The fun for me at MacWorld this year wasn’t really the cool new tools – although there were some pretty cool new tools being shown, notably the new iPhone, Leopard and Adobe’s Creative Suite3 (none of which are being shipped for months, which I’m afraid kind of takes the edge off the excitement factor for me. Also, the new iPhone is only 8G – what are they THINKING?!!!).

I did get a big kick out of the extraordinarily complete array of
Canon lenses, all laid out in the case like a row of jewels ready for
me to try on in turn, and of course I did, effortlessly adding 3-4 to
my ‘covet madly must have now’ list. I always enjoy looking in on the free workshops, and
as usual I learned several things I didn’t know just in passing eavesdrop mode.

I couldn’t help but notice the convention-wide attention placed on
laptop chic. There were literally dozens of companies dedicated to computer charisma, including some absolutely gorgeous Italian-leather custom laptop covers from a company called case-mate, and so many varieties of bags it was hard to keep track of them.

But the most fun for me was in people-watching – the mix of ages, sizes, tech-ability and interests all sharing a mind-space like this is really inspiring. I stopped in to check
out a digital photography session where the majority of eager
students sitting in front of their shiny new 24" flat screen
monitors were 65 years of age and upwards. I couldn’t help being touched, by both the patience and
kindness of the much younger instructor-geek and the eager innocence of
the retiree-students in their enthusiasm for learning this new life-enhancing skill.