We'll cut to the chase: the 2010 Macworld Expo was a wild success. This was despite the expectations of nearly everyone—the press (yes, even those of us who still went to cover the conference), many of the exhibitors, and nearly the entire Internet. The conference's huge crowds ended up surprising everyone, all but guaranteeing a future for the Macworld Expo.

As the first Macworld San Francisco (MWSF) without Apple, IDG World Expo made huge efforts—arguably much more than in past years— to appeal to the Apple community. Offering free expo passes, huge discounts, and bringing in an emergency celebrity contingency were just some of the stops that IDG pulled out in order to lure in attendees.

And it apparently worked—not only did David Pogue perform with the help of Levar Burton and the Autotune the News Crew, but Kevin Smith hosted a packed house and other, more techy Internet names (such as John Gruber and Andy Ihnatko) held court to huge crowds as well. On the Expo floor, the crowds were so thick on Thursday and Friday that it was difficult to walk around at times, and many vendors told Ars that they had nonstop traffic through their booths.

One software maker said that he couldn't talk fast enough to get through the customers waiting to check things out, and several developers showcasing their iPhone apps said that the response had been "phenomenal." Even those selling quirky items responded positively to our queries—the energy was high and everyone was feeling it.

Even some companies that didn't have any new announcements to share, such as VMware, said they were glad to have paid for a booth, as it was a great way to interact with customers face-to-face. We asked representatives from practically every company on the show floor whether they would come back next year, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive. (Most responded "Yes, definitely!" without hesitation.)

It's clear that the high levels of foot traffic weren't anticipated by all, though. There was a 50 percent drop in registered exhibitors from last year's event (from over 500 to about 220), but it turns out those exhibitors who backed out wished they hadn't. Many companies that chose not to pay for a booth still sent representatives to check out the 2010 Expo. We managed to track down a few while wandering around the show floor, and they overwhelmingly told Ars that they actively regretted pulling out after seeing how much of a non-failure this year's Expo was. "We wish we anticipated this kind of opportunity to talk to our customers," a representative of one (pretty major) past vendor told us.

Of course, the social aspect of Macworld Expo was never doubted—the parties (official and unofficial) were as packed as always and all the attendees we spoke to had a good time. Having a beer with your fellow nerd or favorite developer will always be one of the biggest reasons for conference-goers to keep coming back (it's one of the primary reasons people go to SXSWi, also known as the "Spring Break for Nerds"). For someone covering the conference, and for many exhibitors, parties weren't just a time to relax after a long day of work, they were really a more relaxed extension of the workday where one could continue talking to users and other insiders about Apple products, coding, business, and the world of technology as a whole.

This isn't to say that the perceptions of the crowd that some of us expressed in the beginning were wrong—a handful of vendors agreed with our earlier assessment that the crowd in general seemed a little more from the "hardcore, oldschool" Apple fanbase compared to recent years. But not all of them saw that as a bad thing; Omni Group spokesperson Naomi Pearce felt that Apple's disappearance got rid of the more casual and less-interested users, keeping only the most interested and active user base. Essentially, Apple leaving the Expo improved the signal-to-noise ratio. That's a comparison we can appreciate.

The question remains: how much longer can IDG keep this up? At this point, it's all but guaranteed that MWSF 2011 will go off without a hitch, and probably with even more vendors than this year. But at least part of the success of the 2010 Expo was undoubtedly due to the mere novelty of going to an Apple-free Macworld. From here on out, the Apple community will have to evaluate whether it's a good enough show to keep attending, and it's possible that interest may dwindle over time.

The key question, though, is whether Macworld is a good and viable show. For 2010 at least, the answer was a resounding yes.