A few weeks before Macworld 2009, Apple announced its intent to no longer participate in trade shows and that the ’09 Macworld would be its last. With that, the ’09 Macworld took on a sort of funereal quality with lots of buzz about it being the last one. Many, including myself were having a hard time visualizing a Macworld minus the object of everyone’s adoration. IDG, having already committed to the 2010 event began registering ’09 attendees for free. I gladly accepted the no-cost invitation having no idea whether I would again make the 1300 mile journey or not. I talked to many others who’d done the same, so hearing IDG’s pronouncement earlier this month that over 40,000 people were registered for this year’s event meant very little. I had doubts that free registration would translate to actual attendance.
There were fewer vendors than before and IDG confined the show to the north and west halls of the Moscone Center. The west hall was for conference use only leaving only the north hall for the expo. Last year, Apple consumed much of the south hall and without them I’m sure it wasn’t cost-effective for IDG to include it. The consequence: The Expo floor was elbow-to-elbow whenever it was open. I felt more crowded at this year’s event than at any one previous. Maybe there weren’t enough vendors to justify use of the south hall, but there were certainly enough attendees. There are probably lots of reasons vendors shied away from this year’s event: uncertainty about user attendance, Apple not showing or just a bad economy in general. If their reason was concern about attendance, they gravely miscalculated. The loyal Mac community put to rest any doubts about whether they’d show up. I haven’t heard the final tally, but my observation is that this year’s Macworld was as crowded as ever. The line to get into the David Pogue keynote was as long as the one for last year’s Apple keynote and the line for Kevin Smith’s performance was even longer. The expo floor was uncomfortably crowded both days (Thursday & Friday) I went and the conference classes I attended were as full as last year’s.
For those who bet on Macworld ending with Apple’s withdrawal, “Sorry, no cigar.” I honestly didn’t know how things would turn out. The Mac fans have proven again that they are much more than your average fickle consumer. It will take more than Apple pulling out to deter us Macheads. Macworld is truly “our show”.