Thank you to all those who came. Some clips are posted on the "day of the night' link above. Photos are getting posted here and on the 30th blog page.
Although we would have liked to have a lot more people, we are pleased that quality of the people there was better than focusing on quantity of attendees. Panelists were excellent, and the only regret was that there seems to never be enough time to hear stories like these.
Thank you to all those who participated in the event.
APOLOGIES: There were two misspelled names in the program. One inexcusable: Jef Raskin - which was part of a free ad we ran and although it came to us that way only a couple of days before the event, it should have been caught. Chris Espinosa sorry about the 'z'!
MAC@30 Anniversary Celebration - Testimonial and Poster Campaign.
Mac Friends and Users! Please take a moment to share a story or memory about how your Macintosh took you to new creative heights, or let you do new things you never could on your old computer, or helped you write that first novel, or compose your first song, or whatever Mac-related story you want to share. If you have a Mac tale to tell, we want to hear from you.
Include a head-shot photo of yourself, we'll do our best to include your face to our one-of-a-kind Mac@30 celebration mosaic poster.
Commemorative poster swings into gear as the team photo was taken, which is part of the poster- along with your photo. Be sure to upload your poster and testimonial about the Mac at the poster site.
An evening celebrating the Original Macintosh Development team. Throughout the evening, there were clips of footage, in many cases never before seen, featuring some of the people who were being honored. The evening's first panel, Conception was moderated by John Markoff and features Daniel Kottke, Larry Tesler, Rod Holt, Jerry Manock, and Marc LeBrun.
The second Panel, The Birth of the Mac, was moderated by Steven Levy, and featured Bill Atkinson, Randy Wigginton, Andy Hertzfeld, Bruce Horn, Steve Capps, George Crow and Caroline Rose. The audience was able to hear first-hand stories from these panelists and others about the real stories behind the birth of the Macintosh.
Mike Markkula with the second panel acknowledged the original 1984 Mac Team's accomplishment, and then they all assembled on stage for an historic photo - just before the intermission.
In 1984, the world got the first glimpse of the Macintosh through the iconic “1984” TV ad. Steve Hayden, who headed the creative team, presented a brilliant talk about the original concept and the process of creation of the ad with Jobs, as well as speaking about the 'back story' and thoughts behind many other ads, some of which had not been seen before in public.
The third panel, the Coming of Age of Mac, was moderated by Dan Farber and features well known 3rd party developers like Charlie Jackson, Jim Rea, Heidi Roizen, Ty Roberts, David Bunnell, Marc Canter, Maryline Delbourg Delphis, Adam Hertz and Steve Jasik focusing on the software necessary for the Mac to gain critical mass.
On behalf of Gabreal and myself, I want to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude for your commitment and hard work in making this event possible. This was a labor of love; and the smiling faces, applause, and messages of appreciation that we have received are a testament to you as well.
This night celebrated a truly historic event in our collective culture that did change the world. It helped spread the knowledge of all people on this planet that it is possible to join the world community through the web and through their "insanely great" machines, whatever and wherever they may be. This was an evolutionary leap for our planet and our species. May it lead to a better world of understanding, cooperation and peace. You all should be proud of your participation in this celebration. I know I am.
Cupertino, Calif. – January 16, 2014 -- The original Mac development team who envisioned and built the first Apple Macintosh personal computer will headline the Mac30th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate the computer’s historic 1984 launch. The gala event will gather the Who’s Who – inventors, technologists, media and venture capitalists -- behind one of the most successful technology innovations.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh on January 24, 1984 at Flint Center in Cupertino, California. Mac30th will be held at the same location.
The celebration honors the men and women who created the Macintosh. Nearly all of the original development team -- including many of those whose signatures appear inside the case of the first production run -- will be on hand for a series of conversations about the computer’s evolution from idea to product. Some will be on stage to reminisce about those early days and share an unprecedented collection of stories, photos and videos documenting the events that led to the release of that first Macintosh.
Kottke will co-host a panel with John Markoff of The New York Times and revisit the conception of the Macintosh and offer a rare glimpse into the seminal years -- including the push to define features and concepts and the emergence of the original development team.
Wired Magazine’s Steven Levy takes a second panel through the technical obstacles that the team encountered as they developed innovative combinations of software and hardware and contended with short deadlines to meet shipping dates.
Dan Farber of CNET will host a third panel to talk about the Mac’s coming of age, featuring early third-party developers recalling the innovative applications they created to serve a new platform and match the power of a new machine.
The world also got the first glimpse of the Macintosh through the iconic “1984” TV ad. Steve Hayden, who headed the creative team, will talk about the original concept and the process of creation of the ad with Jobs.
Event producers have assembled privately-held videos and stills documenting the events and personalities of those days, some of which have never been publicly screened.
Profits from Mac@30 will be donated to CoderDojo (www.coderdojo.com), an organization which helps youngsters develop the skills they need to write tomorrow’s software and envision future technology.
Organizers have designed a colorful mosaic poster to commemorate the event. It features a picture of the first Mac, with headshots of the original team tiled across its display. The public is invited, at no charge, to submit their own photos to make up the rest of the image. Anecdotes and testimonials about individual experiences with the Macintosh are also welcome at the site. Information and image and text uploads are available at http://www.macintosh30th.com/posters/.
Mac aficionados are traveling from across the country and from as far away as Poland, South Africa, Spain, Canada and Australia for a chance to hear from the people who ushered in the era of modern computing -- and to be part of the Macintosh’s ongoing history.
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; the event begins at 7:00 and runs until 10:30.
We are sorry the ticketing was such a problematic, and so hard to get from Ticket Master. Also regret the venue did not allow people to just move forward, and was so rigid on people getting in their sections. They should have allowed people to gather up front, and be more intimate. The production team tried repeatedly to convince them.
- 30 years ago! Extraordinary! I write to you from Spain where I am shooting my latest film BOOK OF EXODUS. We are not scheduled to complete filming until the end of January and so, unfortunately, it will not be possible to join you on the evening of January 25th.
It was an honour then to work with Steve Jobs and his team and I remain proud of the commercial to this day.
Thank you again for such a generous invitation and I am truly sorry not to be able to attend, to see you all, and join in this exciting anniversary.
I wish you very many congratulations and a very successful evening.