CoM Reader Gets A Peek Inside London Apple Store’s Secret iPad 2 Briefing

Last night, Apple held secret meetings with Apple Store retail staff around the world, most likely to brief employees on what to expect when the iPad 2 debuts on Wednesday. But what actually happens at those meetings? Silenced by NDAs, the employees can’t say… but that didn’t stop one of our readers from peeking through the keyhole.

His account of what he saw of the secret meeting at London’s Convent Garden Apple Store, after the jump.

CoM reader R.H. writes:

I suddenly remembered this blog post when walking past London’s Covent Garden Apple Store at around 9 pm last night (Sunday).

The place was packed with Apple employees all being Keynote briefed in front of a large screen by a gent with a microphone. They were talking about the secret ‘thing’ but holding a secret meeting in a giant open-plan building with no shutters on the windows is not ideal – so large black curtains had been strung between the interior pillars to screen off the secret things.

Except the curtains didn’t close all the gaps so you could almost – but not quite – read the bullets points on the screen. It was quite funny watching the staff freak out when they realised people outside were peering in at the secret thing. The kept trying to close the gaps in the curtains, and never quite succeeded.

If anyone had had a proper camera with a slightly long lens – or a modest pair of binoculars – they’d have been able to read the whole thing…

No concrete details, which is disappointing, although the fact that Apple scheduled a secret meeting in London at least implies a simultaneous US/UK iPad 2 launch.

Next time Apple throws a press event, though, we hope one of our readers will camp outside the Covent Garden Apple Store with that pair of binoculars, and maybe a long-lens digicam. Anyone care to volunteer?

John Brownlee

John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.