MacComedy

Pressure from Apple causes IDG to change locations yet again

IDG World Expo announced on Friday that the MacWorld Expo 2004 would be held in Keokuk, Iowa, and not Boston as had been declared earlier in the week.

After hearing that MacWorld Expo 2004 would be moved from New York City to Boston, Apple released a statement saying it would not participate in the show, forcing IDG officials to find a location more appealing to the computer maker.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs spent some of his high school days in Keokuk on a mission of self-enlightenment. It was in Keokuk that Jobs was exposed to his first difficult to use computer and at that point decided he wanted to make a computer “for the rest of us”. According to inside sources, Jobs called IDG and demanded that Keokuk be the location for MacWorld in 2004 instead of Boston.

“Apple remains an important partner for Macworld and we wanted to do everything we could to make that whiner Steve happy,” a IDG representative said via e-mail.

Jobs denies he called IDG and says they called him first, asking where he wanted the Expo to be held.

Keokuk is excited to see an event as big as MacWorld come to their town.

“We’re thrilled Apple and IDG decided on our humble town for this computer show,” said Keokuk mayor Dave Gudgel. “Many students, business leaders, and residents of Keokuk enjoy using Apple’s products.”

Keokuk’s computer platform base is 99 percent Microsoft Windows, due to the donation of 500 computers as part of Microsoft’s monopoly settlement. The only known Apple computer is a Macintosh LC II in the basement of the local library, but the mouse is broken. Using Keokuk as the location for MacWorld may also be Apple’s way of sending a “trojan horse” into the predominantly Windows town and getting some of its 17,394 residents to switch over to the Macintosh platform.

MacWorld Keokuk is scheduled to be held July 12-15, 2004, at the Grand Theatre. It’s unclear as to how all the MacWorld attendees will fit into the Grand Theatre since it only holds about 5,000 people and MacWorld normally draws about 50,000 people a day, but IDG says there will be a number of tents set up around the theatre.

As proof of the anticipation for the event, Keokuk’s 80 hotel rooms are already booked. MacWorld Expo is expected to bring in about $40 million to the local economy, more than four times Keokuk’s GDP. Apple is also donating 50 uniforms to be used in Keokuk’s Civil War reenactment. The Union Army will have white Apple logos on their sleeves.

It’s unclear if Keokuk will continue to be the location for MacWorld after 2004.