Reports are beginning to come in and it’s still too early to say what Macworld 2010 is going to be like. Is it going to be amazing and continue the growth we’ve since in the last 5 years? Is Macworld going to be significantly smaller, more intimate and a little scaled back? Will IDG World Expo cancel the show before it even happens.

I don’t feel that latter will happen. Paul Kent of IDG has stated many times that IDG World Expo is committed to Macworld in 2010 and they’ve already announced dates for next year’s conference and dubbed the event, “the start of a new era.” Some things have already started changing for the better but some other developments have come up in the past 24 hours that I’d like to discuss.

Yesterday, Macworld Conference & Expo VP Paul Kent hosted the first ever Macworld Town Hall. I feel that it was a little too short but some excellent things came out of the show. Here are some facts about Macworld from Paul Kent.

-MWSF 2009 has 500 exhibitors and 90% of the products on the floor are not in Apple Stores

-Intiut, Mackiev, Shure, FastMac, OWC and over 60 companies have signed up to exhibit in 2010

-4.2 out of 5 satisfaction rating for last year’s conference in a poll of 2008 Macworld Attendees.

-David Pogue is going to host the “anti-keynote” next year

-John Gruber is developing “gruber’s list” a feature presentation for next year

-85-90% of speakers have verbally confirmed that they’re coming back next year

Macworld 2010 is scheduled to take place January 4th-8th, 2010 at The Moscone Center in San Francisco. I have faith that next year’s event will happen and I suggest all participants of this year’s conference need to start making plans to be here next year. If you believe in The Mac Community, you need to be at Macworld 2010. This is bigger than our budgets and economic situation. This is for the Mac Community, Apple and The Macworld Legacy to ensure that future generations have a chance to enjoy this yearly Mac gathering. This is not so IDG World Expo can make more money. This is for the community.

Macrumors has posted that CES is targeting exhibitors at Macworld and promising a “mac only” section at next year’s CES in an attempt to poach them from Macworld Expo. Although this is a crappy tactic, it’s something I’m not surprised to hear this news. Let me state to any Macworld exhibitors who are watching, there is no value in exhibiting at CES. Mac Bloggers won’t attend for a small “mac only section” and the big news sites won’t stop by the dinky little Mac section. You’re going to be shadowed by Sony, Microsoft, Intel and the other big guys and CES is only going to give you enough exposure to make you not feel pathetic for abandoning your core audience at Macworld. That’s just my opinion but Mac users are fanatical about their products. Exhibiting at Macworld puts you in good with the Mac community even if your product isn’t good. When you turn your back on Macworld, you’re turning your back on the Mac community. I’ll be doing a report as we get closer to next year’s conference documenting which companies abandoned us to go to CES.

In a very rare move, IDG has actually opened up Macworld 2010 registration. I encourage EVERYONE who reads this site to pre-register now. It’s free and you’re only registering for an exhibit hall badge. I can’t tell if exhibit hall badges will be free next year or if this is only an introductory price but let’s show IDG that we are committed by registering today. You can register on MacworldExpo.com.

If you are a Macworld Fan or future Macworld Attendee, I encourage you to write IDG World Expo and offer up your thoughts and suggestions. IDG is giving you the chance to give feedback and they’ll be listening. You can email them here.

I also suggest that everyone reading this join the 1 year old Macworld Expo Online Community and join in the conversation. You can join here.

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One final portion of this report. I’d like to address a couple of things people suggested during the town hall.

1. “We want a la carte conference package where we get charged on individual sessions.” I think that would rock but it would be far from what Macworld has done traditionally. I’d like this too. $49 per session and you could choose from all 75 sessions. That would be fantastic but I feel Macworld may make less money from that kind of pricing plan.

2. “Is there an opportunity for macworld to do smaller conferences in more geographic locations?” Paul Kent responded with a neutral stance but I can say that Macworld announced Macworld on Tour back in 2005 and I signed up but they cancelled the event a month before it was supposed to take place. I don’t know what happened but it was cancelled and I’m guessing it’s from a lack of registrations for the event.

3. “We want Macworld New York again!” Wouldn’t we all. Macworld is very expensive to plan. Moving the conference to New York is certainly an option but it appears that people in the audience were speaking about having two conferences like it was back in the day. We’re trying to save this conference. I don’t think adding MWNY back in is an option right now unless we make both conferences smaller and more intimate. I want to focus on keeping San Francisco’s conference alive before we focus on moving things back to Javitz.

4. “Let’s do a schwag fest the day before Macworld where we all show up and trade Apple Schwag.” That’s a good idea. I might do that next year. A Macworld flea market is a good idea. Just wash your shirts first before we start trading. I don’t want a stinky newton shirt with sweat stains. :)

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Well, let’s see how things go from here. I’ll be paying close attention to IDG’s steps throughout the next few months. Every move they make in the next 8 months will decide Macworld C&E’s existence in the long term.