Return to Macworld Expo San Francisco
Today I had some business in the early evening in San Francisco, after most of today’s work was done. I took the opportunity to walk through Macworld Expo again, mostly for sounds, sights, and smells at the end of the third (next-to-last) day of the exposition. I wanted to see how the Expo had changed. I have always been fascinated by Apple, but especially so since I lived onsite at Apple as a Netscape employee, helping Apple folks bring up IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) email for .Mac (then “Mac.com”) customers, from April 2000 to April 2001.
If any of you have ever worked a trade show (I have, but not in a Sales capacity), you know what grueling events they can be. There are hours on your feet, hours of smiling, hours of being careful to say only the correct things. I looked for signs of strain in the faces of the sales folks.
One thing that I must say – there was a lot of “buzz” and enthusiasm in attendees, even at the end of the next-to-last day of Macworld Expo exhibits. The floors were not as packed as the morning of the opening day, but they were very busy nevertheless! I overheard some comments about the wonderful, but specialized, MacBook Air that paralleled my own.
The exhibits were to close at 6 PM; I left at 5:30. The circus atmosphere was reinforced by the 1905 carousel (originally from Playland at the Beach) at the Yerba Buena Gardens nearby. The spinning wheel played “Listen to the Mockingbird.” I ordered a small latté at the Metreon and sat at a small table contemplating why I did not have time to drink a large one, before catching the BART train home, or at least to the lot where I was parked. I finished the coffee and walked out through the Yerba Buena Gardens. I walked through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, letting the mist behind the waterfall wash away some of the fatigue of a very long, taxing, and rewarding day. Next Monday is his day. I walked toward the lighted “eye to the sky” of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), passing the green glass boat (art) embedded in the concrete, and the set of fountains. I rejoiced that I was but a short BART trip from San Francisco. There is a cost and a reward associated with being so close. I am happy to pay the cost.
I added $2 to my BART ticket and waited with so many others on the platform of the Montgomery Street Station. I would be home before I knew it, and another year’s Macworld Expo SF would be over for me.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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