45K is really good. At its peak, the COMDEX show attracted about 200K attendees, and that covered the whole computer industry instead of a single manufacturer.
It also covers the consumer electronics industry, does it not? -- and like most trades shows, attendance has declined in recent years. MacWorld is still remarkably strong. People still attend even if the number of exhibitors isn't what it was a few years ago.
I didn't even realize they had the North hall open as an exhibit hall last year. This year was way better than last year in terms of attendance and exhibitors... not too terribly many new products though, mostly the same stuff as last year, at least from the largest vendors. And WAY too much iPod.
I would attribute the larger macworld turnout to the unveiling of the intelchips over the past year. Plenty of converts attended... as well as the expo not being quite so 'ipodworldesque' which had turned me away from it for the last couple years.. everyone and their mother had an Ipod gadget/accessory. Maybe I was just bitter because I was not a part of the ipod club at the time..
It is most likely that the increase in attendance this year was do to the fact that MacWorld also hosted a Flash Forward conference.(a first I believe)
This was a test to see if it would be worth it for Flash Forward to add MacWorld expos to there list of shows, in addition to its other conferences throughout the year. Flash Forward was only for 2-3 days, but it was a trial run.
What would be interesting to see are the attendance figures for the first half of the week-(Flash Forward part) and the last half of the week.
Now, I am not saying that the only way attendance can increase is by having Flash Forward-(or some other group) join in with MacWorld. I am just saying it was a new offering that wasn't there before and one that has a large following.