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Maybe I expected too much, but the New York stop of the FINAL CUT WORLD TOUR was a bit of a letdown.
The FC Caravan came to the Big Apple exactly one week to the day after Avid swung by to perform its “New Thinking” night club act. (FC added a second session to accommodate the huge response.) Avid indeed presented a night club act: manned work stations planted strategically around the theater district hotel ballroom, disco lighting, classy snacks, free drinks, useful souvenirs and a cadre of red-shirted acolytes available to answer questions.
Avid’s presentation to the stand-up crowd (there were only a few seats) was brief and to the point. Which was a good thing, because there wasn’t much to say. But the message was clear: They know they dropped the ball, and they’re trying to get it back.
The FC event, on the other hand, mixed a mini-trade fair (about ten third-party vendors showing their wares) with a slickly produced show-and-tell, extolling the wonders to be found in the new Server (one hour) and several apps in the Final Cut Studio 2 suite (two hours). And that’s all they wrote. No Q&A, no discussion. no interactivity. During the break, I tried to pose a question to one of the presenters and was waved off to the Apple Table outside the conference hall, which was deserted when I got there. Unlike any Apple store, where orange, blue and aquamarine shirted personnel are easy to spot, I had to ask several people if they worked for Apple. When I finally tried to pose my question to the Apple guy I found, he said, some other people were there “for a long time.” I asked if there was anybody else from Apple, and was told: “That guy over there in the striped shirt,” vaguely indicating a crowd of ten people. I never had my questioned answered.
I would have expected such customer relations ineptitude at the Avid presentation. But at a ballyhooed Apple event? Was the budget for this meet so tiny, that Apple couldn’t afford to conscript a couple of FC types from its five stores in New York?
I could easily overlook the absence of snacks, bar and souvenirs, but the exclusion of Q&A and the paucity of qualified Apple personnel at such an event is at best tacky. It lends credence to the on-line noise about Apple’s diminishing interest -- not only in its pro-apps but in the people who use them.
The FC Caravan came to the Big Apple exactly one week to the day after Avid swung by to perform its “New Thinking” night club act. (FC added a second session to accommodate the huge response.) Avid indeed presented a night club act: manned work stations planted strategically around the theater district hotel ballroom, disco lighting, classy snacks, free drinks, useful souvenirs and a cadre of red-shirted acolytes available to answer questions.
Avid’s presentation to the stand-up crowd (there were only a few seats) was brief and to the point. Which was a good thing, because there wasn’t much to say. But the message was clear: They know they dropped the ball, and they’re trying to get it back.
The FC event, on the other hand, mixed a mini-trade fair (about ten third-party vendors showing their wares) with a slickly produced show-and-tell, extolling the wonders to be found in the new Server (one hour) and several apps in the Final Cut Studio 2 suite (two hours). And that’s all they wrote. No Q&A, no discussion. no interactivity. During the break, I tried to pose a question to one of the presenters and was waved off to the Apple Table outside the conference hall, which was deserted when I got there. Unlike any Apple store, where orange, blue and aquamarine shirted personnel are easy to spot, I had to ask several people if they worked for Apple. When I finally tried to pose my question to the Apple guy I found, he said, some other people were there “for a long time.” I asked if there was anybody else from Apple, and was told: “That guy over there in the striped shirt,” vaguely indicating a crowd of ten people. I never had my questioned answered.
I would have expected such customer relations ineptitude at the Avid presentation. But at a ballyhooed Apple event? Was the budget for this meet so tiny, that Apple couldn’t afford to conscript a couple of FC types from its five stores in New York?
I could easily overlook the absence of snacks, bar and souvenirs, but the exclusion of Q&A and the paucity of qualified Apple personnel at such an event is at best tacky. It lends credence to the on-line noise about Apple’s diminishing interest -- not only in its pro-apps but in the people who use them.
