MacWorld, kind of sad...

[lostngone]

I guess I am getting old...

I am reminiscing when there was MacWorld NY/Boston and San Fancisco. I never made it to the NY/Boston shows but I did go to a few MacWorld SF shows. This was pre/early internet(no on-line booking/planning) and my first experience and really the first trip out of state after High School where I planned, paid for and did everything myself.
I was shocked how big it was, both Moscone North AND South were full. They had small seminars/classes and almost every hardware/software company that made a product for the Mac large or small was there. It seemed after the fight Apple had with IDG over where to hold the Boston/NY expo and Apple pulled out of that event and IDG killed it the SF Macworld started to shrink as well. I stopped going about 14 years ago.

Today I watched some footage from this years MacWorld/iWorld and it is kind of sad to see this once great event(even bigger then WWDC) now being held in what looked like only 2 floors of Moscone West. I know with Apple pulling out of MacWorld completely and with the advent of the Internet the emphases on expos like these have shifted.

I guess that is progress for you....

 

[maflynn]

The industry has moved beyond these tech shows, I remember all sorts of computer shows back in the 80s and 90s. Once apple pulled out of MacWorld the writing was on the wall.

It is sad, I remember going to these shows all the time, and it was a great experience

 

[Hellhammer]

MacWorld is kind of obsolete because it's only a couple weeks after CES. Companies rarely make Apple or Mac only products anymore so being present at CES is far more important, which also leads to their absence at MacWorld (why be there if you already showed all your products at CES?).

 

[James_C]

Many companies are pulling out of doing trade shows because they are expensive, take a lot of time to organise, and may not fit into a companies product release schedule. Through the internet, companies can reach a much wider audience, at a much lower cost.

 

[rdowns]

Not to mention that CES has gotten so big that it is almost impossible to have any announcement stand out. I couldn't tell you one major thing to come out of CES and I read a ton about it on several sites. Trade shows are a dying breed.

As for MacWorld, just look at the articles MR has published, nothing of much interest. I mean, come on, iPhone cases with bottle openers. What a joke.

 

[JoeG4]

Having been to MWSF twice, I can agree with most of what's been said. I can't remember if the 2nd time was after apple pulled out or not, but the expo floor was 1/2 as big and even that wasn't full..

Good times though. Watching keynotes online and then going to see the new stuff in person back in those days was awesome - especially because there weren't apple stores (and even then, they didn't really get the new products instantly if they were something shipping in 2 weeks).

I'm not surprised though. Right now most apple accessories are those yucky silicone iphone covers

 

[Hellhammer]

Many companies are pulling out of doing trade shows because they are expensive, take a lot of time to organise, and may not fit into a companies product release schedule. Through the internet, companies can reach a much wider audience, at a much lower cost.

It's not that simple, actually. Lots of companies are present at CES but don't announce anything. For example NVidia didn't show anything substantial in this year's CES, but they still had a huge stand. A big part of CES and trade shows in general are meetings with press. At CES, most of my coworkers were running from meeting to meeting 15 hours a day. Trade shows are a great chance to meet press because all the big names will be there (at least in CES). A phone conversation is never the same, and email shouldn't even be mentioned. Plus, you can meet them all during that one week. Normally, you wouldn't have a chance of doing so because people are scattered all around the world. They won't fly to US just to meet you, or it has to be something very special.

Internet works fine for product announcements, and that's what most companies do. Trade shows still have a place in their marketing, although oftentimes the actual consumer may not see the result.

I would say trade shows are changing. They are no more aimed for consumers with tons of product announcements, they are mainly a gathering place for press representatives.

 

[James_C]

It's not that simple, actually. Lots of companies are present at CES but don't announce anything. For example NVidia didn't show anything substantial in this year's CES, but they still had a huge stand. A big part of CES and trade shows in general are meetings with press. At CES, most of my coworkers were running from meeting to meeting 15 hours a day. Trade shows are a great chance to meet press because all the big names will be there (at least in CES). A phone conversation is never the same, and email shouldn't even be mentioned. Plus, you can meet them all during that one week. Normally, you wouldn't have a chance of doing so because people are scattered all around the world. They won't fly to US just to meet you, or it has to be something very special.

Internet works fine for product announcements, and that's what most companies do. Trade shows still have a place in their marketing, although oftentimes the actual consumer may not see the result.

I would say trade shows are changing. They are no more aimed for consumers with tons of product announcements, they are mainly a gathering place for press representatives.

I agree, for the right tradeshow and the right type of business that makes sense, but the last large Industrial trade show I attended for the company I worked for, most of the people there appeared to be spending more time checking out the competition, rather than taking leads from perspective customers. Based on that feedback we significantly cut back on the number of trade shows that we attended and invested the money elsewhere.

 

[malman89]

Not to mention that CES has gotten so big that it is almost impossible to have any announcement stand out. I couldn't tell you one major thing to come out of CES and I read a ton about it on several sites. Trade shows are a dying breed.

As for MacWorld, just look at the articles MR has published, nothing of much interest. I mean, come on, iPhone cases with bottle openers. What a joke.

That's just because there really wasn't anything HUGE (in my opinion of course) released at CES this year. Past years you (if you cared to follow) heard big releases at CES and/or MWC. There were just a bunch of decently interesting releases as far as I could see from CES - I read the stories every hour at work.

 

[rhett7660]

That's just because there really wasn't anything HUGE (in my opinion of course) released at CES this year. Past years you (if you cared to follow) heard big releases at CES and/or MWC. There were just a bunch of decently interesting releases as far as I could see from CES - I read the stories every hour at work.

Heck the big story last year or was it the year before, and it wasn't even at CES, it was when Verizon was holding the event to announce the iPhone.

 

[JoeG4]

That's probably because that was the announcement you were most interested in. Ironically, you can't quite remember when it was xD

 

[rhett7660]

That's probably because that was the announcement you were most interested in. Ironically, you can't quite remember when it was xD

Actually no I wasn't... I remember everyone talking about on the all the blogs, pod casts, tech posts etc.. I am still on AT&T thank you!

All they were talking about was the Verizon event that was after CES... ha. I thought it was funny.

 

[genshi]

I guess I am getting old...

<snip>

Today I watched some footage from this years MacWorld/iWorld and it is kind of sad to see this once great event(even bigger then WWDC) now being held in what looked like only 2 floors of Moscone West. I know with Apple pulling out of MacWorld completely and with the advent of the Internet the emphases on expos like these have shifted.

I guess that is progress for you....

Actually it was on 3 floors of Moscone West and a couple of locations across from Moscone West, so it was still pretty big with a lot going on. I guess it all depends on what you were hoping to see. There were some cool music events, great tech talks, and (and here is where I'm bias) the iPhone Filmmaking event which was an important move to promoting the iPhone as an alternative and possibly viable tool in Filmmaking. It made my day...

 

[lostngone]

Actually it was on 3 floors of Moscone West and a couple of locations across from Moscone West, so it was still pretty big with a lot going on. I guess it all depends on what you were hoping to see. There were some cool music events, great tech talks, and (and here is where I'm bias) the iPhone Filmmaking event which was an important move to promoting the iPhone as an alternative and possibly viable tool in Filmmaking. It made my day...

That is good to hear. Can I ask what the "locations across from Moscone West" were? I am trying to think what buildings that could be? Did they have areas in North and South?

 

[sigamy]

Well, this is progress. I can remember going to PC shows in the local hotel to buy or build a custom PC back in the day. That was fun, but it's time has passed.

If anyone should be able to educate/communicate and sell to their customers via the internet, it should be computer hardware and software companies.

Software demos can easily be done online now. There are great screencasts available everywhere. Web Forums (like this one) provide a wealth of information on general buying advice to specific technical issues.

As for training, that is also moving onliine but often times is best done in person. You can learn from other students, share experiences, etc.

Even the relevance of local user groups is declining. I attended one here in NJ about a year ago and they were talking about the iPad and the App Store. Things that were well over a year old.

 

[genshi]

That is good to hear. Can I ask what the "locations across from Moscone West" were? I am trying to think what buildings that could be? Did they have areas in North and South?

The locations were not part of Moscone, but they were part of the Macworld event; for example, some of the music stuff like "Evolve" (the Mac-based DJ competition and subsequent performance by BT) was held at club Mezzanine a couple blocks away, but only Macworld badge-holders were allowed in...