The main event of the Macintosh world looms large in our calendar - Macworld Expo San Francisco will be held from 07-Jan-02 through 11-Jan-02. PC-oriented trade shows were hemorrhaging even before the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and it only got worse afterwards, with attendance at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas down 40 percent and all exhibitors fitting into a single venue. But July's Macworld Expo in New York fared well in terms of attendance numbers, out-drawing the previous month's PC Expo, so there's hope that this upcoming show will prosper as well. That said, there are a few less exhibitors signed up for San Francisco versus New York, and I suspect that user-driven events like the Netter's Dinner may stand out in contrast to vendor parties, given tightened budgets for even those companies that are exhibiting.
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/>
Jobs Keynote Moved Up -- IDG World Expo announced late last week that the date for Steve Jobs's traditional Macworld Expo keynote has been moved a day earlier. The keynote will now be on Monday, 07-Jan-02 from 9 AM to 11:30 AM. The date change is unfortunate, because it means that many members of the press who had previously planned to arrive in San Francisco on Monday will now either miss the keynote entirely or have to change flight and hotel plans, although it appears that Apple may be reimbursing those impacted to some extent. The other primary attendees of the keynote - people with conference passes - are less affected, since the Macworld Expo conferences were already scheduled to start on Monday. Although Apple is undoubtedly aware that keynote attendance will be lower on Monday (and Steve Jobs prefers to play to a packed house), running the keynote on Monday could result in the loss of significant press coverage to CES, the International Consumer Electronics Show, that starts on Monday night in Las Vegas. Given Apple's recent foray into the consumer electronics market with the iPod and a likely redesign of the consumer-level iMac, Apple needs mainstream press attendance at the keynote.
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/expo/keynotes/>
TidBITS Events -- As in past years, a number of TidBITS staff members are speaking at Macworld, so if you're planning on being at the show, we never turn down a few shills. Wear a TidBITS t-shirt to one of my presentations and I'll sign it on the spot, and we'll all have some TidBITS t-shirts to hand out at our events.
On Tuesday, January 8th at 2:00 PM, I'll be at the Aladdin booth (#1407), passing on tips and tricks about using Eudora and answering any and all questions about Eudora or Internet email in general.
On Wednesday, January 9th, Contributing Editor Matt Neuburg will be delivering a Macworld Pro conference session entitled "Taking Control of Mac OS X" from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM in Room C24. Matt always puts on a great show, so if you've been wondering about how to automate applications like FileMaker Pro, Eudora, and Microsoft Word in Mac OS X using tools like QuicKeys, BBEdit, Script Debugger, REALbasic, and Cocoa, this session is for you.
On Thursday, January 10th, from noon to 1:00 PM Managing Editor Jeff Carlson and Bob LeVitus will be talking at the Peachpit booth (#2011) about iMovie and iTunes. Then Jeff will continue on from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at the same booth, speaking along with a panel of authors of Peachpit's digital video books. If you were lucky enough to get a DV camcorder this holiday season, make sure to stop by this talk. Meanwhile, Adam will be participating in a Macworld Pro conference session entitled "Backup, Archiving, and File Transfers for Mac OS X" from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM with Craig Isaacs and Leonard Rosenthol in Room 133. Come and learn why backup under Mac OS X is such a painful topic. Then, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Adam (and possibly other TidBITS editors) will be in the User Group Lounge in Room 250/262 (West Mezzanine in the South Hall of Moscone, one level above the show floor) for an hour of discussion about what's happened at the show, Apple, the Macintosh industry, and the topics that we've been covering in TidBITS. It's bound to be an interesting chat, and will be an ideal way to get off your feet for a while toward the end of the day. Thursday night is also the Netter's Dinner - see below for details.
<http://www.mugcenter.com/macworld/mwsf2002/ ugl.html>
On Friday, January 11th, Jeff and Glenn Fleishman will be back at the Peachpit booth (#2011) from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM to talk about using Adobe GoLive.
Netter's Dinner -- There's no reason to mess with success, so for the 16th year in a row, the annual Netter's Dinner remains the longest-running event (and certainly one of the most congenial) at Macworld Expo. Unfortunately, in what is also becoming a tradition (though an unplanned one last year), the booming voice and Hawaiian shirt of our fearless organizer, Jon Pugh, will once again be absent, so I'll be moderating the traditionally boisterous raise-your-hands survey. Help me avoid ad-libbing the survey on stage by sending me suggestions for questions.
As in previous years, meet at the top of the escalators on the south side of Moscone at 6:00 PM and be prepared for a brisk, sometimes damp walk that snarls traffic throughout downtown San Francisco. Our destination will of course be the Hunan at Sansome and Broadway, where dinner of hot and spicy Chinese food (vegetarian dishes are included too) costs $18 this year,. You must register in advance (by 08-Jan-02) via Kagi.
<http://www.seanet.com/~jonpugh/ nettersdinner.html>
Hess Macworld Events List -- Ilene Hoffman has started collecting events during Macworld Expo for this show's Robert Hess Memorial Events List, and I'm hoping to see it fill up over the next few weeks, since it's pretty sparse at the moment (if it's any consolation, a party list I found for CES was almost equally as bare). Nonetheless, bookmark the Hess Events List and check back right before the show to find events you might not otherwise have known about during the days and nights of Macworld Expo.
<http://www.ilenesmachine.com/partylist.shtml>
See you in San Francisco!