Macworld 2009 Day 2 "Tiny Town"

Macworld 2009, Day 2, Wednesday, Jan. 7

Well, day 2 of Macworld was another great experience. I ventured over to the South Hall since I spent my whole day in the North Hall yesterday, and I ended up spending more time in the South Hall overall. In the South Hall there was what was called "Tiny Town." People kept referring to Tiny Town and I couldn't figure out what they were talking about and then entered the South Hall and saw exactly what they were talking about. I think people called it that because there were alot of small companies and vendors, but also because there were alot of things hanging from the ceiling, and it just looked like a little model city.

I spent the whole day in the South Hall and I still didn't get to see all the booths. There were also alot more companies doing demos and such in the South Hall. This is also where the official Apple booth was located. And of course it was larger than life. Literally it was the biggest booth there, if you can even call it a booth (you can check out pics on my facebook). I mean, the Apple booth was cool, but it wasn't really anything special. They just had a ton of iMacs, Macbooks, and iPods on display. And all of these computers were demoing the new iLife and iWork 09, so it was cool to get to demo those. But I mean I really don't think that it is going to be a big deal that Apple is not going to attend the conference next year. I mean, yes, there might be alot of empty space, because the booth was humungous, but as far as content on the booth goes, there really won't be that much missing. In fact, I'm already excited to attend next year's Macworld.

I got to meet yet another famous guy in the tech industry, Chris Pirillo. He did a small session on how to use Ustream and Camtwist together to do your own live show. I mean I already knew all of the stuff because that is what I use to produce the wheel seat but I just stuck around to see if I could meet him after he was done, and sure enough I got to meet him and get my picture taken with him. He seems like a cool guy, so much so that I saw him later that day in the South hall and he actually recognized me and said hi, and then again that night at the meetup at Jillians he saw me and said hi. None of these run-ins resulted in any conversations which I wish they would have, but I was just surprised that he remembered me. He may not have remembered my name, but he remembered my face.

Probably one of the biggest things that I have realized after yesterday and today is how some of these people lead just different lives than I do. And I'm not talking about like Leo Laporte and Chris Pirillo and the other famous guys, I'm just talking about the other people who are attending the conference. As I walked around to the different booths it seemed like alot of the products were really expensive. I saw alot of stuff that I would have liked to bought, but I just couldn't afford it. Heck I was just lucky to be at Macworld, I was saving every penny just for parking and eating food. But other people there, this is their life. I mean, I consider myself a pretty big geek, or nerd or whatever you wanna call it, but I consider myself a geek with not alot of money. But these other people are just buying things like its nothing. It got me thinking about what its like to just have money at your fingertips. It is interesting to think about. I know for a fact that if I had money that that would not satisfy me. I am reminded as I just started reading Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" that God is the only one who can satisfy, and glorifying Him is the only satisfying thing in life. It is our purpose as human beings.

I wrapped up the day with a viewing of the world premiere of "Macheads" the movie. This is a documentary about the history of Apple and about the Mac community. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was really good for me to learn more about the history of Apple and how far the company has come as well as the community of Mac users. The movie's purpose was to emphasize the importance of the community that has been created around the Macintosh. Yeah the Mac is a great computer, but it is not just about the computer, it is about the community that comes along with the computer. When you buy a Macintosh you suddenly enter into this community of people that just makes your experience as a user so much better than anything you will ever find on the PC side. I have now seen this firsthand by attending Macworld and meeting other Mac users who do different things with their macs but we all have the same type of experience. So I really enjoyed this documentary, if you are a Mac user and you get a chance to see this movie, I would recommend. I mean even if you are not a Mac user I would recommend it because maybe you will come to good side and finally see the light and get a Mac.

So that was my second day at Macworld and again, it was awesome. O yeah, and here's an example of the Mac community, as I was walking back to my car that night I walked by these fountains so I was taking some pictures of them, and as I was walking to my car this guy was walking next to me, and I saw that he was wearing a Macworld badge and I just started talking to him and ended just having a small conversation on my way back to my car. I mean, not a big deal, but just something small like that is part of the mac community.

So if you all haven't gotten the message by now, the point of this post is get a Mac. LOL. Just kiddin. I still love all you PC users out there.

More posts coming soon!