Inbound Macworld 2011

4 CommentsMonday • January 31, 2011 • by Imei

Whilst there was a time I tried writing about my experiences as they happened, my trip to Macworld is not one of them. I already knew before I started planning my experience that there was no way I would have the energy to return to home base every night and hit the keyboard. Instead, I made a series of notations on my key experiences, shot video, and queued up my posts on WordPress. Here’s what happened, which I’m calling, “Inbound Macworld 2011.”

Booking the flight
What can be more cool than starting your MacWorld trip with online everything?

My cheaper flight options for the time I wanted to arrive were with United Airlines, but I was immediately intrigued with a couple of options that were new to me. Did you know that if you do you check-in online, you save between two to three dollars on your baggage fee with United? While my trip was quick, I had a feeling I’d be bringing a few things home with me, so I packed my clothes into a suitcase with enough room for goodies, and the baggage discount was helpful.

Additionally, you can send your boarding pass to your mobile device. Did you understand what I just wrote? You just place your mobile device on the scanner, and it reads the QR code off your device’s screen. Because I haven’t taken a flight for a couple of months, I didn’t even know this was available! Same for going through security. When the officer scanned my iPhone4 for the boarding pass, he winked at me and said, “Good job!” People around me were asking what I just did, and when I told them, that’s the moment I realized that this feature is still relatively new. I don’t think it will be new for long. Unless you’re good at losing your iDevice, you’ll never have to worry about losing your boarding pass again.

Editor’s note: I tested to see what content could be grabbed on my fuzzed out version of the screen. Nada. However, if you’re writing down my private information right now, please kindly inform me before you send thieves over. Thanks.

Airport Transportation
My neighbor, who was to watch C-M (my cat) and drive me .3 miles to the SODO stop of the light link rail to the Sea-Tac airport, was in a freak accident and unable to do either. I called a friend, who picked up my cat the next day, and I used Taxi Magic to book my cab. You type in where you want your pick up, and you can even pay and tip by your card if you wish, which is especially helpful if your trips are business-related, and you want digital receipts instead of hand-written ones you have to fill in the information on later, when you’re likely hung over from after parties and can’t remember a thing (not me, by the way, but based on the experience of others).

Light Link Rail
Can I expound on my love for light link rail? If only it were as big as the MUNI and BART in SF. Load a pre-paid card, and tap the card to get on and off. Cheap, efficient, clean, and enviro-friendly.

As a person who deals with people for a living, I am well aware that what I’ve described for my inbound experience pretty much removes the F2F interactions that were once a part of most trips. Even the clerk at the United Airlines desk who checked my bag said that mobile boarding pass is a sign that the employees were being replaced. There may be a day where we put our stuff on a conveyer belt ourselves, someone in a back room sorts through our things for security, and we won’t have any contact with anyone but the flight attendant asking if we’d like a beverage or snack (which conceivably could be ordered pre-flight when you check-in).

My flight did not have WiFi available, so before I turned off my iPhone, I checked into Uppward, an app that lets others on your flight know you’re there. It’s very new, so I didn’t expect anyone else to check in on Uppward, and I was correct. Instead, I had a pleasant conversation with a Pakastani woman, talking about parenting and the challenges of the school system in America. She asked me why I was attending Macworld, and I pulled out my iPad for her little boy to play with. I didn’t need to say anything else; they had become fans in less than a minute.

Yet, the best part of the inbound trip to Macworld 2011 was the text message from Violet Blue, telling me she was on her way to pick me up, along with her adorable boyfriend, Ben. I met these two at Le Web 2009, and we’ve had the mutual pleasure of attending two conferences since. When I arrived to their home, Violet tweeted to her people:

violet blue ®
Pleased to report that @HipsForHire has been downloaded from SFO and installed at @bloggerbungalow – @dotKitteh is busy debugging.
27 Jan

Why is any of this relevant to attending Macworld 2011? While it is a conference focused on the technology that comes from an Apple-centric world, it is really about people. And while I am the first to admit without shame that I have become a cult fan of Apple products, I was more excited to see a couple of friendly faces (and meet new people), snuggle with an unfamiliar cat (Alex was adorable!), and share a few bottles of wine and conversation over the next few days. No technology is better than two arms (and two sets of arms, at that!) holding you tight in friendship and support.

Technology is cool. Technology is going to help your artful businesses by keeping you organized, connected, professional, and creative. But ultimately, the technology gives way to the people we love, and the people we will touch with our art and our lives. The tech just makes that sweeter and cooler than cool. At the end, we really don’t care how we get there, but that we get there at all.

Next post: Macworld 2011 Good, Bad, and Ugly

A note to PC users: I really don’t see the point in forcing people to choose one over the other. I see a future where multiple OS’s can dance together. In the meantime, we’ll just keep holding mock funerals for the iPhone, singing silly songs dissing on PC, and watching companies dump millions of dollars into humorous advertising. But someday, there will by PCOS hybrid children running around, and we’ll be old farts talking about the good old days when there was rivalry and mud slinging afoot.