Blog

This being the first time that I've gone to the WWDC I was a little unprepared for the amount of people that were attending. When checking in yesterday I asked the employee that was passing out the t-shirts when people started lining up and she said they would the night before. I thought that she was just meaning that a few people would be there. Man was I wrong.

I woke up at 7 AM and headed over to the Moscone center thinking that by getting there 3 hours early and being a block away would mean that I would get a good spot in line. I could not have been more wrong. I came around the corner on fourth street and was greeted by a line of almost 3800 people. I should have been start and headed around the building in the other direction. Instead I followed the line down the alley and around the building three times until I was back at the entrance almost. I missed a good opportunity to snake a place in line as there were some traffic cones around the entrance to the parking areas beneath the building. These employees of apple were letting people by in chunks. I should have just jumped the line and cut behind the first group. I just continued on toward the end of the line..

The Moscone center is a beautiful building. I'm not sure when it was built but it's clean and open space mirrors cleanly Apple's design philosophy. Once I entered the building there was a large bank of escalators that rises through the floor. We were steered through some serpentine barriers and then have to stand in a long hall for a period of time which was about two hours. After that we looped clear around the whole second floor area and to another bank of escalators to the third floor, at about 9:30 AM so everyone can take their seats. It's hard walking slow and everyone is so excited. Apple employees encourage everyone to move slowly but everyone is walking briskly at a pace that is just short of a run.

Once in the auditorium I take a seat in the back row. I'm tired of standing and just want a chair. I've never been able to sit Indian style and have not been able to sit while the others squat down with their iPads and Laptops.

Steve Jobs takes the stage, this is the first time I've seen him in person even though he is very far away. Everyone is cheering and I see what is obviously a new phenomenon people using their iPads for placards. I see "Hi Mom" and new Zealand flags and a number of other things people are holding up for others to see.

The presentation from Steve was great, with a few glitches most notably with the wireless network not working when he expected it to. There's plenty of other places to read about the iPhone features so I wont go into them here. I'll be sharing more information about the conference tomorrow and the sessions I'm taking