Each year, thousands flock to the Moscone center in San Francisco to see the latest products, enhance their skills from leaders in the Macintosh and tech sectors and some users just want to hang out with fellow Mac users. All attendees share a common interest and motivation for attending and that is Steves keynote. For years, the keynote address at MWSF has set the tone for the year ahead and given users some brand new toys for which to play. Steve Jobs has delivered the address since 1998 and each time users love to hear him discuss the going ons at Apple Computer, crack a few jokes and generally make people excited about the technology the same way he feels.
For those that cant attend expo, they enjoy the keynote via an online web cast (video and audio) or a live updating transcript from the Macintosh news sites. Media enjoy the event because they can get snapshots for the website and deliver the news up to the minute to their readers. MWSF is the busiest week for the Mac web since the subculture of Mac (MacHeads) are on the edge of their seat typically calling in sick to their jobs and school just to read or watch Steve Wow! us.
This year everything changed for the keynote and Macworld in general. This is my fourth conference and the enhanced security was great but miscommunication between IDG officials, security teams and the companies exhibiting (including apple) made the experience hell for attendees. I could tell things were going to be difficult when arriving on Sunday to get my badge I had to go through a certain door and as I walked to the badge area I had five security guards stepping into me and forming a barricade leading up to keynote hall (Espinada Ballrooom) even though I was 25 yards away. As I stepped to the badge area, two guards were watching me from behind the booth as I reached for my wallet to show I.D. I was trying to get photos of the outside and lobby of the Moscone center and as I walked past a guard he said nothing to me just stepped in front of me. He may be trying to play hard ass, but I had to walk around him then he just kept facing forward still not saying a word. Walking around the center ON THE SIDEWALK at 4AM on Tuesday morning, there were doors leading into the keynote hall wide open but you could not see a thing because on every corner there were Apple security guys dressed in black and the entire open area you could look through was 10 guards standing side by side in a fashion similar to an entourage guarding the president. I walked past the south side of Moscone and there was a guy sitting in a chair by a satellite truck shining a Mac-Lite in my eye for a few minutes forcing me to pause the iPod and ask him what his problem was.
I could already tell Tuesday was going to be more trouble than it was worth. My crew and I purchased three dozen doughnuts to give out to attendees standing in the rain since 2AM or earlier in some cases. We felt it would be a good service to the visitors and fun as well. I gathered the guards dont care what we do but just doing their job cause many took a doughnut and thanked us for the service but getting up there took thirty minutes of legal jargon about liability and other things that could happen from our service provided but in the end we came out ahead and the users were thankful. Keynote really took the cake for the week. Last year we were able to line up outside of the ballroom, were checked by Apple staff as we entered into the lobby and once the ok was given it was a mad dash into the hall. Fun, exciting and we got the coverage with cameras, camcorders and news from the announcements. This year we had to go through one door and that door only, then our badges were given a glance and we were directed to the lobby or downstairs in the Macworld live room which had a sign placed that read Media Overflow. I know of the media overflow and the overflow room in general but was confused why I was there since we arrived at 5:30AM. Then I figured this was simply an area to separate media into two groups to save confusion during the seating process. I left to distribute doughnuts and upon arrival I leaned what happened. It seems IDG booked too many press. So many, the keynote hall could not hold them all so Apple chose what press they needed in the keynote and the rest were put in an overflow room. Oddly enough those that did not hold the expensive conference passes were shown the door as well and sent home until the conference opened; missing the keynote entirely. I even saw representatives from CNN and WSJ being sent to that room so obviously the process was not a smooth one.
When the keynote started we saw Steve on the big TV screen with an 8 second delay behind the users seeing it live. The audio was low and it just sucked not seeing Steve. If I had known this was going to happen I would have stayed home and watched it instead of spending money coming to San Francisco. I had a good time here but the main reason I come is the keynote. Some rival sites found a way in but overall it was like that for 15% of the press and almost all web-based media. Apple said, off the record, they did not have much to do with it and no one noticed the problem until a few days before the keynote, which gave no time for replanning the event.
The entire thing was handled poorly and put the jist or core of media out of the loop. There was no warning email, notification or anything. I would not have gotten up at 4AM if I had known I would be in a room for 4 hours waiting for a different schedule would have been made. I am sure this will not happen again since many Mac users get their news from the web first and although it seems logical to exclude them from these events, it is a big mistake. Precautions should be taken to not allow this to happen again.