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Macworld Expo May Return to Boston

Posted by pudge on from the they-know-they-are-nothing-without-me dept.

Anonymous Being of Power writes "According to a New York Post Article, Macworld New York may be held once again in Boston due to rising costs and lower attendance."

19 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. beats the hell out of PC expo by feldsteins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God it sucks that the first 3 posts to this article are undeniable trolls. Slowly but surely the Macintosh platform is gaining ground in the nerdier circles including slashdot. I just wish it would happen a little quicker so we can actually discuss things rather than imply that Mac users are gay or that they will be out of business in 6 months if they don't go x86. Shut up already. I heard enough of that shit back in the early 90s.

    Now about the Expo...No matter where it ends up it'll beat the hell out of PC Expo which I've been to in Chicago for the last 2 years. I do hope other computer shows are better than that one. What a dog. I didn't see one excited person there. Not even the vendors seemed to be awake. Just a small building filled with small, cheesy, lame booths and a couple of hundred middle-aged tech managers shuffling aimlessly about.

    Now, Macworld is a different thing. Don't believe it? Try it. You can get in to the show floor for a song. Go see for yourself. And when you get back keep the Kool-Aid analogies to yourself already. Jeez.

    --
    You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
    1. Re:beats the hell out of PC expo by feldsteins · · Score: 2

      Admittance to the show floor is cheap or free, as I recall. Well, I think it was under $50 and free admissions abounded, or something like that. It's the user and even more so the professional conference sessions that cost. And actually it wasn't that bad. I think I paid ~$500 for a weeks worth of professional conference sessions. I don't know if PC Expo had any conference sessions other that those that were basically sales pitches given by vendors. Not really sure, though.

      --
      You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
  2. I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by dpbsmith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lots of carrying cases. Lots of fonts. Not very much software.

    I got Stephen Chernicoff to sign my copy of "Macintosh Revealed."

    White Pine Software had an empty booth with a sign taped to the table announcing that they would soon have their first product, a VT-220 emulator for the Mac.

    Someone was demoing software that created a small amount of RAM cache for the floppy drive. If you had a whopping 512K of memory, that RAM cache actually could speed things up a bit.

    What else was there? Overvue, from Provue Development, I think... Filevision from Telos, which was really mindblowing at the time.

    I believe it was the 1986 MacWorld that had the huge inflated Macintosh outside promoting MacPublisher, a very early desktop publishing product.

    In the first few years, MacWorld was really great. You could belly up to a booth and really try out and learn about new software. The people exhibiting the software generally knew a lot about it and were often developers.

    Ah, well... MacWorld may come back to Boston, but it will never be like 1985.

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

    1. Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by King+Babar · · Score: 5, Funny
      Lots of carrying cases. Lots of fonts. Not very much software.

      Ah yes; that takes me back. :-) One other notable piece of software was Megamax C, and the amazing debugger whose name now escapes me...

      I got Stephen Chernicoff to sign my copy of "Macintosh Revealed."

      Me too! :-)

      Someone was demoing software that created a small amount of RAM cache for the floppy drive. If you had a whopping 512K of memory, that RAM cache actually could speed things up a bit.

      OK, so was MacBottom (hard-drive that fit under your Mac) at that first Expo?

      What else was there? Overvue, from Provue Development, I think... Filevision from Telos, which was really mindblowing at the time.

      I believe that RecordHolder may have had or shared a small booth.

      I believe it was the 1986 MacWorld that had the huge inflated Macintosh outside promoting MacPublisher, a very early desktop publishing product.

      I think 1986 was also the debut of Fontographer; Aldus PageMaker was out in 1985, but I'm not sure if it was out in time for the Expo.

      In the first few years, MacWorld was really great. You could belly up to a booth and really try out and learn about new software. The people exhibiting the software generally knew a lot about it and were often developers.

      In either 1985 or 1986, a weird British bearded guy was demo-ing this wild and nutty computer algebra system for the (not so large) masses. Guy's name was "Wolfram", like the element, and his software was called "Mathemagica" or something like that. :-)

      Also in 1986 I believe was the introduction of this wild and crazy product called "HyperCard", a product that was so important but so ahead of its time that many younger people i talk to these days can't believe there was anyting like this in the bad old days.

      But my favorite early MacWorld was 1987, since I basically had to sneak out from under my soon-to-be-inlaws in order to attend the thing...3 days before I got married in another state. I randomly ran into a Boston Globe reporter who made me part of her story in the paper on how...hyper-dedicated macophiles were in those days.

      Ah, well... MacWorld may come back to Boston, but it will never be like 1985.

      No, but neither you or I will ever be the same, either.

      --

      Babar

    2. Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by coastcat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wasn't there in '85, but did suffer through the air-conditioning-free '87 version. Went as just a spectator, but got roped into manning the booth for our user group (Washington Apple Pi, one of the few classics still in existence). We were all the way on one end of the convention center, and the only properly functioning air conditioning was on the other end. Oy.

      Sat through a demo of Word Perfect for the Mac. Yes, in 1987. What year was that thing finally released? The demo was a disaster, so the rep smoothed things over a bit by handing out free painter's caps with the Word Perfect logo. My dad still mows the lawn while wearing that cap!

      The WAP booth was right next to Hayden Software, which was demoing MusicWorks. The same music loop played over and over and over again... drove me batty.

      I can't remember if Wingz was shown there, or if it debuted a bit later. You remember Wingz, don't you? Great tote bags, lots of enthusiasm, pure vaporware...

    3. Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by ProfKyne · · Score: 3, Informative

      I remember MacWorld Boston 1992.

      I was only 14, and at the time I was very interested in graphic design -- I faked a company to get a free subscription to "New Media" magazine. (I remember reading Mondo 2000 around that time too.)

      With the interest in graphics software, I recall walking around the Boston Bayside Expo with my bag of hats and logo-emblazoned giveaways. I checked out Wacom's new wireless stylus & tablet with a pressure-sensitive tip for controlling airbrush paint flow, and a cool-looking game (that never quite emerged on my gaming horizon) called Blade, which was kind of a Shadow of the Beast clone.

      But the real highlight of the day was that I got Mike Saenz's autograph, he was the artist behind Shatter (first computerized comic, designed on a Mac no less) and, along with Joe Sparks, the creator of the pioneering MacroMind Director -based Spaceship Warlock.

      He also created Virtual Valerie, and that seemed pretty cool at the time....

      --
      "First you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
    4. Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Informative

      I remember Wingz. It did eventually ship, I'm not sure when. In 1991 I worked for a company with several avid Wingz fans. I sorta liked the artwork in their ads, dreamlike stuff with people in suits and ties flapping their arms and flying over a landscape of 3D bar charts... I wonder whatever happened to Wingz? Remember when there was more than one spreadsheet? Remember when there were more than TWO?

      --

      "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

    5. Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985... by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm pretty sure HyperCard was 1987, not 1986. Bill Atkinson presented a session on it himself. A very worthy successor to Rolodex! One part I remember distinctly was that he personally promised that the file format would be open and documented. In due course, I saw a Tech Note entitled "Hypercard File Format," and was very disappointed to find it consisted of a single sentence saying "The Hypercard file format is not available."

      I don't think MacBottom could have been out in 1985. I think MacBottom was one of the first generation of SCSI external drives that materialized with the MacPlus in 1986. The first drives all had to work with the serial interface.

      --

      "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  3. Re:Funny... by ZxCv · · Score: 2

    Anyway, Boston is a horrible city for this, and relocating to there would only cement a second-rate image for Apple....

    Why, and how?

    --

    Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
  4. MacWorld 2003 ain't going anywhere by Smack · · Score: 3, Informative

    Quote 1: "enticed by a free offer for Boston's brand-spanking new convention center"

    Quote 2: "free rent at its new convention center, expected to be completed in 2004"

  5. Re:Funny... by mjpaci · · Score: 2

    Hey! If my (MA) tax dollars are paying for this new convention center, I want to at least attend a convention that I want to go to. The Seafood convention is just not my cup of tea.

    More hotels rooms are coming online as we speak. Boston's biggest problem is that it closes down at 1:00 AM and it's transit system closes right before that.

    Hell there's always "Cold Tea" in Chinatown at 4:30 AM.

    --Mike

  6. Re: Mike Saenz by ProfKyne · · Score: 2

    LOL. It could go both ways.

    If I'm not mistaken, though, Digital Justice was written and drawn by Pepe Moreno, though I think I read somewhere that he was at least a distant friend of Mike Saenz. I think Digital Justice was marketed as "the first computerized graphic novel" (also done entirely with Mac computers).

    D.J. was definitely a step up from Shatter's 72 dpi graphics, but they each have an appealing style. There is definitely a similarity between Shatter's alien nation (at the Ravenwood tanks) and D.J.'s mutants, both representing subordinated cultural groups. The alien nation is more like a ghettoized minority community and the mutants represent the marginalized youth.

    --
    "First you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
  7. Mac Expo NY problem: Javits Center labor union by Sierran · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Javits center is infamous for its labor union price-jacking. While I'm not sure if this is still true, there were a rash of stories a few years back connecting the Mafia with said labor unions. This is a problem because Javits' rules state that you *cannot* use non-union labor to do *anything* during a show...as in, it's difficult to even move your own stuff around the bldg/floor. Thus, the hours charged to the show organizers are enormous, and the whole thing ends up costing a mint both for organizers and exhibiters. If they can get free space and cheap/free labor for the show in Boston, it might even lower the cost of attendance for users and companies alike. Remember that all of the no-shows at recent Expos have cited costs; this is one of the reasons they did so.

    I too live in Boston; I think it's an annoying town. However, it's immensely easier to get to and stay in than NY (easier=cheaper)...the airport is a 10 min subway trip from any downtown hotel, there's fun touristy stuff to do, the city's small enough to wander around on foot, and due to the high student population the town is used to large groups of rowdies showing up in bars.

    --
    A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
  8. My fondest memory of the old Boston expo by jht · · Score: 2

    I always used to weasel a block of tickets to the Ingram party at the Museum of Science every year back when I ran a Mac network for a living. Now that was the place to hold a party! Free booze, free food, live music, and all sorts of nerd attractions since the exhibits were open.

    I particularly remember the year that Casady & Greene (at least that's who I think released it) came out with a commercial version of the old Talking Moose, and had a fellow dressed up in a moose suit walking the floor of the show handing out demos.

    At the party that night, the moose showed up in costume, and was out on the dance floor when he toppled over from heat exhaustion. What a sight...

    It was kind of funny seeing a bunch of geeks carrying the moose off the floor.

    --
    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  9. A Coupla Points by maggard · · Score: 5, Interesting
    1. MacWorld was a Boston event from the start. Every August it would roll into town as the biggest thing in that deadest month. But Boston's three convention centers (Hynes, Bayside, WTC-Boston) were small, and far apart, and MacWorld didn't like that (neither did DECWorld years ago but they rented ships to supplement services - that was style!)

    2. So MacWorld pulled out of Boston and went to NYC. This was a blow as not only was MacWorld a big thing in Boston but NYC is the perennial rival. The MacWorld move was one of the big kicks in getting Boston's new mega-convention center built.

    3. Now Boston's new mega-convention center is 1/2 way built and it's got a dozen shows booked. For the next decade! They're even talking about shutting down the one of the old convention centers to drive business to the new one (this is possible in Boston - reality has nothing to do with this it's patronage and appearance, the fellow in charge has the job for life anyway.)

    4. So getting MacWorld back would be a coup for Boston. Not only would it come back from the evil NYC but it would return to the new convention center to show that at last the facilities weren't too small, Boston could hold a biiig convention. Boston would likely be willing to cut all kinds of deal for that industry news as well as to quell the local critics.

    5. The MacWorld folks would likely be happy too. Javits is usuriously expensive and nasty nasty nasty to work with. I used to work trade shows years ago and nothing was worse then Javits. Extortion, unbelievably bad service, wrecked displays, fees and costs and hassles for everything

    6. Apple would likely be OK with going back to Boston. There's more educational and high-tech customers in Boston, more media and advertising in NYC, both cities have hard-to-crack finance & insurance. It's probably a six-of-one/half-dozen-of-the-other as far as Apple is concerned.

    7. The attendees would likely be as happy to go back to Boston. While it's still expensive it's a far sight cheaper then NYC. The couple-hundred miles further north also help too - Boston in August is less awful then NYC.

    8. Finally, this would be 2004. Aside from Boston's opening date arrangements have doubtless already started being made for NYC. The move from Boston po'd many of the folks involved with it's relatively short notice so I doubt that happening again in reverse - the lesson has likely been learned. I can see this being used as a bargaining tool with Javits and unless they really cut a schu-weet deal I bet Boston will scoop this. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if the interested parties on Boston find a way to pay MacWorld to come to Boston just to prove their point.

    --
    I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
  10. Re:Funny... by weave · · Score: 2
    Boston's biggest problem is that it closes down at 1:00 AM and it's transit system closes right before that.

    Well that's bloody stupid. People like to drink, and transit provides a way to get home safely without having to drive home DUI. Now, I admit, riding the bus makes it a bit harder to pick up a babe and bring her home. "Yeah baby, we just have to stand out here on the corner and wait for the next 32 to come along...."

    Reminds me of a story...

  11. Apple's ulterior motives by MalleusEBHC · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think Apple just wants to hear people try to pronounce Jaguar in a funny Boston accent.

  12. Re:Funny... by pudge · · Score: 2

    The hotels are a concern, but the fact that it was split between two sites is not. The next one won't be, that's the point.

    As to public transit, Boston's is far better than NYC's in my opinion. It's not as easy to get a cab, but far easier and less crowded to ride the subway, which goes almost everywhere, within a few blocks.

    As to the sites and restaurants in NYC, I think most of them suck, and I am certainly not alone. New York culture sucks. I could use a stronger word, but I am trying to be as polite as possible. The fact that it has "world-wide cachet" just means the world has no taste.

    And Boston is the #2 financial city in the country, not that it matters.

  13. Re:Funny... by pudge · · Score: 2

    business-wise, Boston is third-tier

    That make little sense. My only response is the quote from This Is Spinal Tap that you reminded me of.

    "The Boston gig's been cancelled... I wouldn't worry about it, though. It's not a big college town."