Macworld Conference Carries On Without Apple

By NICK WINGFIELD

 | January 26, 2012, 3:30 PM

Steven P. Jobs introduced the first iPhone at MacWorld in 2007.

5:47 p.m. | Updated to correct the date of the year that Steven P. Jobs last appeared at Macworld.

On Dec. 16, 2008, the Macworld conference received what many assumed would be a fatal wound: Apple said it would bail out of the show as an exhibitor and keynoter after one last appearance at the San Francisco event in early January 2009.

Macworld refused to die, though, and while turnout for the event isn’t what it used to be before it lost its banner company, attendance seems to have stabilized and is even expected to grow this year, according to conference organizers. On Thursday, the doors opened on Macworld’s third event without Apple in San Francisco.

Still, how does an Apple-free event devoted to all things Apple survive?

By turning itself into the ultimate event for Apple fanboys (and girls) by tapping more deeply into the seemingly bottomless enthusiasm they have for Apple’s products. IDG World Expo, the organizer of the conference, also changed the event’s name to Macworld iWorld in a nod to the importance of the iPad and iPhone. The tagline of the show is “the ultimate iFan event.”

Paul Kent, vice president at IDG World Expo and general manager for the show, said Macworld had become a place for Apple fans to find things or receive technical training that they can’t get in, say, an Apple retail store. He said less than half of the exhibitors at this year’s show were app developers for the Mac or iOS devices like the iPhone, with most devoted to utilities and accessories like iPhone speaker docks, iPad cases and microphones.

“Before all of the gravity was about what Apple was announcing,” Mr. Kent said. “We don’t have that anymore. We can help them discover new products.”

IDG has tried to give the event some of the artistic stimulation of Austin’s SXSW and the Sundance Film Festival with nightly movie screenings and musical performances from bands like Moe and Modest Mouse.

Mr. Kent also believes that Macworld has a unique appeal because it is one of the few technology oriented conferences aimed squarely at consumers, not members of the tech industry. Despite its name, the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — which has lost a big exhibitor of its own, Microsoft — does not allow the general public in.

Mr. Kent expects attendance to be about 25,000 at this year’s Macworld, compared with about 22,000 last year.  About 36,000 people went to the 2009 Macworld. But Apple had already taken some steam out of that year’s show by announcing that it would leave Macworld and by substituting Philip Schiller, its senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, for Steven P. Jobs, then its chief executive, as a keynote speaker.

At the January 2008 Macworld, the last year Mr. Jobs delivered a keynote address at the show, attendance was about 48,000. Mr. Jobs introduced new MacBook Airs at that event, and the first iPhone the prior year at the show.

It will be tough to replace an attraction like that.

An earlier version of this post misstated the date that Steven P. Jobs last appeared at Macworld. It was 2008.