SAN FRANCISCO -- Media publishers can expect a barren and sedate Seybold conference this year.
In addition to a smaller home -- the west wing of the Moscone Center -- and a shorter list of exhibiting companies, the premier publishing trade show will have some conspicuous absences this week, including digital-publishing bigwig Apple Computer.
While it's no secret that Apple has scaled back its tradeshow attendances recently -- even at Macworld -- the company's absence seems to have forced Seybold's coordinators to fish for other big-name exhibitors and to cut back on space.
"We approached folks that haven't been there in a while," said James M. Smith, vice president and general manager of Seybold Seminars, Publications and Consulting. "We've done a great job of getting key players there."
Among the big-name exhibitors Seybold did snag are Microsoft's publishing division, Adobe, Macromedia and Quark. Smith did not rule out Apple's presence at future Seybold conferences.
Apple did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Whether poor market conditions or the industry's transformation from print to digital is responsible for the changes, Seybold organizers admit they were forced to tweak the format of the conference from previous years. Seybold, which has been a major tradeshow the last 21 years, has been reinvented as an "educational conference" this year -- meaning that there will be fewer exhibitors and flashy booths and more technical sessions held in classrooms, Smith said.
Companies are more likely to send employees to the conference when they learn a new way to become more productive workers, Smith said.
Smith declined to say how many companies and visitors are coming to -- or have bailed out of -- the conference this year.
"The first thing we did was talk to our vendors in the community," Smith said. "We were hearing things like, 'Dollars are tight these days.' Everybody is being forced to make a return on investment.
"What we realized we needed to do was offer a solution to vendors at Seybold and to lower our investments."
Old-timers say attending Seybold is worth every dime (registration prices start at $295 for a half-day tutorial to $1,995 for an all-access pass). There are 13 million Web designers and developers worldwide who need to learn about the latest and greatest publishing tools, said Al Ramadan, executive vice president of marketing for Macromedia.
Macromedia, of course, will be touting its own solutions at both a keynote address and a booth.
"It's a premium show," Ramadan said. "We still have got some ways to go to create these great experiences for people on the Web. We can show good examples."
The Seybold conference runs until Friday, Sept. 12.
