Things have been busy on my end lately and I’m going to be heading up to Macworld Expo Tuesday morning. While I fully intended to have my plans set by now, sadly that hasn’t happened. I can, however, report the following:

Mac Roundtable Recording on Show Floor

I’ll be participating in the live Mac Roundtable recording on Wednesday January 7 at 4:00 p.m. at the Mac Learning Center in Booth 3036 in the North Hall. Along with me will be several of my favorite Mac Podcasters. Please stop by and say hello.

Other Interesting Events

I’m also planning to attend several events:
Following the Mac Roundtable recording, Adam Christianson of the MacCast is organizing a user event that should be social and fun.
IDG is also planning a town hall meeting Wednesday night concerning the future of an Apple-less Macworld.
The Cirque-du-Mac party Wednesday night should be a blast. This one requires a ticket but they are not impossible to obtain.
David Pogue’s Wednesday morning Letteresque spoof of a Mac based late night talk show is always entertaining.
Leo Laporte is giving a speech Thursday morning. I have no clue what he will talk about but he is always intelligent and entertaining.
I’m sure there will be more. Follow my twitter at “macsparky”. My most important Macworld advice is to make some friends and have fun. See you there.

Wow! The Mac blogosphere experienced 5 alarm fire today when Apple announced that January 2009 will be the last time it participates in Macworld and Steve won’t be giving this year’s keynote, Phil Schuller will. Apple explains that the significant cost of its participation (probably in the millions) just is not a wise investment. Hmmmm. I find that one a little hard to swallow from a company that reports quarterly profits with the word billion. (that is nine zeros.) The other common explanation, that Apple doesn’t want to be tied to IDG’s schedule and forced to make major product releases after the holidays, makes a lot more sense.
My reaction to this news is mixed. On one level, I’m disappointed. If you’ve ever been to Macworld, the huge Apple booth is imposing and lends a certain level of credibility to the event. On the other hand, last year I was at Macworld 3 days and spent about 30 minutes total in the Apple booth.
For every attendee, Macworld is a different experience. Some people arrive to find distributors for their new iPod cases, some people go to develop valuable business relationships. The parts I enjoy most are connecting with new and old friends and and finding great new Macintosh software and hardware to share with the macsparky faithful.
So, on its surface, Apple’s 2010 pullout really doesn’t affect my experience. If this pullout turns into a slow death spiral for future Macworld expos, that would be tragic. The annual east coast Macworld died shortly after Apple pulled out. Nevertheless, I have hope for Macworld. It is just such a different experience than any other trade show I’ve ever attended. There is a spirit camaraderie and I’d hate to see that end.

My friend Adam over at Macworld Bound pointed to an excellent virtual brochure published by the Macworld promoters, IDG. I’ve posted on this before. If you can get away for a few days and want to bask in all that is Mac geekiness, I highly recommend it. I had a fantastic time last year and look forward to returning in January. Now if I can just convince IDG to give me another press pass. Regardless, I will be there reporting back to the MacSparky Nation.

Last year I was fortunate enough to get to spend a few days in San Francisco at the Macworld Expo. I must admit, however, that my Macworld experience did not follow the usual path you would expect. I spent the majority of my time slumming the halls meeting tons of great readers, podcasters, developers, and other miscellaneous mac geeks. Indeed, I would have to say the best part of the experience by far was all of the great people I met and new friends I made. I made a point of finding people to eat meals with, visit events with, and even troll the display booths with.
For the benefit of this website, getting to shake hands with individual developers and have them answer my questions made a huge difference in my ability to report and review for the past year. Another nice benefit of the trip was my inspiration for the resurrection of the Mac Roundtable which is doing quite well again.
I had so much fun that I just recently booked travel arrangements for my return. If any readers are going to be up there, let me know. I’ll be there Tuesday through Thursday. I thought about going to the Steve-Note but when I realized the extra expenses for that would be about $450 plus a night on the sidewalk, I decided I could avoid the reality distortion field for another year. Also, if you are planning on heading up, don’t miss visiting Macworld Bound, where you can get great tips and information for your trip.

Before leaving San Francisco, I recorded a short narrative of some of my impressions from Macworld 2008. The recording was published this weekend in the Surfbit’s MacReviewCast episode 143. The recording was extemporaneous so there is no transcript. If you are interested, you’ll have to go download and listen. I assure you it is all pure genius inspired … umm … entertaining.