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Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorldThe Macworld Conference and Exposition opened Monday in Boston, its first return since leaving Beantown for New York in 1998. The event is also the first major trade show to be held at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center, warming it up for the Democratic National Convention later this month.
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
and several major vendors are absent from the show, including Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) , Epson, Filemaker and Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) , although Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , and Quark are exhibiting at the event. This has impacted projected attendance and profit for the local Boston community, according to press reports. Past events have seen as many as 50,000 attendees, while only 10,000 are expected this week, potentially injecting nearly US$9 million into the local economy, in contrast to original estimates of more than $40 million.
In a formal statement provided to MacNewsWorld by Apple, the company stated "When IDG initially announced its plans to move summer Macworld to Boston in 2004, we were very clear that we didn't think it was a good move. Our position stands and Apple will not be participating in Macworld Boston. We are 100 percent committed to Macworld San Francisco in January every year."
Officials from IDG, owners of Macworld magazine and operators of the Macworld events, also did not respond to an invitation to comment.
Trade Show Growth Slowing
The first Macworld Expo was held in 1985 and has been held twice annually since, with a January show on the West Coast and a midsummer show on the East.
For many years, the conferences were renowned for Steve Job's keynote presentations, but in recent years, Apple has been shifting major announcements and presentations to its own events.
Illuminata senior analyst Gordon Haff said that Apple's decision to support 
only one of the two shows has more to do with the use of the company's overall resources rather than straight dollars and cents.
"Trade shows are still struggling to figure out their place in the Internet world," Haff told MacNewsWorld. "Certainly they've always been very expensive for companies to participate in, and the returns are often nebulous at best."
According to statistics from Tradeshow Week magazine, trade show attendance and square-foot space used has been slowing, with gains in both categories at less than 2 percent. Surprisingly, technology shows continue to show some growth even in light of the cancellation of Comdex, once considered a benchmark technology tradeshow internationally.
These shows accounted for a 5.6-percent increase in square footage, a metric used in analyzing trade-show performance.
Heavyweights Still Drawn to Event
Even amid controversy, the conference has attracted high-profile veterans of the Apple technology space, including a special presentation "The Mac at 20" Tuesday morning with David Pogue, a New York Times technology columnist and creator of O'Reilly's The Missing Manuals series. He will be interviewing original Macintosh hardware and software developers, including Jef Raskin, David Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson.
Christopher Breen, contributing editor to Macworld, will host the Mac Brainiac's challenge on Wednesday, a live quiz show featuring veterans of the Mac industry and members of the audience competing for the Mac Brainiac crown.
Conference Highlights
Inaugurating the return to Boston, the Macworld Town Hall meeting will follow David Pogue's keynote panel of Apple alumni with a discussion of industry news, analysis of recent Apple announcements and the future of the Mac.
Throughout the week, a series of tracks covering a broad spectrum of topics, from the beginning home user to advanced power developers, will take place. These include sessions that cover working with audio and video, using the Macintosh as a recording studio and how to integrate devices with the Mac in a series called "Geeks and Gadgets."
For Apple vendors and resellers, the Apple Specialist Marketing Co-op, formed by Apple dealers to increase marketing capabilities, will hold a formal meeting followed by an Apple Specialist Pavilion. The Pavilion will provide vendors of Apple products and services an opportunity to present their latest wares direct to resellers and retailers.
In a nod to Apple's leadership in digital music, the Berklee College of Music will present the Dream Studios, an interactive presentation of cutting edge music studios centered on the Macintosh platform.
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