Early Saturday good morning , when theMS Veendamdocked in Tampa , theMacMania V cruiseofficially came to an end — as did one of the more interesting work workweek of my career . As I look back on the past seven days , I notice many fond memories , from the scuba diving to the unbelievable assortment of dinner entrees to the sights in each port of call . But beyond that , by far , the best memories come from the interaction with fellow Mac users . Whether it was in session , at repast time , or just during an impromptu conversation elsewhere on the ship , there were stories to be recite , background to be memorize , and cognition to be portion out — and not just from the speakers to the attendees . Mac users are a diverse group , and the attender at MacMania V covered a full range of historic period , backgrounds , and Mac experience levels . The chance to hash out Macs , Macworld , and applied science in general with this low group for a full week was truly especial , and I suppose all of us are leave behind with a good view on our fellow Mac users than we had going in .
My fundamental interaction with Mac substance abuser is typically entirely virtual — from exchanges in the various online forums to e - chain armour to the occasional iChat , all I usually “ see ” of other Mac users is their text on my screen . But for the last seven days , the speakers and attendant all had the chance to put face to public figure , to acquire just why so many masses bonk their Macs , and to just generally have a blast working in a most unexpected environment . Sure , there are some challenges to interacting aboard a cruise ship — three of my four sessions were disturb by several - minute of arc - long declaration from “ Money Man Mark ” about the approaching bingo sessions — but those challenges are offset by the capsule nature of the experience . Although sail ship are big , most of their area is book for staterooms and the ship ’s operation . That leaves a fistful of public gathering places , in which you were almost guarantee of suffer another MacMania attender , regardless of the hour of day or night . And every eventide , all 60 of us were sit down together ( at a identification number of tables ) for dinner , leading to even more conversation .
The shore expedition , too , were often a chance to interact with MacMania attender . I think nigh every loudspeaker I spoke with had at least one or more attendee on their shoring excursions . That was true even in my casing , as one of the other diver with my wife and I on both scuba diving event days was a MacMania attendee ( and there were only four mass on the boat on the second dive daylight ) . No other conference I have attended has offered this much interaction between loudspeaker and attendees outside of the conference right .
I also witness the sessions themselves to be more fun than those I ’ve given at pastMacworld Expos . For the last couple of years , my exposition presentations have been to crowds that enumerate in the 300 to 400 kitchen range . With a crowd of that size of it , there ’s basically no personal fundamental interaction — you ca n’t make eye striking with everyone , and you ca n’t take questions during the slides , as things would cursorily get out of hand . After the intro , there ’s one of me and maybe 30 to 40 people who come up up to ask a couple questions or just say hello . In that surround , I just do n’t have much time to tattle to everyone , give thanks them for attending , or help them out with a detailed reply to their questions .
But during a MacMania sail , there are many fewer people in the classroom . My first seance on Monday ( one solo and one with Dan Frakes ) probably averaged 25 to 30 people , allowing us to actually take questions and interact with the meeter . The Friday sessions were an even better example of what ’s possible with smaller classes . My Intro toiWorkgroup was about 20 , and I was able to call for everyone about their relative pastime in Keynote versus Pages ( the two iWork lotion ) before I began . When most people expressed an sake in Pages , I was able to qualify my talk of the town to spend more of the clip usable talking about that word processing and page - layout software . By comparison , trying to take an interview study with 400 mass in the crowd would be a basically impossible task . With a smaller course of study , it was also potential to take and do questions as they make out up , which makes things more relevant for attendant than the received “ please keep your questions for the close ” promulgation I use with larger gang .
My final session , an intro the world of undetermined germ apps on OS X , was by far my smallest — a grand totality of five people take care . award , the issue was amongst the “ geekier ” of the calendar week , but this might also have been my pet session of the trip . It was much more like a low group project than a intro , and I had piles of clip to treat every interrogation that came up , as well as to ensure that everyone sympathise each whole tone of the mental process ( as I was actually installing and using a act of program during the talk ) .
rifle into this workweek , I really did n’t have any idea what to await . I was also fairly skeptical that a sail ship would make a good learning environment . Looking back now that it ’s over , I can see the scepticism was misplaced . If anything , a cruise ship is a intimately - idealistic learning surround . The combining of small grade size of it and draw of time ( both in and out of session ) for fundamental interaction between students and attendees is elusive to beat . Top it all off with the fact that you ’re on a sail ship , visiting some interesting goal with flock of shipboard activities , and you ’ve got a winning combination . ( The fact that you ’re on a sail ship also means you could bring along your non - Mac - fanatical better half or significant other for the week — while you ’re ask with form on the two sea days , he / she can take part in the shipboard activeness , unwind by the pool , visit the gym , etc . )
In case it ’s not obvious , I had a wondrous time on my first MacMania cruise . I ’m search onwards to doing this again in the fountain , when I ’ll be take part in theMacMania VI Alaskan cruise(and talking about the hopefully released by then OS X 10.5 , amongst other topics ) . I ’m sure I ’ll meet another diverse , interesting group of Mac user , have some fun shoring excursions ( no dive , of course ! ) , and generate another set of wonderful memory board .
Even if you consider you ’re “ not the cruising kind , ” you might be pleasantly surprise by what you get out of a week with a bunch of fellow Mac maniac . I do it I was , and I ca n’t wait to do it again .
