atomicbird

It's still a few weeks until WWDC '08, but it's already looking to break previous records for insanity. With the iPhone taking up a huge chunk of the schedule, most who follow these things were predicting a lot of first-timers. And there were rumors from what should be reliable sources of an attendance cap, an unprecedented occurrence. A couple of days ago it became official with this notice on Apple's developer home page:

I don't think WWDC has ever sold out before. I'm guessing the real reason it did this year is that sooner or later the San Francisco fire marshal is going to say, OK, enough is enough. That might have been what prompted the sudden change of plans for WWDC '03. Then, after announcing WWDC dates for the then-typical San Jose venue, and waiting a few weeks while everyone made travel plans, Apple suddenly announced that the conference would be in San Francisco on a different date. This year? It looks like Moscone North and South are already booked for part of WWDC week, so buyers were cut off.

This has already prompted panicked would-be attendees to plead for someone to sell them a ticket. It's also prompted at least one eBay auction (where as of this writing the high bid is actually lower than what Apple's original price). Buyers should beware, though, and not just because the eBay seller has apparently never sold anything on eBay before.

Apple doesn't send out blank, usable-by-bearer tickets to WWDC. This isn't a movie you're attending. They've long since moved on to e-tickets. You can transfer your e-ticket to someone else, but you have to tell Apple to transfer it by logging in to your account at the developer connection member site. And, officially at least, you're not supposed to transfer "assets" like the ticket to anyone who doesn't work for the same company as you. Scalping is not supposed to be an option. Someone buying now might well find out that Apple considers the transfer invalid, and that they can't get in to the conference.

Keynote lineup, WWDC 2007Would they do this? WWDC has already become something of a cattle run at times, and had to be severely pushing the limits of Moscone West already. This year attendees should expect the crowd-control army to be in full force. If there's a session you really want to attend, get there early or you may not get in. I don't know that Apple would invoke their right to bar entry just in the interest of crowd control, but then it's not like they have any room to spare either. And of course the ticket is non-refundable, so hey, they get paid the same either way.

I've got mine. Do you have yours?