Macworld Expo May Return to Boston

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."

Comments

beats the hell out of PC expo

[feldsteins]

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.

I remember MacWorld Boston 1985...

[dpbsmith]

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.

Re:I remember MacWorld Boston 1985...

[King Babar]

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.

Mac Expo NY problem: Javits Center labor union

[Sierran]

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 Coupla Points

[maggard]

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.