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Tags: celebrity, mac, macworld2007, photos, vacation

Macworld Vacation: Day 4 (Keynote)

Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 9:29 pm

Tuesday started very, very early. Knowing the keynote would be first-come, first-served, Mike and I knew we wouldn’t be getting much sleep. We decided to meet up with Adam, who traditionally gets a group together to wait in line.

Eerie streets

At 3:30 a.m., the streets of San Francisco were quite eerie. For the most part, they were empty. Those people who are still up, however, make for some interesting – if not scary – company.

We all agreed to meet at the Apple Store and make the pilgrimage to the Moscone Center. There was a decent turnout, 15 or so people, many of whom had done the walking tour a couple of days earlier.

Anticipation builds

I wasn’t shocked at all when I saw the line at Moscone West, already wrapped around the building. We got in line right behind a nice couple named Beti and Jonathan, who made the long journey from Australia to attend Macworld.

It was quite chilly, but the wait wasn’t too bad, thanks to the energy and the personality of the crowd. Adam supplied food in the form of two dozen glazed doughnuts, and Starbucks down the road opened for business around 6 a.m.

Move along

Around 7:00 a.m. (I think), security opened the center and began filing the line into the building. The keynote itself took place on the third floor, so they created a “staging area” for the line on the first floor – an empty trade show space.

The line was spilt into two groups: the Platinum and Super Pass folks (who had priority seating), and Everyone Else. Mike had a Super Pass, so he broke from the group, with the hope of getting a great seat. I stayed behind.

Take your seat

Right around 9 a.m., the line began to move upstairs. Everyone was buzzing with excitement as we went up the two flights of escalators, headed for the third floor.

The keynote room was large, a sea of chairs lay before us. Many people at this point were settling for seats in the back, but Beti charged her way up front, dragging the three of us along with her.

We eventually found seats along the right hand side, maybe 20 rows back. Not bad. A phone call to Mike revealed that I, in fact, had better seats than he did. Priority seating, indeed!

Steve speaks

By now, everyone has heard about what Steve Jobs revealed: the new iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful piece of technology, but it’s not something I’d ever buy (at least not at the current prices).

I was also a little disappointed to see Apple continue to move away from what brought them to the dance: computers. They even chopped it out of their name!

Brush with greatness

While the keynote was a fun time, the real fun happened immediately after the presentation. After most everyone cleared out of the room, our little group decided to go up towards the stage to take some pics.

Much to my surprise, Steve came back out to pose for media shots, right in front of us! He walked right by us, climbed off the stage – walked right in front of me – and said hi to a few friends and big-wigs.

I think he breathed on me… and I felt the power of the Holy Spirit (heh).

All in all, not a bad way to spend a few hours.