The first Macworld Expo I attended as a cub newsperson was in Boston . summertime air blasted off the harbor as sweaty show - goers load onto busses to shuttle back and forth between two full Marguerite Radclyffe Hall . The cackle was about the dissipated Mac ever made , ringer - maker Power Computing ’s 225 MHz PowerTower Pro ; a foreign drawing computer program called Kai ’s Power Goo ; and the wacky buttons Iomega was distributing to promote the omnipresent Zip drive . It was 1996 and even though the Mac platform was in one of its occasional beleaguered phases , look were high . Power Computing ’s popular t - shirts summed up the atmosphere : “ We ’re contend Back for the Mac ” and — ironically , these days—“Let ’s Kick Intel ’s Butt ! ”
Expo has always been the place where you could get a flavour for the Mac community ’s mood . Twice a yr , you could see who was crack up shirt , geeking out at the booths , run through the dormitory , and hit the wild parties .
If you could make it to Expo , you have sex you ’d be witness to the biotic community ’s seismic changes — not just the biggest ironware and software releases . As I was getting ready to fly East for my second Boston Expo , Ziff Davis and IDGannounced the mergerofMacUsermagazine ( where I work ) andMacworld . What ’s more , we arrived to a keynote featuring Bill Gates . That was the final Boston Expo ( not counting the badly - fated return two years ago without Apple . )
To me , the end of the East Coast expos marks the end of an epoch . With Apple ’s expectant product rollouts now relegated to invitation - only event and the party few and far between , our community has truly move online . If you ca n’t make it to San Francisco in January , you meet your fellows in the forums . And a break up ofarchives , personal Web sites andWikipedia entriesmemorialize old exposition , companies , and magazines .
If you ’ve get pic or story from quondam Expos , share them here . ( The photos in this entry get along good manners of Jason Snell and his compendium of images from the 1995 Macworld Expo in Boston . ) So long , Boston , and thanks for the memories !
