Thanks for the great reply. I was also amazed by the size of the Lynda booth. I would also like to see some of the classes you suggest added to the line-up.

Everything I heard outside of the Macworld Town Hall meeting seemed to be focused on bringing in more consumers – that’s what the vendors are interested in anyway. It seems to me that Macworld is divided into two factions, the education section, and the vendor section.

Unless I’m mistaken, though, the vendors dropping $5,000 per 10×10 square is what pays for a good portion of the event. I know that the passes to attend the sessions aren’t cheap – and I’m sure Macworld could survive with just them…but it seems like one route or the other is going to have to be taken.

I also think it’s entirely possible that Apple could start their own Expo in San Francisco like a consumer version of WWDC – and if they do that – I think Macworld is doomed.

It is true that MW does a much better job of education than Apple does, at its stores or anywhere else. Apple does offer weekly classes but they are brief introductions to products. The classes at MW, many of them anyway, are of very high caliber. The speakers are authors or other experts in their fields.

Apple conducts a developer conference in June. IDG has a chance to host a great user’s conference as a counterweight to that. There is a great need for professional development among those using the Mac. Corporations encourage or even require their employees to take courses that will further their careers. MW could be one of the organizations filling that need by providing Mac-centric education. Some of what they offer now is fine. I’d like to see more emphasis on end usage rather than on the tools. For example, there could be instruction on presentation and public speaking (Keynote, Pages, Numbers), communication with video (iMovie, iTunes, GarageBand), simple document layout for those required to produce the occasional document (Pages), and so on.

I was amazed to see the size of the Lynda booth. Clearly they have the idea that there is money to be made in education. Possibly IDG could partner with Lynda, Xtrain, University of Phoenix and others to conduct some of the courses. These organizations would gain exposure to more people who would possibly sign up for more extensive courses during the year.

I don’t know what will become of MWSF. IDG is facing a huge number of big decisions. Clearly things will be different in coming years. The potential is there for them to succeed. The need is there and they can fill the need if they can work out the details.