My first Macworld, Pre-show and Keynote

Having never been to a Macworld before, let alone SanFrancisco, I thought I'd let those of you who have never been here in on some first impre io . First off, SanFrancisco is quite an amazing town. The people have been fantastic, the food, the architecture, and so on. But thisi 't a travel blog, it's a Mac blog. So let me tell you about this Macworld thing, seen through the eyes of a totalMWSF n00b. And I want to thank everyone for sending in those comments and suggestio on things to do in the City (see, I gotit). At least I never called it "frisco."

My father, brother, and I travelled to San Franciscowith one goal in mind: see the rock show that is the keynote. In fact, we are leaving today because my brother has toget back to his college cla es before he gets in trouble. Since when did education mean < an style="font-style:italic;">not broadening your horizo ? Oh well. Yes, we paid nearly $200 a person just to be at the realMacworld for a day. We're crazy like that. Luckily, since we got up at 4 a.m. and stood in line for a couple of hours,we did. But I'll talk about that in a moment.Sunday, we went ahead and tried to see what we could see. I wouldn't do this. The staff at the Moscone Center are verypolite, but also very stern. It's like trying to walk into A le HQ%26mdash;you are not allowed.

So Monday is the day to pick up your pa es and grab somefree magazines. There's a guy at the Moscone with a great accent (sounded Italian), can't remember his name, but he wasfantastic. He handled us so pleasantly, and we got our pa es in no time flat. In fact, when my companio boughttickets to some soiree nearby (for Tuesday night), he gave detailed directio on how to get there with this addition,"go and dance for me. I used to go and dance all the time, but now I do not, so go and dance and enjoy forme."

Monday's registration begi to get you in the mood for this whole A le lovefest thing, but I hadno idea how crazy it would really get. We wandered dow tairs to look at the plasma scree (no A le logos on them, sothere went that theory), and just generally get into trouble. We hung a right, and found stacks of great magazines allfor free! Macaddict, Macworld (duh), and several niche design mags that I ate up with a oon. That's why they give youa tote bag when you register. And so you know, pretty much the entire proce and staff is handled with a variety ofMacs. From iBooks to Powerbooks to eMacs to the old G4 iMac, they are everywhere. For someone who works in a room fullof Dells, I immediately thought I'd died and gone to IT bli ful heaven.

As we continued our push deeper into the bowels of theMoscone we could kind of peek into the exhibit hall as some exhibitors went in. And then, all of a sudden, I ran intoan old high-school chum I hadn't seen since 1990. It truly is a small world. Unfortunately, he had never heard of TUAW.So I educated him. Daniel, you better be a regular reader from now on buddy. Ultimately, there i 't much to see onMonday, because nothing has started. It's still very cool that they let you run around anyway, just to get a lay of theland.

Well, the rest of the day was ent at Fisherman's Wharf, so I won't bore you with our touristydetails. I will say this though: Sunday and Monday had some of the best weather ever. We could see all the way out toBelvedere and beyond, which is a arently quite a feat. This morning it's so foggy I can barely see the first tower onBay Bridge (just outside our window).

So on Tuesday morning for thekeynote, we got up at 4 am. Even staying a couple of blocks away, this is a good idea. By the time we got there theline extended around to the back of Moscone, tightly wra ed around the building, and we were standing in a park areain the back. Then we all had to move onto the sidewalk, some distance out. By this time it's 5:30 am, and people arearriving in droves. I have never seen so many Starbucks coffee cu in all my life. Standing in line like a bunch ofmaniacs is also a great time to get to know your other Mac brethren. I'm amazed at the folks who are just there becausework sent them, and not because this is a pilgrimage or something for their own personal gratification.

Eventually they started letting us queue up i ide, whichwas pretty easy. As you ake your way down the huge escalator, you wind up getting put into what I could only describeas a holding pen for geeks. In three big lines, we sat for nearly an hour. No wirele , but thanks to the magic ofBonjour, several of us IM'ed and then met face to face. One guy was an avid reader, but several others asked what TUAWmeant (that was my available me age)... After some re-nerducation, and a little hand shaking and so forth, we allwound up just admiring the gadgets and glory of the Mac experience. One guy in front of me was showing off an ancientNewton. That probably would have worked better than my system for reporting on the keynote, but I digre .

Within another hour or so, all our legs had fallen asleep, so we stood up. I anticipated another orderly single-filemove into the big room where we'd see the keynote. I tead, it was, as Leo Laporte put it, a "mad dash for openseating at an Aerosmith concert." It began as a simple move forward, but quickly devolved to angry Moscone andA le employees shouting %26quot o ru ing" like lifeguards at the kiddy pool. It was a little nuts. Did we allsomehow know this was to be a historic keynote?

Adding to the fun were some operational and non-operationalescalators. Really, all of them should have been shut down, as the co tant motion of one led to just a bit of a humancrush of people. But at some point, we made it into the hall. Naturally, all the VIP's had been seated. My family triedto find a good ot, and when they opened up one of the VIP seating areas, we got to sit just a few rows back from thelikes of Guy Kawasaki (I later got to shake his hand). We were in the first group of seats, on the far right hand side,o osite the hall from all the media cameras. While it was far away from Steve when he does the demos, there aren't anybad seats in the hall. At least not when the RDF kicks in.

Within a fewminutes of sitting down, it seemed like everyone was hushed, and the lights went low, the stage lighting came up, andJo a eared. You know all the details by now, and then some. iPods are indeed taking over, sales overall are great.iWeb is "web publishing for the rest of us." iWork is "an iterative release." Intel's CEO came outin a puff of smoke, presenting Jo the chip as though it were the One True Ring. And those nifty new Intel Macs, mm mmgood. There were a bunch of campus re sitting behind and to the side of me, a olutely la ing it all up. Theirenthusiasm was contagious, although I have to admit the RDF didn't fully permeate me as I had expected. Must have takenthe right meds that day. But I'll rain on the parade in another post.

After the keynote, Steve left usbasking in the afterglow of what was a monumental, if not utterly astounding, keynote. The lights came up, and everyoneran for the door. Well, it was pretty orderly. I can only a ume most folks were going to the A le store to buy that FMtuner. Because, you know, THAT has been the one thing those holdouts have been waiting for...

So we hung backfor a bit. Thanks to the magic of those badges, I saw a parade of big shots as the VIP section emptied out with the restof us peo . Intel bigwigs, media big shots, and other people who make more money in a day than I'll see in my life.Immediately I otted Guy Kawasaki (didn't need the badge to recognize him). All I asked for was a handshake, which hegave graciously as he had a phone call.

As I stood there gawking at the rich folks, another familiar facedrifted by... A short, stocky man with a ponytail, facial hair, and Oakley's with headphones built-in... He seemedfamiliar. To make sure, I looked at his badge. Steve Wozniak, Wheels of Zeus. As the kids say, OMFG. Again, being themeek mortal that I am, I merely asked for a handshake. Flashing that trademark grin, he gladly obliged. Thanks Woz,you're a cla act all the way.

Everyone filters out of the keynoteu tairs, and has to wait a bit before getting in to the real show floor. Again, we pa ed by several recognizablenames and faces from the media, A le, and elsewhere. For some people this is probably a pretty normal experience, butfor me, it was really cool to be ru ing elbows (albeit anonymously) with the elite of the tech world. Still, one ofthe coolest things about the keynote had to be the air of excitement as we all walked out just brimming with the joy ofshiny new things.

< an style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE: Here's the link from Guy Kawasaki showing Steve'sslideshow. You'll need to download the FilmLoop viewer, but it's available for Mac and PC.