Apple Vention ’96

The Date: November 9, 1996
The Time: 11:00 AM-9:00 PM
The Location: Forest Fair Mall, Forest Park, Ohio
The Price: FREE
The Event???—APPLEVENTION ‘96!!!!!!!

AppleVention ’96 was an Apple convention put on by Cincinnati’s local Macintosh Users Group, AppleSiders (http://www.applesiders.com/applesiders). Now, since Tim over at My Mac cannot afford to sponsor me on a trip to the next Macworld Expo, I decided this would be good enough for me. This was to be my first official Apple convention of any sort, and to tell you the truth I was really both nervous and excited at the same time.

I contacted the AppleVention Chairman, Chris Tarnowieckyi about the show and to see if I could possibly get to ask him a few questions about AppleVention and AppleSiders in general. Chris is an elite tech support manager for Attachmate who has been using Apple products practically since their inception. His role with AppleSiders as Publicist and AppleVention Chairman makes him a very busy man and I felt awkward stealing time from his show. I didn’t really get to question him in depth because I just wanted to get an idea of what it takes to throw together an AppleVention, and what they, the AppleSiders hoped to accomplish with the show.

“It takes a lot of time effort and volunteer work to get it going” Chris explained. You have to rent a space to hold the convention, in this case, the Forest Fair Mall. Then, rent out some booth space in hope that you will break even. (AppleSiders is a non-profit organization) Organize an agenda or schedule of events and demos. Get some big companies (Apple, Claris, MacADDICT, EOS) to have exhibits and donate products or services, such as all of the online services which were donated by Exodus Online Services (http://www.eos.net). With all of the right planning and attention to detail, everything eventually falls into place.

Why spend all of this time getting things to flow smoothly for only a 10 hour show? One word: “Promotion.” One of the many goals of AppleVention is the promotion of Apple products, compatibles, associated software and accessories. Of course, their main goal is to boost membership enrollment and to have a good day of buying, selling, and being around others who prefer Apple Macintosh computing. Another great reason is that by holding the convention in a mall, the chances of attracting non-Apple Macintosh users and non-computer users is really high.

After asking Chris some questions, he immediately got back into the hustle and bustle of the show. I decided I would walk around some more and give you all the low down. The location for the show was great. Holding it in the Forest Fair Mall attracted many people who really wouldn’t have shown up if it had been held in the convention hall of a big hotel. As you walked in, you were greeted by an AppleSider member who handed you an Apple open house plastic bag half-full of literature and goodies. There were a lot of displays and booths set up, so I started on one side and worked my way around. People had booths set up selling old systems, cards, disks, CD’s, buttons, pins and whatever else you could think of. Major companies, such as Apple, had displays of new products such as the new PowerBook 1400 series. The PowerBook looked really nice but I forgot to see how the snap-off removable covers worked. (I think that’s a neat idea!)

Demonstrations and seminars were being held every hour in two different rooms. In one room, an EOS (Exodus Online Services) representative was giving a little walk through to people on how to get on the Net and what to do when you’re finally there. He gave a very informative speech and I wish I had gone to something similar prior to going online. In the other room was Tom Jordon from Digital Music. Tom had a synthesizer, but by the end of the demo he was playing a full brass band. I never imagined you could do something such as this with a computer. It was great!

What’s that sign say? Free? Well, alright! Now if you don’t like free stuff you must be some sort of weirdo. The freebie table was my favorite. I hate to say my favorite but really, I think it was. This is where I got free stickers, pens, literature, magazines, pocket protectors, coasters, pins, flyers, CD-roms, disks, and business cards. If it was there and it was free, I got it. Behind the free table was an audio-visual cart with a TV and VCR playing a “Virtual Interview” with Bob LeVitus, the well known author and Macintosh expert. You would see Chris Tarnowieckyi on the phone asking him a question. Then Bob LeVitus would appear answering the question. It was quite interesting and a good idea for the convention as well.

Well, after about 2 hours of soaking up all of the AppleVention I could, it was time for me to go. As I left I felt I was a part of something, and that I was not as alone as I once thought. In a Wintel driven world, it’s nice to know that Apple Macintosh users still thrive, and can congregate every so often to prove it. Overall, the AppleSiders put on a great show and I hope next years show is even better. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a My Mac booth! What do you say Tim? 🙂

AppleSiders was founded in 1979, is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, with members from the Tri-state area. For more information, please visit the AppleSiders web site at http://www.applesiders.com/applesiders.