with exhibitors and talking with colleagues.
I was lucky to also be one of the participants in the MacBraniac Challenge, a “game show” of sorts hosted by Christopher Breen. My team included Peter Cohen and Jim Dalrymple of MacCentral and Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer. Our opponents were beloved industry columnist Andy Ihnatko, TidBITS publisher Adam Engst, Macworld Contributing Editor Dan Frakes, and Bare Bones Software’s Rich Siegel.
The questions were hard and I admit that I personally blew at least two of them for my team. However, we came from behind with some serious kung-fu on several three-point challenges involving complicated Macintosh machinations. When the points were counted at the end of the challenge, we were unbelievably tied at 26. So both teams agreed to the draw in exchange for a grudge-match rematch at Macworld Expo San Francisco.
I’m told that our audience had a good time. The whole thing was just a blur of bright lights and sweat to me. But it was also a lot of fun. If you’re at Macworld San Francisco, don’t miss the rematch.
That about wraps it up for Macworld Expo for me. A quiet show with a bunch of fun, little products, a lot of great conference sessions, and a few wacky feature presentations. Plus, most importantly, a great community of users and Mac professionals getting together to talk about the Mac. Those are my people, and if you’re reading this, they’re undoubtedly yours too. It’s always great to get together.
Now back to San Francisco… and back to work!