No Partying at Macworld: Parties Are Way Down

You can tell it's a party by the disco ball. CC-licensed pic by Steve Rhodes.

The best thing about Macworld was always the parties. MacWeek’s annual Mac The Knife Party was a drunken bacchanal for the ages; Peachpit and O’Reily put on nice literary soirees with cash bars; and Microsoft’s events always had fancy hors d’oeuvres.

Even Apple, a stranger to shows of public hospitality, once threw parties with generous helpings of food and booze. I got so ploughed at one event, I forgot my heavy laptop bag — computer, camera and all. Apple designer Jonny Ive kindly picked it up and lugged it about all evening until we ran into each other later at a nightclub, and he handed it back.

But like everything else this year, parties at Macworld are way down. Check out the Hess Party List, which is usually chockablock with events. Not this year. There’s hardly anything going on, except perhaps the Circue du Mac party on Thursday night (which is invite only).

“The list is really thin and pitiful,” said Eileen Hoffman, the long-time keeper of the list. “It used to be three or more parties a night. Now it’s just one, and they’re small things.”

Hoffman regretted the absence of companies big and small, escpecialy big, which could be relied on to throw lavish bashes and not check too carefully the names on the guest list.

She laid the blame at Apple’s feet:

“Apple is really an obnoxious piece of shit for not supporting the people who made them who they are,” she said.

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