London Mac Expo 2007
29/10/06 15:01 Filed in: Apple
Last Thursday, I was at the opening day of the London
Mac Expo at Olympia. I have never been a great fan of
the London Expo, as it seemed so small and
meaningless. Back in the days when it was held at the
Business Design Centre in Islington, it was hardly
worth the bother. Paris used to get all the attention
as they normally had the advantage of Apple
delivering a Keynote at that show. This didn't happen
this year and it seems London has taken advantage.
Quark decided to use this event to launch their new Interactive Design plugin and held a keynote. A good example of the show gaining prestige was the presence of Google. HP, Apple, Adobe, Sony and other big names were also present. Only Microsoft was missing. They had nothing new to show so that makes some sense.
It was nice to see some smaller developers there. Realmac Software, the makers of Rapidweaver had a stand along with a company I hadn't heard of, Accountz. They make cross platform accounting packages. The owner, Quentin, showed me the Personal Accountz version. It looks really nice. This software sector has very little Mac software available and even less made for the UK. In fact, Accountz software doesn't show any currency, just numbers. So it can be used anywhere. I use Quicken at the moment, but I am paying a lot of money for a package, 80% of features, I can't use.
I also met up with the Your Mac Life team. Thanks to their sponsors, Griffin Technology and iStockphoto, they had come over from the States to cover the show. It was good to meet Shawn again. The amount of work he puts into the show should never be underestimated.
I was surprised by the number of stands that concentrated on photography. Sony were showing off their first ever digital SLR. Screen calibration was covered as was colour output, small and large.
Overall, I think this year's show was excellent. It had a good mix of large and small vendors as well as companies actually selling you the software and hardware that was on display. Some good deals were also available. I look forward to next year and the continuing growth of the London Mac Expo.
Quark decided to use this event to launch their new Interactive Design plugin and held a keynote. A good example of the show gaining prestige was the presence of Google. HP, Apple, Adobe, Sony and other big names were also present. Only Microsoft was missing. They had nothing new to show so that makes some sense.
It was nice to see some smaller developers there. Realmac Software, the makers of Rapidweaver had a stand along with a company I hadn't heard of, Accountz. They make cross platform accounting packages. The owner, Quentin, showed me the Personal Accountz version. It looks really nice. This software sector has very little Mac software available and even less made for the UK. In fact, Accountz software doesn't show any currency, just numbers. So it can be used anywhere. I use Quicken at the moment, but I am paying a lot of money for a package, 80% of features, I can't use.
I also met up with the Your Mac Life team. Thanks to their sponsors, Griffin Technology and iStockphoto, they had come over from the States to cover the show. It was good to meet Shawn again. The amount of work he puts into the show should never be underestimated.
I was surprised by the number of stands that concentrated on photography. Sony were showing off their first ever digital SLR. Screen calibration was covered as was colour output, small and large.
Overall, I think this year's show was excellent. It had a good mix of large and small vendors as well as companies actually selling you the software and hardware that was on display. Some good deals were also available. I look forward to next year and the continuing growth of the London Mac Expo.
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