OT: Apple Announces Its Last Year at Macworld

[Lynn Fredricks]

> My dissatisfaction with IDG probably dates to when the 
> lackluster MacWorld magazine bought out the much better 
> MacUser magazine, decimated its staff and removed all the 
> useful content. It didn't help matters much to see fellow 
> developers no longer able to/interested in shelling out big 
> bucks for small booths at MacWorld Expo, and the prices of 
> those booths rising year after year. Nor having the 
> developers section in a separate ghetto for a few years, then 
> finally dropped altogether. I do blame IDG for the smaller 
> size of trade shows over the last few years, due to the high 
> barrier of entry.

Yes...the two 'zines I miss are MacUser and MacWeek. MacWeek was the
industry zine, equivalent to the current 'eweek' which previously was
PCWeek.

Prices are just nuts for shows. Usually a 10x10 space is going to run you
over $5K, and that's for an empty spot. I helped put together a showing at a
MacWorld about five years ago, and just internet access for the three odd
days cost $1,000! And unless your booth can be assembled by a small pygmy
child, you were told you had to use expensive union labor (at the time, at
about $70-80 an hour).


> Personally, my dealings with IDG in trying to set up user 
> resources have been dismal. I'm quite happy to see Apple pull 
> the plug. IDG has gotten into pissing contests with Steve 
> Jobs before, and there's only one outcome from that.

I made some effort to try to get us a Birds of a Feather set up, but they
provide no feedback until the very last minute with a "sorry, can't do it"
message.

I had several clients back around '96-98 that actually made more than enough
money on the floor of Macworld for it to be profitable - covering all
transport, set up, etc. There used to be a lot of really big booths then,
not just ones belonging to Apple/Adobe/Microsoft.

There seems to come a time where, within an industry, everyone knows about
what the margins are for everyone else. Then the "gatekeepers" begin to
raise their rates, up to the point where its no longer clear if the effort
is even remotely worth doing.

Somehow Mark, I just knew you would reply to my post - I was just thinking
last night "they ought to can Apple's keynote this year and get Mark to do
it" :-) Then maybe it would get back to being about the Mac and not the
forthcoming year's multicolored iPod accessories...

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com

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