The Day the East Coast Macworld Expo Died

is the day that the IDG decided to move it from New York City back to Boston. The move was announced publicly on October 17, 2002. While the decision by IDG to kill the East Coast Mac event was made public Friday, it was already a dead horse that was flogged in the summers of 2003, 2004 and 2005. As we noted when the announcement was made to move the East Coast Macworld Expo from NYC back to Boston for 2004 and Apple's Steve Jobs dropped out of giving the keynote for the 2003 East Coast Macworld and cancelled any official Apple involvement for 2004 and beyond, that no Apple meant no meaningful Mac event.

Indeed, the 2003 Macworld Creative Pro (as Macworld Expo NYC was renamed for the third time) lost major vendors, covered only half the floor size and had little Mac press coverage despite Apple still exhibiting and a feature presentation by Apple's VP of Hardware Product Marketing, Greg Jowsiak. We lamented the death of a fine event, one that we had thoroughly enjoyed, and didn't bother to go after attending, participating and reporting daily from NYC during a string of 7 straight years.

Some said that Apple wanted to keep Macworld in NYC because it is one of Apple's biggest markets despite the expense and faltering participation. Some said Apple simply used the move as an excuse to leave an expensive and unneeded operation during the technology slump. Whatever the reason, IDG's management decided to buck Apple's CEO Steve Jobs and it was their show to destroy--they did. Fortunately, Macworld SF continues although that was uncertain back in 2002. [Bill Fox]