The short recap of Macworld 2009 would be that it totally rocked! I had the best time at Macworld this year and so did dozens of old and new friends. I have to say that 2007 continues to be my favorite expo. No it wasn’t because Apple released the iPhone. It was because the people, the atmosphere, the parties and companies showing off new products made that expo a whole lot of fun! I have to add that 2009 takes a close second.
MacworldBound has become a very influential engine for Macworld Expo. I don’t think IDG feels that way but I certainly can see the value in real time for people attending Macworld. Our biggest day of traffic was Tuesday with 25 thousand unique visitors. It leveled off to a cool 1,000 unique visits by Satruday morning. 60% of the traffic was from California and many of our visitors came from people searching for common things like, “when do I line up for the keynote?” or “how much are tickets to Macworld?” The rest of the year, my traffic will come from “Macworld 2010 dates” and other things regarding Macworld in 2010.
This year, I started Macworld festivities early. I live in San Francisco now so it wasn’t so hard. Friday consisted of a co-working session at Sugar Cafe followed up by burritos in The Mission. Saturday was a slow day that pretty much involved dinner with some close friends who haven’t been to Macworld since 2007. Sunday I gathered 15 people together for mimosas at Sugar Cafe before we left for the city tour. The 5th annual city tour was SO MUCH FUN! I went to some new locations, eliminated walking and I think we only walked 1.5 miles this time around compared to previous tours that had more than 5 miles. I took everyone all around San Francisco and it was a TON of fun. I can’t wait to do it again next year. Sunday night, 28 of us had dinner at Bucca Di Beppo. We filled an entire wing of the restaurant and ate nearly $600 in food.
Monday was our trip to Apple headquarters which I’ll probably need to get a bus next year because we stuffed 3 cars full of people and I had to turn 5 people away because we just couldn’t fit everyone. Monday night consisted of more drinks with friends but I called it an early night to prepare for the big Tuesday Keynote. Tuesday, my 5th annual Apple Store Keynote meetup was awesome. Everyone got coffee and donuts and we took some photos. 4Am was a perfect time to lineup and we got some great seats at the keynote. That night, there were some great parties but I decided to sleep because I was exhausted. This was my 4th day of partying and needed my rest.
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday were a complete blur full of checking out new products, hanging out with old friends, partying with new friends and still managing to fulfill my day job activities. MacworldBound has been a great project of mine. I have met some amazing people and dozens of people I met told me that MacworldBound and my events through the week helped them fall in love with Macworld and The Mac Community. 10 people this year told me, “your site and events have made me want to come back next year. Thank you.” That’s what it’s all about. I’m not doing this for Apple, IDG World Expo or The Macworld name. I’m doing this for Mac Users and if we can all come together once a year, party, geek out and build relationships, I’ll continue covering Macworld and doing events.
I owe so much thanks for my friends who come here every year to hang out. I can’t list everyone but boy was it awesome to see all of you and catch up. I owe all of you a beer one of these days. Macworld C&E, it’s employees and namely Paul Kent did a fantastic job this year. Everything was more organized and I didn’t experience any hiccups. You guys make it happen and ever Macworld attendee needs to recognize how planning Macworld is a full time gig for tons of people. I want Macworld to succeed in every way and I’m available any time to help any way that I can.
When I left Apple back in 2005, I knew that Apple wasn’t about us and they were on their own path. They didn’t care about the community and I was fine with that. We have so many switchers these days that are just PC users that have Apple computers. They don’t understand or know about the community and Macworld is the gateway drug to that community along with Mac User Groups. My blog is here to inform, educate and involve new Mac users to show them they’re not alone and Apple isn’t their only lifeline to the Mac World. I hope I’m able to continue this passion for years to come. Thank you all.
