Macworld Conference & Expo, which has been an event closely associated with Apple and the industry around it for over 25 years, is going with a new name: Macworld | iWorld, tagged as “The Ultimate iFanevent”. The show, which next takes place in San Francisco January 26-28, 2012, will continue to support and encourage Mac-related exhibits and workshops, but with the increasing prominence of Apple’s “iDevices” such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad (as well as their operating system, iOS). It seems like a logical step to bring a bit of that flavor to the name. The Mac Observer caught a few details about some small but noteworthy changes to the event itself:
Along with a new name, the conference and expo has a few format changes in store for attendees, too. Conference sessions are now Tech Talks, and a new event called RapidFire will offer up two hours of non-stop five-minute presentations on a wide range of Apple-related topics from a long list of presenters.
There have been various changes to the Macworld Expo over the years, such as the cessation of events being held in New York and Boston, but most notably Apple’s withdrawal from the Expo after the 2009 event. For those of you new to the Apple scene, Macworld Expo used to be where Apple would announce and show off its new products and doo-dads. It’s believed that Apple withdrew from Macworld Expo so that the product cycle wouldn’t be tied to a specific event and, thus, kill product sales in the months leading up to it as consumers anticipated the new hotness.
Source: The Mac Observer