Hi everybody, it is time to wrap it up. Today is the absolute best day to get business done, both for you, the normal attendee, and me, the Web writer guy. I took a quick look at the show floor and it was calmer than yesterday when I was looking around. It gets easier to talk to company folks to get information about products or for you to have a decent chance to benefit from special prices. I hear that a few companies give significant discounts for the lucky ones who buy today.

For example, I was speaking with this young lady from UMAX on hotel shuttle bus, and she was telling me that on Friday, there were special discounts coupled with free shipping if you purchased. This sounds like a good thing to me!

In the Expo, the meeting rooms and the surroundings of the show are more interesting to me than the show floor, especially if you can stick your nose in the best parties The problem with the show floor is that everybody is snooping around the booths and making it a bit difficult for anybody to go deeper than a quick look and a purchase. On the other hand, the meeting rooms are awesome. You get fewer people to deal with, and this is where the best product managers and engineers hang out. Most people I questionned on the show floor told me that my inquiries were too technical for them. In the meeting rooms, I got all the answers I wanted and the most interesting discussion.This leads me to give you a serious piece of advice if you are ever to attend an Expo:

If you want to have some real fun, you can go on the show floor, but do not restrict yourself to that. The surroundings will offer you more genuine people and real answers to your questions. Moreover, youill see that like in anything, it is not the official face of the Expo that will bring you the best entertainment, it is its surroundings.

Of course, if you are looking for special prices as a buyer for special deals, you will be OK with the "exhibits only> pass. But if you want more, get the pass that allows you to go everywhere. You will get so much more and if lucky, you will make good friends.

For those of you who may wonder if the MACWORLD Expo is worth the trip, I say that yes, it is definitely is a must-see. Of course, some of us have more access priviledges than others, but you know, if you are crafty, you cacn get pretty much anywhere. Just use the right methods and talk to the right people and you will have a blast in the best parties and meeting rooms.

Also, you should know that the spontaneous meetings are the best ones. You never know who you will bump into and you should not be afraid of engaging conversations around the convention center. I met some of the most interesting people by accident.

My overall impression is that instead of being some freak show, the MACWORLD Expo is now as good as any mainstream convention, and this is an excellent thing! Of course, the Think Different idea is still behind the whole concept of the Macintosh, but you know what I mean. You can sense the normal excitement of a big meeting while not having the impression that you are just a drop in the ocean. The Macintosh is a big thing now, and you can definitely see it at MACWORLD.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this diary, and I definitely encourage you to send me feedback and questions if you like.Iill reply to your mail soon from my new multi-processing G4