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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/11584
FIRST PERSON MACWORLD 2010 WRAP-UP >THE SHOW GOES ON WORDS AND PICTURES BY RIC GETTER SAN FRANCISCO — There was a different kind of tension running through the Moscone Center on the Wednesday of Macworld 2010. The South Hall was closed, almost dark behind the two-story, floor-to-ceiling windows. In the North Hall, convention workers outnumbered the attendees coming in to register or pick up badges. In the exhibit hall, there was the tense bustle of last-minute setup (in setting up for trade shows, everything is last-minute). Hanging over this normally upbeat hub of San Francisco’s South-of- Market neighborhood like the chill of the city’s summer fog was the question, Will they come? And, as someone who had missed few enough of the expositions to count on one hand (and still have enough fingers left to be impolite) I couldn’t help but wonder, would this be my last—be thelast? Even the next morning, it was hard to tell. There were no TV news trucks lined up in front, but the registration lines were beginning to lengthen. Waiting in the press center for Late Nightto start, I counted considerably more empty chairs and tables than previous years and virtually none of the usual news media celebs I’d gotten used to rubbing shoulders with. But the 900-seat main event room quickly filled for the show’s opening Late Night With David Pogue, as did several overflow rooms watching the modest, single camera video feed. A “Keynote” for the Rest of Us Though it lacked the inherent shock and awe of a Steve Jobs keynote, Late Night was immensely more entertaining. And who would be better suited to entertain several roomfuls of admitted Mac geeks than one of the more notable Star Trek actors, LeVar Burton. And with Pogue’s penchant for music (he was a music director on Broadway in the years before the Mac came along), the Gregory Brothers of YouTube’s “Auto Tune the News” fame were the perfect guests. Guitar-hero-in-residence and Macworld Expo VP Paul Kent was the perfect side- man while Pogue sang and tickled the keys of the $19,000 Yamaha AvantGrand digital grand piano at stage right. Not making it into the exhibit hall until early after noon, I felt like I was the fifth or sixth person to squeeze into a phone booth. Even though Macworld was in a smaller venue than in previous years, it was immediately obvious that the show’s organizers and exhibitors significantly underestimated the attendance, which was pegged at more than 20,000 in IDG’s post-show tally—only marginally less than last year’s attendance. MacDirectory 37