Posted By Paul Kafasis on June 4th, 2009

Each January for the past 25 years, Mac users from around the world have gathered in San Francisco for Macworld. An expo, conference, reunion, and carnival all in one, Macworld provides the absolute best chance for Mac users of all stripes to connect and re-connect with one another, as customers, colleagues, and friends. Macworld is a powerful celebration of the thousands of products and millions of people that make up the Mac universe, an annual reminder of just how important the products we use everyday are.

Late last year, Apple stunned us all when they announced that after 2009, they would no longer be exhibiting at Macworld. They said trade shows were outmoded, and the Apple Stores did many times the foot traffic of the Expo. It was too expensive and just not worth their time. Many worry this announcement may spell the end of Macworld. Apple’s withdrawal from the East coast Macworld show quickly led to its collapse, after two years of sparsely-attended shows. The fear is that the West coast show could meet a similar fate.

I too worry about the future of Macworld. Macworld 2010 is still on track, with new dates now scheduled for February. However, Apple has long been the biggest draw of Macworld, and without them it will certainly be a different show. There will be no enormous Apple booth, nor any announcement on the scale of 2001’s iTunes or 2007’s iPhone.

I don’t believe we’re going to see an expo on its deathbed though. I think that we may well see the birth of a new expo. Macworld 2010 will be less tied to Apple, but it will still have plenty of the same familiar faces. Friends you’ve met over the years will be there, and so will hundreds of the Mac universe’s beloved developers. Macworld exists because of everyone who goes, not just because of Apple’s presence. Macworld can easily be as relevant in 2010 as it was in the years before. All it takes is two things: attendees and exhibitors.

We’ll be there – Come join us!

With that in mind, I’m delighted to be able to plant a flag and say that in 2010, Rogue Amoeba will again be exhibiting at Macworld. We still believe in Macworld and all that it provides. We believe it’s relevant, useful, and worth having. We believe that meeting new customers, talking to existing ones, and sharing a great time with all manner of Mac friends, is still worth doing. If you want proof of this belief, look no further than booth #1545, where we’ll be demoing great audio software under the banner with the strange name and crazy mascot.

I’m hopeful that Macworld 2010 will continue to be the celebration of the Mac community that Macworld has long been for many of us. In a global economy where customers and companies are tens of thousands of miles from one another, Macworld may actually be more important than ever, as a means of providing face-to-face contact. Simply put, I still believe in Macworld, as both a user and a developer. That’s why we’re exhibiting and that’s why we hope you’ll be attending.

Details

The Macworld Expo Hall will be open from February 11th to the 13th 2010, in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, and you can register for a free Expo Hall pass right here. So mark the dates, and remember our booth (#1545). Come see the beginning of something special. Come see the new Macworld.

Macworld 2010: We’ll see you there.