Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Alas, one of the problems of these shows is that people apparently can't control themselves, and as a result, "public nudity" is a real issue. It does come a bit from the young guys, ton of money thing, it also comes from a number of people in the business who honestly couldn't get laid in a whore house with a fist full of hundreds.

More than anything, it's because the conventions stopped being conventions, and started being all about the parties, the drunken adventures, etc. The first few years of IA / Internext (florida and vegas) the program owners and principal players spend their days on the show floors, had dinner with a couple of friends, and attended the cocktails. By 2004 or so, the program owners were nowhere to be found, often partying all night and then disappearing all day, running their own parties offsite, many of them not even bothering to get show badges. The show floor in Vegas now is a joke, and in Florida, it is gone entirely. Based on the reports I got, it was almost useless in Florida this time to try to find many people before 3 or 4 in the afternoon. That isn't conducive to doing business.

I think it comes down to this: Few of the players really want to talk business with anyone except their bros, because they are using dishonest business methods, shaving, cross sales, spamming, dishonest advertising, and many, many other sneaking and shitty things to make a living, so they are working on the "down low" of porn marketing. They don't want to talk to anyone that might actually ask them what the fuck they are doing. So instead, they come to the shows, hide out with their bros, take lots of pictures, and act like they met everyone. It's PR at it's very worst.

AVN shows are like the Zoo at this point - both seriously lacking in webmasters, and seriously lacking in any true relationship to the adult industry.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

:-pearl::-pearl::-pearl::-pearl::-pearl:

Alec.... Jay heres a void for both of you guys to step up to with your shows. Step up to the mike... Chris is off with SE Guru playing spin the needle.

Your turn on the mic.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

who is sponsoring the urinals?

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Whos spondoring the toilet paper in the rooms so we can get ass cancer from the ink?

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Believe it or not, I have breakfast meetings at every show. I tend to set up my major meetings between 8 am and 11 am with add-ons throughout the rest of the day.

Sure there are people who will treat it like a vacation or not get up til 3 pm or act like "ballas" -- I don't think the problem is endemic to the shows - AVN and xBiz have provided what has been asked for (who's heard all the bitching when there aren't "enough" parties? *raises hand*). I think the biggest problem is that people stopped being as hungry, and the show putter-onners are convenient scapegoats.

There's still a shit tonne of business to be done at a show, if one is hungry and looks for it.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

The same can be said for any situation, online, on the phone, whatever.

However, shows are suppose to (IMHO) serve up that business pretty much right in front of you, and take steps to make it possible for you to actually do business. Cybernet in it's current form does a good job with things like Corridor Cruising, and other events have speed networking or other events that promote meeting new people.

What really always makes me laugh is after a show, you say "Gee, I never saw (insert playah name here) at the show", and then a few days later they are on the Zoo posting all their "show" pictures. When you look at the pictures, you realize they really weren't at the show, they just happened to be in the same city (and same hotel) as the show at the same time. Most of their pics are private parties, limo shots, nightclub VIPs, drunken shots by the pool at 4am, etc. Most of them never have a single actual "at the show" picture, except perhaps poolside in Florida grabbing some chick's ass.

So even if you wanted to do business with these people, meet them, discussion whatever, it is impossible. At best, you get a "rep" that has no authority to do anything, often has little true knowledge of the product, and certainly can't trade traffic, links, or whatever of their own accord. I would have better luck reaching the "playah" via email or ICQ than I would being at the show.

In the end, the shows fail because parties are nice, but they are hard to bottom line justify.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Yea.....vacation or not, I'm not doing business meetings at 8am in the morning.
I'm in the Adult business.

3am? No problem
6am? No problem, (but I'm starting to get fuzzy.......)

7am-noon- you are talking to yourself


Unless of course, I travel to the west coast....then I can function on the "normal" (And who decided that anyhow?) business hours.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

When you think about it. Its so not cost effective to have to go to shows to have meetings that could be handled on phone or internet. Its not like your repping a company thats new. AEBN is the biggest at what they do. So its not like you are going to run into someone who doesnt know who your company is and works in adult. And if they dont know chances are they have no traffic and are worthless.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

And, being self-employed, that is your prerogative. I fond those to be very productive hours for me. On the other hand, I am kind of known for being the crazy-needs-no-sleep woman, 'cos I am generally up by 6.30 am to attend office business and going to sleep around 4 am.

Tony - thank you for the kind words about the company. I will freely admit I run into people who have no idea who we are with some regularity. And some of those end up being incredibly valuable contacts *shrug*

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Tony, I have to disagree. There are just some things that are more effectively handled face to face where each person can see the facial expressions, body language etc. of the person they're talking with. Also, there are things that are said face to face that just wouldn't be mentioned via email, ICQ or over the phone. Maybe I'm a bit old school in this regard, but being able to look someone in the eye as you shake their hand goes a long way to establishing a trust factor.

In my case, as strictly an affiliate webmaster, being at the shows demonstrates I'm not some surfmaster wannabe living in Mom's basement doing this on the side.

Also, as I've mentioned in the past. Shows for me isn't strictly about doing business. I also get some new perspectives and some fresh ideas just from the interaction with others that you just don't get from boards or other online communication.

You really should watch Liz work a show just once. She'll talk to more people before lunch on the first day than I will during the whole show. If she didn't bring in enough new and additional business to justify the cost of sending her to shows I'm sure AEBN would have stopped sending her ages ago. They've never been one of those companies that toss money around wildly just to make a splash.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

Trade Shows = whore, hookers, beer and whores, hookers and beer :wnw:

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

And there is the problem.

Oddly I have no interest in hookers, whores or beer.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

I placed boardroom level executives as a head hunter and never met anyone it was all on the phone. One of my biggest clients who paid over $100k in fees to this day I dont know what he looks like. and I found him making cold calls from a directory.I can tell you about face to face at webmaster access atl the ceo ibill shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye and told me I was with a winner.

Re: Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?
 

And you were.....He won all the marbles, then ran off with them and started an IPTV company that disappeared as quickly as it showed up.


:waving: