From the the early months of starting Foojee, it had always been a goal of mine to take the team to Macworld one year. Part fun, part learning, it's the largest conference/expo for Apple enthusiasts and IT administrators. For the first time since our inception, we were all able to visit the West coast and have a blast in San Francisco! Above is a highlight reel of our trip!
Even though Apple themselves weren't in attendance, there was plenty of excitement for the company's successes and sentiment for what the future holds. Apple continues to build a platform of seemingly simple products, which creates entire product segments for 3rd party developers and accessory makers. The community behind Apple has always been a special part of the company and it's products, and Macworld is as concentrated as it gets for the general public. (There's WWDC that Apple hosts every summer, including June 2 this year, but that's primarily for app developers.)
What doesn't make headlines much is the community of IT administrators that are supporting hundreds and thousands of Apple's products in schools and organizations around the world. This part, called MacIT, was equally fun. We met people from organizations ranging from Facebook to Meredith to several universities, and several startups that use Macs in the majority of their environments. In doing so, it was great to learn and share methods of management, scripting, reporting, and support that helped each other. We're already putting some of those learns into play for our clients back home. We also got to spend time with fellow Apple consultants from other parts of the US, and dear friends like the guys as watchmanmonitoring.com (who are the magic behind Foojee FAST)!
Needless to say, it was a freaking blast. We learned a ton, and got to spend some time sight-seeing in SF. Thanks to the amazing team we've built, what started as an idea on the couch with my great friend Gene, has turned out to be a thrill that I look forward to everyday.