My Trip to Macworld San Francisco 2007

So, I’m back from Macworld. And quite an experience it was! I’ve attended PC Expo in New York twice and regularly attend the DC FOSE convention, but Macworld was an event particularly catered to my Apple-centric interests.

The first bit of fun once we arrived in San Francisco on Monday was renting a car and driving down to Cupertino to visit Apple headquarters, a pilgrimage to Mecca I’d not yet undertaken. It was great – larger than life, really. After all these years (I got my first Apple in 1984), to finally visit the Mothership, so to speak. I got a little carried away at the The Company Store, I’m afraid. But when will I be there next?

Tuesday began with the 4:30am alarm sounding in time to get us in line at Moscone West by 5:30am. After a few hours of standing around (thank god they erected a coffee and pastry stand where we were waiting) in the Priority Keynote seating line – tix courtesy of MacRumors which I was helping with live Keynote coverage (which went beautifully), the doors opened and we headed upstairs and grabbed our seats. Seeing Steve Jobs on stage delivering his Keynote address was quite a thrill, but of course, the best part was being blown away by the far-beyond-expectations iPhone. It’s going to be a painful wait.

The rest of the trip, which for me was just that afternoon and the next morning (thanks to baby Rory), was a busy jumble of walking the Expo floor looking at the endless rows of Apple-oriented displays, putting faces with online identities I’ve known, dinners with prominent web folks (two words: Kobe beef), running around San Francisco, and not so much sleeping. I was sad to have to finally depart. It was a memorable experience I am going to try my hardest to repeat next year, or if not then, soon.