On another thread, folks are trying to help Jason
with ideas for his
Lisa Xenix exhibit. It seems to be bringing out some general
discussions
about what makes good exhibits.
Lets talk about past exhibits here for the sake of new exhibits-
What was really memorable, worked well, and why.
Past exhibitors can comment on what they might have done better.
For instance, when I did my spreadsheet exhibit I think the
strengths were that I had a lot of breadth, including the
Trinity
(almost) running visicalc, and one gimick CosmacCalc.
It was a big exhibit, I am proud of it, but I can admit that it
might not
have been widely memorable. Perhaps not 3 tables worth
memorable.
I think the progression from Visicalc was not clear, including
the technical
innovations that typified early competition and company scuttle
that led to the
rise of other products. I also had a huge hole, the omission of
MicroPro CalcPro,
pivital to the CP/M PCs, that somehow eluded research.
At the end I ran out of time too- some really good ideas came on
the last week
that I didn't have time to include.
My lessons: Your ideas needs time to cook and that cooking seems
to come
when you're deep into it. For me it was when it was almost
done.
I would have benefited from starting earlier so I had time to
incorporate those ideas.
The funny thing was, when I started it I didn't have any idea
how interesting
it was going to be, and as I worked on it it became really
interesting to me and
evolved into much more than I thought it would. Perhaps that is
a common
experience among exhibitors, and I hope new exhibitors find that
inspiring.
A few exhibits that have really stuck with me that I can rattle
off quicly:
- Dean's GUI user interface exhibit - hit the memorable
variations well.
- the Dazzler exhibit (glad it showed up twice!) - had a story
of locating
and resurrectly almost lost S-100 cpm software implementing an
early
graphics lib... exciting!
- The cyclops exhibit - WOW told the whole story.
- Dave Gueswin's personal history
- the PDP exhibits - OK they just look good.
- the "lost MAC portables clones" - just so unique.
- The Fairlight - who remembered that was a 6800 system?
- The Apple II exhibit two years ago with many variations.
- Last years Amiga exhibit- organized demonstrations of how
much was involved with early graphic image captures.
(Stuff I read about but never saw back in the day)