Macworld/iWorld Changes 2014 Dates to Late March
Macworld Expo is moving again! Back in 1999, playing off the then-recent move of Macworld Boston to New York City, we published a short April Fools piece about how Macworld San Francisco would be moving to Austin, Texas, because “everything is bigger in Texas.” (For a “This is Spinal Tap”-inspired quote from Steve Jobs and a prescient comment about cheap labor, see “Macworld Expo SF Moving to Austin,” 1 April 1999.)
So please forgive us for holding off briefly on publishing the real news that broke on 1 April 2013 that IDG World Expo was changing the dates of Macworld/iWorld 2014 from early February to late March. Specifically, the pre-conference workshops will take place on 26 March 2014, and the conference itself will run from Thursday, 27 March 2014 through Saturday, 29 March 2014. The San Francisco-based show is moving locations as well, but only across the street to the North Hall of Moscone Center. Registration will open toward the end of 2013.
In a prepared statement, IDG World Expo said, “Exhibitors and attendees alike expressed interest in moving the event further away from the holidays and other winter travel complications, and IDG World Expo is pleased to have been able to act on this feedback.” Of course, the desire to escape winter travel complications has been true forever, and there’s no telling what enabled the change to happen this year. The new timeline is welcome, thanks to eliminating the previously scheduled awkward Saturday/Sunday/Monday dates and preventing a conflict with the Super Bowl. (We’re looking forward to a higher level of attendance from NFL players next year because of this.)
The only downside is that many people have built a mid-winter Macworld/iWorld into their annual schedules, and moving it by several months may hurt attendance from those who have other events scheduled for late March. In 2013, IDG World Expo pegged attendance at 25,000, so we’ll see in a year if the date change turns out to be positive or negative.
"IDG World Expo pegged attendance at 25,000..."
To be accurate, that's the EXACT same "attendance" they reported for the previous year's Expo, too.
Those numbers are no longer audited by IDG and therefore must be reported on with a truckload of salt at best and be completely discounted at worse.
For those of us living overseas, this is excellent news. Travel is easier, winter colds have gone, and the weather ought to be a bit more clement. Let's hope this is not a one-off!
"the weather ought to be a bit more clement."
Actually, the weather in SF that time of year is rarely very inclement. I've been going to Expos for over 15 years in the original time frame and rarely has it even rained let alone been worse than that.