SFO Edition
The MacWorld Expo Survival Guide
By Lynn Wegley
I have seen several of these guides over the last 14 or 15 years. During that time,
I have attended at least 15 of the MacWorld Expos and attended 3 Apple Fest prior
to that. These guides always start out with the same #1 statement about surviving
the show. That is, wear comfortable shoes with good arch support. Well, you can underline
that one for sure. You will be spending at least 8 hours a day on your feet. So you
should take care of them.
Now that we have that out of the way, lets back up.
First of all you need to get to San Francisco. The deal here is to get a good airfare.
There are two ways to do that for the non-airline employee. First one and the only
one with a guarantee rate is to make your reservation as far in advance as possible.
Look for those "super saver" fares. The second is riskier, and there are
two possible parts to it. The first part is to wait until the last minute and check
the airline sites to see if they are selling seats at a discount because they have
empty planes. Southwest
and I am sure others even send out a weekly e-mail of good pricing that isn't necessarily
last minute. Get on those mail lists.
The next major cost is the price of the Expo itself. First of all unless you plan
on spending a great deal of time in the conferences or have a specific need for one
of their topics, don't bother. Go with the exhibit only price. If you order in advance
it can cost you less than $30.
Another way to get into the show is to volunteer to work Apple's booth. Over the
last few years Apple has used user group volunteers at the rate of about 16 per show.
So you would have to get your request in early to Diane Cohen.
Third expense is a place to stay. The best way of course, is with a relative within
an easy walk of the show. But most of us don't have that option available. By searching
the web, (About.com has a good hotel look up area), you can find a room for a little
as $80 with double occupancy. YMCA and the Youth Hostel can be even fewer ifs you
want to rough it.
I think that covers the major expenses other than meals and beverages. Of course
being one of the user group officers that registers for the 3 breakfasts will help
with that. Once again you should register early. The breakfast notice usually goes
out in mid to late October. At the New York show those attending the breakfast even
got into the Keynote. The lunchtime meal is less expensive if you go to a retail
place away from Mascone. However if you are a light eater you can get by with a powerbar
and/or an apple and a bottle of water in your bag. (I use an old BMUG bag that hangs
on my shoulder, but those are getting harder to find.) The evening meal possibly
could be handled with finger food at one of the many MacWorld parties. Check out
the Ilene Hoffman's Hess
Memorial Party List at: <http://www.xensei.com/users/ileneh/partylist.html>.
Most of the parties are by invitation only, but perhaps you can score an invitation.
For a soda addict like me, it is nice to know that the vending machines near the
conference room contain soda and candy bars and the soda during the last trip was
only $1 for a 12 oz can. A lot cheaper than what the buffet style vendors were getting
on the main floor.
Now, when you get to the show, sit down with a program and plan your attack. Although
I have also found it interesting to make a quick tour of the entire show and then
return to exhibit that I found interesting. If you have limited time you should plan
who you want to see.
Some useful things to bring with you:
- Mailing labels - this to put on pre-printed forms - don't use ones that are reflective.
Some companies take the forms and copy them for distribution to various departments.
- Business Cards - bring one for personal use and one for use of your user group
activities. Business cards are particularly useful if you are one of the people that
got in with an Apple booth appearance, because your badge will send all info to Apple
and not to you.
- Have a couple of pens and/or highlighters to mark your program for reminders
of things you want to see. You should plan on seeing demonstrations at the various
booths in the afternoon when you need to rest.
There are a couple of things you should bring with you in your suitcase. An umbrella
and a light jacket make a lot of sense. January seems to be the rainy season for
San Francisco and since WordPerfect is no longer available to hand out umbrellas,
it makes sense to bring your own. While we are talking luggage, you should also bring
an extra soft suitcase so you will have one to bring back software, t-shirts, buttons
and other things that you purchase or get from vendors for your group. I have also
shipped stuff back to myself but that can be expensive and you should not use the
premium charge services at Mascone. Just a few blocks away there is a MailBox Etc.
I paid $13.50 using the service at the New York show last summer just to mail some
posters back. And that was after I purchased mailing tubes at OfficeMax.
So it is possible to have fun and learn at MacWorld without spending a lot of money
or tons of energy.
Lynn Wegley
USER GROUP EDITORS: Articles posted in this area have been cleared for publication
in your newsletters. We do however advise you to contact the author for details and/or
updates. Contact them for details on how to reproduct the article. In come cases
they may have additional art or graphics files which should accompany the article.
Please ALWAYS credit the original author! Articles posted here by UGNetwork News
staff, or the UGN News Service may be reproduced after having been registered for
approval. Contact the UGNet-News
Editor for authorization and the UGNet News Affiliate publicity
package. Thank you.