Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - Apple fans and software developers are in for a treat.
Steve "Woz" Wozniak, the man who founded Apple Inc. with Steve Jobs, is scheduled to visit Jakarta and speak at the Innovation and Creative Workshop at the Balai Kartini on July 17.
Event organizer 3Ocean Live said that Wozniak would share his experience in transforming a business startup into a multi-billion dollar company, which was exactly what Wozniak and Jobs did.
While Jobs assumed the role as the company's visionary, Wozniak was the engineer that tinkered with Apple's products, including the company's first computer, the Apple I. The prototype cost around US$1,000 to make, which Wozniak assembled in Job's garage.
Apple has since then grown into a software and hardware juggernaut, recording a stock market value of roughly $500 billion in March. The company posted revenue of $39.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012 and sold 35.1 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads within that period.
Woz, who rides a two-wheeled electric Segway on an almost daily basis, quit Apple in 1997 to pursue other ventures, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wheels of Zeus.
He has also published his autobiography, iWoz, and currently advises the makers of a Steve Jobs biopic produced by Sony Pictures. He still maintains share ownership in Apple.
Tech start-ups have started to proliferate in Indonesia, with many budding entrepreneurs developing e-commerce sites and mobile applications for operating systems such as iOS and Android.
Fadli Wardhana of 3Ocean Live said that Indonesia already had its own pool of creative people in the digital industry, and this was the crowd whom the event organizers were targeting.
"We are targeting these people who can derive ideas from Steve Wozniak on how to create products that can be of use to the masses," he said.
Ticket prices range from 2 million rupiah ($215) to 3.5 million rupiah ($378). The organizers have prepared 250 VIP seats, 500 gold-class seats and 300 silver-class seats. Tickets are now on sale at online ticket counters and would soon be available at travel agents, he said.
"Besides the workshop featuring Steve Wozniak and three other speakers, we will also hold an exhibition of digitally-advanced international brands," he added.
Fadli said that Indonesia and Malaysia were the only two countries in Southeast Asia where Steve would talk.
"Steve will only be in Indonesia for one day," he added.
Anton Soeharyo, a founder of mobile application start-up Touchten, said that he was "very interested" in meeting Wozniak.
"This is because my company is related to Apple [products]," he said, referring to the game applications his start-up developed for iOS.
Some of the start-up's games, namely Sushi Chain and Hachiko, have made it to the most-downloaded Apple Store game applications for countries such as the US and Japan.
In addition to meeting and greeting Wozniak, Anton was also interested in obtaining advice on start-ups from the Apple co-founder himself.
"As a start up, I find the ticket price not too expensive," he told The Jakarta Post.
Meanwhile, William Tanuwijaya, the CEO of e-commerce website tokopedia.com, said that the US market that Wozniak had experience in was different from Indonesia's.
"It's not guaranteed that what will be shared in the workshop will be applicable to the Indonesian market," he said.
"The workshop will be more to something that will inspire," he told the Post.