Macworld in history

January 8th, 2007

macworldinhistory

Since the Macworld conference and expo is just a few days away, I thought making a short trip in the past and present you with the history of MacWorld.

It all started in 1985, that was the first edition. Not much variety at first. Although the expo was held twice a year, the location was always the same.
The Moscone Center in San Francisco. Things got pretty difficult because at first the Moscone Center wasn’t able to hold both the Conference and Expo, so in the first 9 years, the Expo took place in Brooks Hall, near the San Francisco Civic Center. In 1993, the Moscone Center finished its expansion and was able to hold both events under the same location.

With the two annual editions of the Macworld, a summer show was being held somewhere in the Eastern part of the United States. In the early years, it was first held In Boston, was moved to New York in 1998 and it remained there until 2005.

Steve Jobs’ keynote presentations – also known as the “Stevenotes” – became a trademark of the show since 1997, and it’s interesting to know that in 1999, the actor Noah Whyle appeared during the keynote address posing as Jobs, in reference to his role in the notorious movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. In 2000, the keynote revealed the Aqua user interface to the public in San Francisco, while New York’s keynote saw the introduction of the Power Mac G4 Cube.

In 2002, IDG World Expo wanted to move the 2004 edition of the summer show to Boston. but in the same day Apple declined the participation to the event. After a year, IDG renamed the show in New York Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo, but in the next two years the show was held back in Boston and the event was entitled Macworld Conference & Expo, as Apple was still declining the invitations. Since many other companies did the same, IDG announced that there will be no further summer shows.

The show wasn’t limited to the US only, similar events taking place in the UK or Japan too, and in January 2005, IDG announced Macworld On Tour, a small series of conferences in various North American cities, but no future announcements for Macworld On Tour have been made since the cancellation of an initial conference in Kissimmee, Florida.

That’s just about it, and here we are standing right here, with just a few days until Macworld 2007 in San Francisco. Just so you know, this one is expected to be the largest one ever, with a 28 percent increase in pre-show registrations over the 2006 edition, according to IDG. The event will be expanded in the North Hall of the above mentioned Moscone Center, and to be short, ~400 companies are expected to showcase even more hundreds of new products.

Macworld in history

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