March 16th, 2000

[3:00 PM] Jobs Bows Out Of Internet World Keynote Speech by Staff ZDNet is reporting that Steve Jobs has apparently changed his mind about keynoting Internet World. Internet World is a large Internet oriented trade show taking place in Los Angeles during the first week of April. Mr. Jobs had been scheduled to keynote the event for the last two months. No word on why Mr. Jobs has backed out, but MacWeek's Mac the Knife column suggested it was because the ceiling was too low. According to ZDNet: Dara Tyson, director of public relations for Darian, Conn.-based eCRM, the organizer of the show, on Thursday told ZDNet News that the Cupertino, Calif., company's chief executive has withdrawn from the top spot at the event, which runs April 3-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Tyson said that Apple, a cosponsor of the event, will exhibit at the show, and she said eCRM is "working on" a replacement speaker. While she declined to identify the new keynote presenter, she said it would not be an Apple executive. Tyson declined to comment on reasons for Jobs' withdrawal. The Mac Observer Spin: No word on why Mr. Jobs has backed out, but this week's Mac the Knife column at MacWeek suggested it was because the ceiling was too low. We have absolutely no way to verify this, but we recommend that you read this week's Mac the Knife column as it is very entertaining. Keynote's are big business. They generate an enormous amount of press for a company that includes the kind of coverage you can't directly buy. This is especially the case for Apple where the Mac faithful follow every nuance of every line said looking for what Apple will be doing. Putting on a keynote is also an expensive affair that demands many thousands of man hours in preparation. Much of that preparation has already bveen done, so it is not likely that Mr. Jobs pulled out lightly. With all that said, it could be that whatever Mr. Jobs had expected to tout at the show is not ready for prime time. That is often a reason for an exec to back out of doing a keynote. Apple