14 DAY TRIAL // Everybody expects this year's Macworld, but I am sure that only a few could be able to point out the most interesting events in the history of this show, and - although I can't claim to know everything about it - with a little help from my friend, the Internet, I think I can tell you some things...
Between 1985 - the year of the first edition - and 2005, the Macworld was held twice a year, with an additional summer show being held in the Eastern U.S. The location of this event was always the same, when it happened in San Francisco, the Moscone Center, but the Expo was held in Brooks Hall near the San Francisco Civic Center between 1985 and 1993, when the Moscone Center finished the expansion and was able to house the Conference and Expo in the same location. The summer event was held first in Boston, and then it was moved to New York in 1998, where it remained until its last edition, in 2005.
Steve Jobs' keynote presentations - also known as "Stevenotes" - became a trademark of the show since 1997, and it is 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 announced its plans to move the 2004 edition of the East Cost show to Boston, and the same day Apple announced it won't participate in the Boston Expo. In 2003, IDG World Expo renamed the New York show Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo, but in 2004 and 2005 the show held in Boston and entitled Macworld Conference & Expo Apple kept refusing to exhibit there, and since many other companies followed their example, IDG announced that no more summer shows would be held in the future.
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.
Leaving the past behind, I must tell you that this year's San Francisco event is expected to be the largest ever, with a 28 percent increase in pre-show registrations over the 2006 edition, according to IDG. In 2006, there were 38,441 visitors, while in the previous year 35,989 attendees were recorded. Now, we'll have an event that expanded into North Hall at Moscone, with hundreds of new products expected to take off and an exhibit hall with almost 400 companies present.