April showing Steve a poster of himself, his son, and some PowerBooks.
Kerychuk and Wozniak. Gurus of technology and education!
Evening at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
April and one of her work associates attended an AIM Institute banquet in Omaha where Steve was the keynote speaker. After the speech, Wozniak hung around to pose for photos and graciously sign Macs, Apple II's and other historic Apple and Woz-related items. She said he was not only an entertaining speaker, but also listened attentively to guests and welcomed their own stories.
Steve Wozniak: a class act all the way.
Update: My wife has posted her recollection of the event in the comments section, while another Woz fan shares his experience at Applemacpunk.com
2 comments:
As a long-time supporter of Apple Computer, I was totally thrilled to attend a Technology Banquet & Awards event held at the Omaha Qwest center on April 4, 2006. It all began by a simple post card invite I received in my mailbox at work one day. I wasn't sure if my workplace would allow me to go, but I was advised, by a close friend, to try asking if I could attend this great event, and my workplace said yes to my surprise! :) Even if they said no, I would have likely paid the hefty $90/plate just to be in the presence of a pure genius and role model who helped jumpstart Apple Computer. Ironically, April 1, 2006 marked the 30th Anniversary of Apple Computer. They started their company on April 1st, how cool is that!
Steve Wozniak, Apple Co-Founder, was the guest speaker at this event which is what drew me to attending this once in a lifetime opportunity to hear and meet him. He was such an intriguing presenter, full of wisdom and experience, that he carried on for nearly two hours in his presentation! He basically gave a personal autobiography of his life during his presentation.
A few examples of what he talked about included his childhood science projects in school, how he became licensed as a Ham Radio operator at the early age of 7, and how much he loved Math which helped him think more logically about the science that went into building his first computer. He said he not only figured out all the mathematics behind tic-tac-toe but discovered it’s mainly a psychological game and he guaranteed he could beat anyone in the room at that game. It was so amazing to listen to his stories and hear how he would take other companies’ existing computer hardware and shrink it down with less chips to do the same functions. He talked about how he met his wife over a dial-a-joke phone event he created and how he went on to meet Steve Jobs, the other Co-Founder of Apple. They basically became great friends after they compared how many pranks they pulled on people with their technology experiments. He just has so much knowledge to share it was amazing! I could have easily listened to him all night. He’s currently writing his autobiography which should be out in November 2006.
The greatest moment of the event was when I was able to get Steve Wozniak to sign a poster I had brought with me. The look on his face was priceless when he glanced at what I was holding and instantly went into another ‘story telling’ opportunity. He said he really likes the story behind this one...the poster was of him and his son holding some of the first generation of PowerBooks side-by-side in a park. He said it was at that moment he realized why he had created the computer he created—it was for the children. He’s been a long-time Educator himself and his love for creating a computer that focused on the human element has truly been reflected in the Apple Computers we have grown up with (child or adult) today.
It definitely will be an experience I will never forget! Thank you to my wonderful husband, Chad, for posting a couple of the pictures taken at the event on his personal weblog.
I think Woz fits right in with the ‘crazy ones’ depicted in the famous Apple Commercial for “Think Different” campaign. His last words in his presentation were priceless “I believe that every computer IS a Macintosh. EVERY computer is a Macintosh”.
I prefer to operate on a Mac, myself :)
April
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