It was a whirlwind week for me at Macworld in San Francisco. I saw so many interesting new products and met so many great people it’s almost impossible to contemplate. What really comes across, though, during my week there is the Mac community as a whole and just how nice everyone is. Gracious, intelligent and extremely pleasant people seem to gravitate towards the Mac and I, for one, couldn’t be happier about it.
It’s really hard to pinpoint a highlight of the show but if I had to pick one (or two) one would have to be meeting Merlin Mann and getting a chance to chat with him for a few minutes. We did an interview with him for TUAW but before and after we got to talk a bit off-camera. Good times with a great, funny and articulate man. I also got the chance to meet Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Chris Breen of Macworld Magazine and a whole host of other sharp and Mac-loving people.
Also, another highlight was the famed Cirque Du Mac party featuring a great band, great drinks (especially because they were free) and great company. Thank you Laurie D., Nik F., Victor A., Isiah C. and David C. for making that night extra fun. And, of course, another highlight of the show for me was getting to meet the great people I work with at TUAW for the first time in person. I know it may seem odd but we’ve been working together since last May and up until last week I had never met any of them face to face. In fact, we had never even spoken on the phone very much except to plan the first Talkcast and when we actually record the Talkcasts (at least the ones I’m in).
Other than that, it’s just been email, IM and Twitter most of the time. How very futuristic, right? Scott McNulty, Michael Rose, Nik Fletcher and Victor Agreda from TUAW are all stand-up guys and some of the nicest, most gracious and funny people I’ve been around in a long time. Their humor, brains and talent are in so many ways humbling to be around. It’s a real privilege to get to work with them and I appreciate it even more now that I’ve had a chance to meet them all in person.
In most cases I really prefer talking to people in person most of the time. Although, communicating via email, IM or Twitter is a great to avoid actually having to communicate at all. In fact, in some cases you can pretty much avoid all communication by simply ignoring these types and not responding. I think I’ll start calling that “Zero Communication” or something like that. Could catch on. Maybe.
If you get a chance head on over to TUAW and check out the continuing coverage of Macworld and see some of the video I shot last week. Also, I’m posting pics at Flickr (at least some) and even managed to churn out a few TUAW posts so check those out too.
All in all a fun time in SFO @Macworld 2008 and something I hope to have the privilege to do again next year.
