For me, I have seen such a change in the last 5 years of the shows in Vegas (I will get on to the other shows in a minute). Huge booths with sponsored bars and food areas have been replaced by more circumspect booths and pay your way food and drink. I know that prices of booths have risen steeply, and would like Aly to post booth prices for the last 5 years, and we'll find the rate of inflation increase and see what the disparities are. I imagine it would be quite revealing. Added to that the number of new shows, whose popularity has also increased exponentially, and you have a reason to drop prices not increase them year on year.
We stay in hotels that are more expensive each and every year, prices for entertainment get more and more restrictive, and yet there are less and less sponsored parties. I wonder why, not!
I have hosted parties regularly in both Vegas and Florida for the last few years, and have had booths at previous Vegas shows, but it is becoming a question of catering to the top 5% of companies, and shutting out the remaining companies who simply cannot afford to do 5 shows a year, and sponsor everywhere. The costs are way too restrictive. This is why people are finding more value in smaller shows like the Phoenix Forum, which had way more ROI than any AVN show has in many years.
I would like to see more companies exhibiting, returning to days gone by, and this can only be achieved by allowing more webmasters/small companies attend (reducing badge costs (and maybe moving to a smaller, less expensive hotel, say MGM grand or equivalent)). Having more webmasters mean more reasons to exhibit, and reduced booth costs in essential to entice back more companies to exhibit.
Given that both attendance and exhibiting companies have dropped in recent years, isnt this an obvious supply & demand response?
I respect Aly, and recently was quoted as saying (in response to a question asking who i thought would make a good president of our industry) that she exudes the right balance of business savvy and experience, and obvious diplomacy skills (no doubt why she was hired by AVN) to win over sceptics back to AVN's shows.
I am sure she will read all our thoughts and do what she can, however I see AVN as such a juggernaut that I am one of those sceptics that is sitting on the fence.
Good luck Aly, I truly believe you'll need it. You'll have to work with the few good eggs within AVN (and there are quite a few) and build a collective capable of dynamic change.
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