Regular viewers will recall that a couple of months ago, there was a bit of a flap about how Apple Expo 98, the largest Apple-focused trade show set in London, was going to be missing one very important ingredient: Apple. Just imagine if this January's Macworld Expo were to take place without Apple in attendance; it'd kick up quite a stink, wouldn't it? So yeah, things got a little tense over in England back when Apple U.K. announced that they were pulling out of the London show due to disagreements with Emap Trenton, the show's sponsor, who decided to run a second trade show alongside Apple Expo. "Total Design Technology" would run concurrently in the same convention hall, and would be cross-platform and targeted at designers. Apple U.K. didn't like that, so they bailed, much to Emap's surprise.

Well, the show took place last week (seeing as the English don't celebrate Thanksgiving), and according to one report, the event was as underwhelming as you'd probably expect. The conference hall was split down the middle, with Apple Expo on one side, and Total Design Technology on the other. People attending both shows actually had to have their badges swiped every time they wanted to cross from one side to the other. That inconvenience might not have been too much to bear-- if there had been much reason to cross the divide at all, or in fact to be on either side in the first place. Apple Expo lacked a number of big names on the show floor; Apple's withdrawal apparently also sparked the absence of Adobe, Quark, Microsoft, etc. The vendors that did show up reportedly lacked enthusiasm. As for the cross-platform show, well, it sounds as though most of the vendors on that side of the fence were just selling large-format color printers. Hmmm.

So there you have it: Portrait of a Non-Event. It's somewhat debatable whether the apparent failure of this show was entirely due to Apple's no-show, but it was undoubtedly a factor. When they announced their intention to skip Apple Expo, Apple U.K. said they'd be throwing their own trade show instead, to take place sometime in 1999. Let's hope that affair goes a little better.