I am reminded of the amusing video of Steve Ballmer of Microsoft pacing back and forth across the stage at a big Microsoft developer’s conference a few years ago. Streaming perspiration, his blue oxford shirt hopelessly stained, he spent what seemed like 10 minutes (but was probably less than a minute) chanting “DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!, etc.”
This is my fourth Macworld Expo, and it has seemed to me that we need a cheerleader with the enthusiasm of Mr. Ballmer for the Mac platform. Where is the next Guy Kawasaki (the original Apple Evangelist)? Where is the guy pacing up and down the stage screaming like a madman?
Maybe we don’t really need that, though. A show like Macworld is the place where the developers are poised to shine. It never ceases to amaze me what terrific products pop up at these shows. As the show goes on, I hope to be able to report on a few of them here.
Yesterday, the MyMac.com team gathered in the morning hours to get their media passes. This year, things are a little different. Macworld Expo planners are being a little stingier with media passes that include access to the big (and I do mean big) auditorium. The rationing method was very odd. Instead of using color codes or some other logical means to separate the haves from the have nots, they are simply not issuing media credentials to those not “invited” to the keynote until the keynote begins and the auditorium doors are sealed. Most likely, because the big CES show was last week, there were many more members of the “big” media who wanted to see the keynote, or maybe planners expected a larger number of paying attendees (at over a grand a pop, that’s significant money). I did that twice, back in the mid-1990s, when I did the whole Macworld Expo (Boston) on my employer’s dime. I attended a large number of seminars, and all I really walked away with was the feeling that I could have taught most of them (my stuttering problems notwithstanding–I told you I have a voice for print!). For the most part, the seminars were very much “101” type (entry-level), and not even close to what I had hoped to learn for the many hundreds of dollars we corporate drones paid in those days. I can only hope the seminars cover a wider range of experience and knowledge levels than they did in 1994. But I digress…again…Darn those meds… We all got into the keynote last year, and hope we will be able to get our way in again this year, but I’m not holding my breath. Being in the same room with all those marvelous Mac-crazies succumbing to Steve’s Kool-Aid is a sight to see. Inquiring minds want to know if the guy with the neck beard be in the front row again this year…
Focus, Larry…focus!!! I knew I picked the wrong week to change medications. What I am seeing at this year’s Macworld Expo is a bigger emphasis on podcasting–the tools and the networking. This can only be a good thing. Guys like MyMac.com’s own Tim Robertson had to figure it out on his own. Heck, today you can buy a program like Ãœbercaster, add an inexpensive USB microphone and voilá, you are a podcaster. Let’s just hope that if you are thinking about doing a podcast, don’t put the cart before the horse–make sure you really have something to say.
Speaking of podcasters and such, Tim, Bill Palmer, and I went to the SmileOnMyMac party last night. It was an intimate gathering of movers and shakers, Mac media, select vendors with interesting new products, food, and social lubricants. I got a chance to meet the infamous MacOSKen (Ray), Adam Christiansen from the MacCast podcast, and countless more whose names, unfortunately, escape me at the moment. Tonight, we will likely see many more of them at the MacBlast party, with a surprise super-secret guest band. As readers of my deathless prose already know, unless someone can bring Billie Holiday back from the dead, I probably won’t be as impressed as I should be.
I’m sitting in my hotel room, can’t sleep, so why not write a blog, I always say. The quality of this blog will probably be reflected in my current sleep-deprived condition. Hope you will bear that in mind and be kind…
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