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More on Macworld Expo

So there've been quite a few posts in various places now about expo, some good, most stupid.

Oh, one thing I found amusing...some prat, I forget who said that you could get the same kind of personal networking out of a MUG that you can from Expo...an interesting opinion. As a long time attendee and speaker at the MacIT conference track, here's my response:

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

Yeah. MUGs == Macworld.

Stop smoking crack kid.

So some background: I've been speaking on IT issues at Macworld Conference & Expo since 1999. I'm a n00b, sue me. I've done everything from 90 minute sessions to two-day workshops. For 2010, I was part of the committee that set up the MacIT track. I was the "corporate IT voice" of that group. It was a lot of hard work, but 'even without Apple', that conference is going to rock, and I am very proud of my work there, and very humbled that Paul Kent asked me to be a part of that.

It's safe to say, I, like a lot of people, mainly go to Macworld Conference & Expo for the conferences. I do wander the show floor, but other than Microsoft, I never dealt with the 'big' booths other than to meet people. 90% of my time in the Apple booth was meeting people there. The people who spent all day at the Apple booth were what I call 'floor zombies'. They'd go to Macworld for a week, wander the floor aimlessly, try to get free shit and party invites, and generally, get in the fucking way.

But, if you were patient, and methodical, you could find the vendors who were the mammals amongst the dinosaurs. Companies like Kerio, Bare Bones, Aqua Connect, Active Storage, JAMF, LANRev, and others. They were the ones I looked for. Alsoft. Dantz. They weren't interesting to the zombies, but they were, and are very interesting to me. Lithium. Neon.

These are not vendors who give a fuck about MUGs.

Which is fine, my world doesn't care about MUGs either.

Oh, and for those who say the conference attendees don't matter, let me explain the ratios to you:

An expo floor pass costs between $25 and $45, depending on when you buy.

A single day User Conference pass is $105. Someone who shows up for a single 90 minute session, in terms of money, is worth between 2 and 4 Floor Zombies, (FZs)

If you sign up to go to all the User Conference days, that's $195 to $245, or between 4.3 and 9.8 FZ's

The Market Symposiums, Creative Safaris, and MacLabs all have that same 4.3/9.8:1 FZ ratio.

Power Tools? That's $595 to $695, or 13.2 to 27.8 FZs per Power Tools attendee.
MacIT is $795 to $895, or 17.7 to 35.8 FZs per attendee
The Platinum Pass is the big one, that's $995 to $1595, or 22.1 to 63.8 FZs per attendee.

So let's say we had 5000 conference attendees last year. (A number I am totally pulling out of my butt.) Depending on the conference they went to, those 5000 conference attendees spent as much money on Macworld Conference & Expo as 10,000 to 319,000 Floor Zombies. Even if we had only 2500 conference attendees, that's still as much money as 5000 to 159500 Floor Zombies.

You want to know why it's Macworld Conference & Expo and not Macworld Expo & Conference?

Follow.The.Money.

So we're talking about a group with serious economic power, far and away greater than the FZs.

But even more important than that was the chance to actually be in the room with some seriously smart people and just talk to them. Don't give me some GoToMeeting bullshit about online. Online doesn't command your attention, and you can't just 'chat' with the person next to you whom you've never met before. Online meetings are too easy to ignore, or only moderately pay attention to.

When you're in the room, and in the hallway after the session, that's something you can't replicate unless well, you're in the room or the hallway. Want to talk to someone from <BIGCORP> but in a relaxed setting where they aren't being watched constantly? You know all those parties that people bag on as being nothing more than a chance to get drunk? Yeah, that's only what the idiots think. Those with a clue know how much real business is conducted over beers and tequila.

My boss likes to kid me about the size of my 'little black book of industry people'. Well, I didn't build that via Acrobat Connect and mailing lists or whatever toy Google is pushing this week. I built that in person, at Macworlds, and WWDCs. It's taken me over a decade, but it's a hell of a book. One big advantage? The folks I met ten years ago who were just starting at various companies?

They got promoted :-)

Yeah.

I also met friends. In fact, out of everyone who was on my side of the room at my wedding, less than ten were not 'Macworld People'. If it weren't for Macworld, I'd have not gotten the chance to drive a '65 E-Type Jag. Damn, that rocked. Macworld, the WWDC and other 'real' conferences have gotten me friends, jobs, and some good times. Somewhere along the way, Paul Kent and I became friends, and discovered a lot of commonality, especially centering on guitars and rock and roll. Even though I tease him terribly about how he seems to think music ended about 1972.

Professionally, it's helped me as a sysadmin in monstrous ways. Every year, I learn as much in 5 days at Macworld, or WWDC as I learn the rest of the year, maybe more. Because I get to talk to people from wildly different backgrounds and network setups, I get to experience points of view and knowledge that I would never pick up, certainly not to the same depth. Random people saying, "Here, lemme show you"

You don't get that in a fucking online meeting.

You don't get "Oh that, hold on, lemme get someone...HEY PHIL, Come 'splain this to him, he's new", "Phil" would end up being the engineer who built the product. You can't get that at an online conference, because they're not random. They're focused. People who happen to have the answer don't go randomly wandering by. There's no wandering online.

That is why Macworld Conference & Expo can't be replaced by shit like Acrobat Connect, GoToMeeting, Google Wave, and all the rest. Those things are useful, but you're never going to have the "Hey John, come talk to Renee, her company is working on a Windows Terminal Server implementation for Mac OS X." Dude, that was so fucking hot. But that's how I met Aqua Connect. At the MacEnterprise party. Or maybe the AFP548 party. I forget. But I remember spending an hour talking about the ins and outs of RDP on the Mac, and what I'd like to see from that product with the CEO of the company over beers.

MUGs can't do that. Online shit certainly can't, and spare me the PR about the Apple Stores.

You need a huge number of people from all walks of life and backgrounds to have that kind of regular "A-HA" moments.

Without Macworld Conference & Expo, that shit is gone.

That would seriously suck.

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Posted by John C. Welch at 22:51 | Permalink

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So there've been quite a few posts in various places now about expo, some good, most stupid.\n\nOh, one thing I found amusing...some prat, I forget who said that you could get the same kind of personal networking out of a MUG that you can from Expo...an interesting opinion. As a long time attendee and speaker at the MacIT conference track, here's my response:\n\n\nBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA\n\nYeah. MUGs == Macworld.\n\nStop smoking crack kid.\n\nSo some background: I've been speaking on IT issues at Macworld Conference & Expo since 1999. I'm a n00b, sue me. I've done everything from 90 minute sessions to two-day workshops. For 2010, I was part of the committee that set up the MacIT track. I was the \"corporate IT voice\" of that group. It was a lot of hard work, but 'even without Apple', that conference is going to rock, and I am very proud of my work there, and very humbled that Paul Kent asked me to be a part of that.\n\nIt's safe to say, I, like a lot of people, mainly go to Macworld Conference & Expo for the conferences. I do wander the show floor, but other than Microsoft, I never dealt with the 'big' booths other than to meet people. 90% of my time in the Apple booth was meeting people there. The people who spent all day at the Apple booth were what I call 'floor zombies'. They'd go to Macworld for a week, wander the floor aimlessly, try to get free shit and party invites, and generally, get in the fucking way.\n\nBut, if you were patient, and methodical, you could find the vendors who were the mammals amongst the dinosaurs. Companies like Kerio, Bare Bones, Aqua Connect, Active Storage, JAMF, LANRev, and others. They were the ones I looked for. Alsoft. Dantz. They weren't interesting to the zombies, but they were, and are very interesting to me. Lithium. Neon. \n\nThese are not vendors who give a fuck about MUGs. \n\nWhich is fine, my world doesn't care about MUGs either. \n\nOh, and for those who say the conference attendees don't matter, let me explain the ratios to you:\n\nAn expo floor pass costs between \$25 and \$45, depending on when you buy.\n\nA single day User Conference pass is \$105. Someone who shows up for a single 90 minute session, in terms of money, is worth between 2 and 4 Floor Zombies, (FZs)\n\nIf you sign up to go to all the User Conference days, that's \$195 to \$245, or between 4.3 and 9.8 FZ's\n\nThe Market Symposiums, Creative Safaris, and MacLabs all have that same 4.3/9.8:1 FZ ratio.\n\nPower Tools? That's \$595 to \$695, or 13.2 to 27.8 FZs per Power Tools attendee.\nMacIT is \$795 to \$895, or 17.7 to 35.8 FZs per attendee\nThe Platinum Pass is the big one, that's \$995 to \$1595, or 22.1 to 63.8 FZs per attendee.\n\nSo let's say we had 5000 conference attendees last year. (A number I am totally pulling out of my butt.) Depending on the conference they went to, those 5000 conference attendees spent as much money on Macworld Conference & Expo as 10,000 to 319,000 Floor Zombies. Even if we had only 2500 conference attendees, that's still as much money as 5000 to 159500 Floor Zombies.\n\nYou want to know why it's Macworld Conference & Expo and not Macworld Expo & Conference?\n\nFollow.The.Money.\n\nSo we're talking about a group with serious economic power, far and away greater than the FZs.\n\nBut even more important than that was the chance to actually be in the room with some seriously smart people and just talk to them. Don't give me some GoToMeeting bullshit about online. Online doesn't command your attention, and you can't just 'chat' with the person next to you whom you've never met before. Online meetings are too easy to ignore, or only moderately pay attention to. \n\nWhen you're in the room, and in the hallway after the session, that's something you can't replicate unless well, you're in the room or the hallway. Want to talk to someone from <BIGCORP> but in a relaxed setting where they aren't being watched constantly? You know all those parties that people bag on as being nothing more than a chance to get drunk? Yeah, that's only what the idiots think. Those with a clue know how much real business is conducted over beers and tequila. \n\nMy boss likes to kid me about the size of my 'little black book of industry people'. Well, I didn't build that via Acrobat Connect and mailing lists or whatever toy Google is pushing this week. I built that in person, at Macworlds, and WWDCs. It's taken me over a decade, but it's a hell of a book. One big advantage? The folks I met ten years ago who were just starting at various companies?\n\nThey got promoted :-)\n\nYeah.\n\nI also met friends. In fact, out of everyone who was on my side of the room at my wedding, less than ten were not 'Macworld People'. If it weren't for Macworld, I'd have not gotten the chance to drive a '65 E-Type Jag. Damn, that rocked. Macworld, the WWDC and other 'real' conferences have gotten me friends, jobs, and some good times. Somewhere along the way, Paul Kent and I became friends, and discovered a lot of commonality, especially centering on guitars and rock and roll. Even though I tease him terribly about how he seems to think music ended about 1972.\n\nProfessionally, it's helped me as a sysadmin in monstrous ways. Every year, I learn as much in 5 days at Macworld, or WWDC as I learn the rest of the year, maybe more. Because I get to talk to people from wildly different backgrounds and network setups, I get to experience points of view and knowledge that I would never pick up, certainly not to the same depth. Random people saying, \"Here, lemme show you\"\n\nYou don't get that in a fucking online meeting.\n\nYou don't get \"Oh that, hold on, lemme get someone...HEY PHIL, Come 'splain this to him, he's new\", \"Phil\" would end up being the engineer who built the product. You can't get that at an online conference, because they're not random. They're focused. People who happen to have the answer don't go randomly wandering by. There's no wandering online. \n\nThat is why Macworld Conference & Expo can't be replaced by shit like Acrobat Connect, GoToMeeting, Google Wave, and all the rest. Those things are useful, but you're never going to have the \"Hey John, come talk to Renee, her company is working on a Windows Terminal Server implementation for Mac OS X.\" Dude, that was so fucking hot. But that's how I met Aqua Connect. At the MacEnterprise party. Or maybe the AFP548 party. I forget. But I remember spending an hour talking about the ins and outs of RDP on the Mac, and what I'd like to see from that product with the CEO of the company over beers. \n\nMUGs can't do that. Online shit certainly can't, and spare me the PR about the Apple Stores. \n\nYou need a huge number of people from all walks of life and backgrounds to have that kind of regular \"A-HA\" moments. \n\nWithout Macworld Conference & Expo, that shit is gone. \n\nThat would seriously suck.