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The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual
computer industry A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These progr ...
conference and exposition most often associated with
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, its first and most frequent venue. The first fair was held in 1977 and was organized by Jim Warren and Bob Reiling. At the time, it was the biggest computer show in the world, intended to popularize the
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or te ...
in the home. The West Coast PC Faire was formed to provide a more specialized show. However, Apple Inc. stopped exhibiting at the West Coast Computer Faire, refusing to exhibit at any show other than
COMDEX COMDEX (an abbreviation of COMputer Dealers' EXhibition) was a computer expo trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually ...
that also had PC-based exhibits. In 1983, Warren sold the rights to the Faire for US$3 million to
Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari ...
, who later sold it to
Sheldon Adelson Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns ...
, the owner of Interface Group and COMDEX. In total, sixteen shows were held, with the last in 1991. After Warren sold the show, it had a few more good years, and then declined rapidly.


History

The first fair took place on April 16–17, 1977, in
San Francisco Civic Auditorium The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (formerly San Francisco Civic Auditorium) is a multi-purpose arena in San Francisco, California, named after promoter Bill Graham. The arena holds 8,500 people. About the venue The auditorium was designed by re ...
, and saw the debut of the
Commodore PET The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, ...
, presented by Chuck Peddle, and the
Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
, presented by then-22-year-old
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
and 26-year-old
Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...
. At the exhibition, Jobs introduced the Apple II to
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
ese textile maker Toshio Mizushima, who became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan. Other visitors included Tomio Gotō who developed the
TK-80 The TK-80 (μCOM Training Kit TK-80) was an 8080-based single-board computer kit developed by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1976. It was originally developed for engineers who considered using the '' μCOM-80 family'' in their product. It was s ...
and
PC-8001 The is a line of personal computers developed for the Japanese market by NEC. The PC-8001 model was also sold in the United States and Canada as the PC-8001A. Original models of the NEC PC-8001B (or sometimes the NEC PC-8000) were also sold in s ...
, and Kazuhiko Nishi who produced the MSX. There were about 180 exhibitors, among them
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
, MITS, and
Digital Research Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and ...
. When the first fair opened, almost twice as many people arrived as Warren anticipated, and thousands of people were waiting to get into the auditorium. More than 12,000 people visited the fair. The 2nd West Coast Computer Faire was held March 3–5, 1978, at what was then the San Jose Convention Center (now Parkside Hall). This event had the first-ever micro
computer chess Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...
tournament, won by Sargon. The 3rd West Coast Computer Faire was held on November 3–5, 1978, at the
Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...
. The 4th West Coast Computer Faire returned to San Francisco in May 1979 at
Brooks Hall Brooks Hall (originally Civic Center Exhibit Hall, nicknamed Mole Hall and Gopher Palace) is a disused event space underneath the southern half of Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco; a parking garage occupies the space under the northern half. I ...
and Civic Auditorium. Dan Bricklin demonstrated VisiCalc, the first
spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in ...
program for personal computers. At the 5th West Coast Computer Faire, held in March 1980,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
announced their first hardware product, the Z-80 SoftCard, which gave the Apple II
CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initi ...
capabilities. The 6th West Coast Computer Faire was held on April 3–5, 1981, notable for being the venue where
Adam Osborne Adam Osborne (March 6, 1939 – March 18, 2003) was a British author, book and software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere. He introduced the Osborne 1, the first commercially su ...
introduced the
Osborne 1 The Osborne 1 is the first commercially successful portable computer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighs , cost US$1,795, and runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system. It is powered from a wall socket, as it has no ...
. The 7th West Coast Computer Faire saw the introduction of the 5 MB Winchester
disk drive Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...
for
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
s by Davong Systems. It was held on March 19–21, 1982, in San Francisco. That year's conference also featured a Saturday breakout session, titled "THE IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER", with eight talks delivered in a three-hour period. One of these was (as listed in the program): ''P.C. — It's Impact on the MicroComputer Industry'' Bill Gates, President Microsoft 10800 N.E. 8th #819 Bellevue, WA 98004 At its peak, all available spaces for exhibits were rented out, including the balcony of Civic Auditorium, and the hallway to the restrooms in Brooks Hall (where Bob Wallace ("Quicksoft") introduced "
PC-Write PC-Write was a computer word processor and was one of the first three widely popular software products sold via the marketing method that became known as shareware. It was originally written by Bob Wallace in early 1983. Overview PC-Write was a ...
"). The 8th West Coast Computer Faire was held March 18–20, 1983. Subsequent West Coast Computer Faires were held in
Moscone Center The George R. Moscone Convention Center (pronounced ), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three block ...
in San Francisco. After the 10th Faire,
Bruce Webster Bruce F. Webster is an American academic and software engineer. He is currently a principal at Bruce F. Webster & Associates and an adjunct professor in computer science at Brigham Young University. Early life and education Webster studied ...
wrote that "Warren sold out just in time. The Faire is shrinking. It may not be dying, but it is no longer the important trade show it was two short years ago. Without the giant booths from IBM, Apple, and AT&T, the Faire would have looked like any other small, local, end-user show. The move to the Moscone Center didn't help that impression; a large chunk of the main floor was unused, adding to the impression of the Faire's shrunken size". The 12th West Coast Computer Faire was held in March 1987. The 16th West Coast Computer Faire was held from May 30 to June 2, 1991, at Moscone Center.


West Coast IBM PC Faire, SF

First West Coast IBM PC Faire, August 26–28, 1983 in San Francisco, CA, was presented by Computer Faire, Inc., Redwood City, CA.


Personal Computer Faire, SF

Third Personal Computer Faire September 5–7, 1985 in San Francisco, CA was presented by Computer Faire, Inc., Newton, MA. Fourth Personal Computer Faire, in San Francisco, was presented September 25–27, 1986, by The Interface Group, Needham, Mass.


Northeast Computer Faire

The Northeast Computer Faire in Boston, was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, Mass., a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall. The Eighth Northeast Computer Faire, September 26–29, 1985, Bayside Exposition Center. Boston. MA. was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, MA. The 11th Northeast Computer Faire'','' which ran October 27-29, 1988, was presented by The Interface Group and
Boston Computer Society The Boston Computer Society (BCS) was an organization of personal computer users, based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., that ran from 1977 to 1996. At one point, it was the largest such group in the world, with regular user group meetings, many p ...
in Boston.


Southern California Computer Faire

Southern California Computer Faire was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, Mass., a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall.


References


Media coverage

* * * * * * * * * {{cite magazine , url=https://archive.org/details/BYTE_Vol_10-09_1985-09_10th_Anniversary_Issue , title=According to Webster: West Coast Faire, Mac Stuff, and the Amiga , author=Webster, Bruce , date=September 1985 , magazine=BYTE , page
401
��407 , access-date=22 October 2018


External links


Silicon Gulch Gazette

Original article about the first fair by David H. Ahl
in ''The Best of Creative Computing Volume 3'' (1980)
On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore
(2005) Variant Press. Mentions the WCCF and the debut of the Commodore PET and Apple II. 1977 establishments in California 1991 disestablishments in California Annual events in California Computer conferences Computer-related introductions in 1977 Events in San Francisco History of computing Recurring events established in 1977 Recurring events disestablished in 1991