Macworld Expo gets rolling this evening with a pair of media receptions, the start of The New Era that show organizers IDG are promising. Half of the world’s largest Mac and Apple show venues has been removed to the Moscone West hall, evidence enough that things will be new and changed here in San Francisco. The expo may spill into Moscone South, but the hall above that arena is not a conference venue.
This is my fifth Macworld but the first without an Apple mothership hovering in the expo’s molten core. We’re all waiting to see what the impact of the missing lead vendor will be on this 25-year tradition. Registration lines seemed light this afternoon, although the media desk had a steady stream of reporters and bloggers. It might just be a feeling, but the attitude at the press registration desk smacked of genuine gratitude for our attentions.
One sign of scaling back is right here in the press room. It might be an artifact of a new decade of computer journalism, but gone are the 24-inch iMacs hooked to high speed boardband cables. No serious journalist would be without a laptop here. In shows past, even Microsoft organized a on-floor corral for the media’s blogging use.
But the show’s organizers seem undaunted, even if Steve Jobs did blast his salvo of new product two weeks ago today right next door at the Yerba Buena Arts Center. Few attendees of Macworlds ever got inside the hall where Jobs introduced things like the iPod, iPhone and more. I squeezed in for the Intel Mac announcement in ’06 by getting up at 4:30 and standing on line like a supplicant to a Bruce Springsteen concert.
This year’s event substitutes The New York Times tech columnist David Pogue for that leadoff keynote spot, to be held here in Moscone North in a room larger than the old site for Apple keynotes. Pogue has become a budding video and media star over the last few years, with regular spots on CBS news, plenty of video on the NYT site, and an entertaining manner to match Jobs’ enterprising swagger.
So “Late Night with David Pogue” kicks off at 9 AM tomorrow, followed by the first of the three Macworld Best of Show presentations at lunch. A group of solution providers who call themselves Indie will work for media attention here in about a half-hour or so, followed by a wider confab in the same room. About 20 of us are tapping away and talking here at 4PM. It may be hard to judge how well-subscribed this New Era is, lacking an Apple keynote or booth. That matters more to the organizers, who must impress the expo vendors, than attendees. There’s plenty to learn here, both at the booths as well as in conference sessions.
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