Friday, Jan 29, 2010    Text size: 

Spearheaded by Brian Gray, Head of Research of Love Bytes Research, the meet up is open to all XBIZ.net members and, according to Gray, "is specifically for people involved professionally in the adult industry, in whatever capacity."

"Hopefully there will be a wide variety of professions represented," Gray stated. "Whilst performers may attend — and are most welcome to do so — this event is not a 'meet and greet' opportunity for fans to attend."

The rationale for the get-together was simple says Gray, the man behind the idea.

"Online industry communities such as XBIZ are great for making make new industry contacts, seeking advice from their peers or exploring new business partnerships," Gray told XBIZ. "The event enables U.K.-based executives active on XBIZ.net to do this in a lively social environment — and putting faces to the usernames!"

"Many XBiz.net members are self-employed — myself included," Gray added. "It's often a struggle to pry oneself away from the laptop, feeling 'welded' to their computers. The event offers the opportunity to get out and enjoy oneself, whilst still being able to talk shop with like-minded individuals if desired — although that's certainly not essential."

According to Gray, the inaugural event was conceived fairly quickly.

"There were no grand designs, or anything too elaborate planned," Gray said. "Simply ascertaining whether the interest and enthusiasm among the community existed for a face-to-face gathering was the main thing; we quickly found out there was."

"It felt right to capitalize on this sooner than later: getting the ball rolling and meeting up, even if numbers are relatively small to begin with," he added. "Getting things started in the first place is the primary objective: the rest can follow, with the potential for higher attendee numbers and expanded scope."

The event is open to all XBIZ.net members, and while Gray expects that most of the attendees will be U.K.-based, he says that there has been interest from those living abroad, who have voiced their support and interest in attending subsequent events.

But given that the first event is still a few days' away, is it too premature to ask what the future holds for the event? To Gray it's a simply enough question to answer.

"Without wishing to appear glib, the XBIZ.net members themselves will decide its fate," Gray concluded. "It's the people who make the effort to attend, discuss it on the website, and engage with each other that will ultimately determine the event's success, and whether there's subsequent demand for it to be repeated. The sky's the limit — if collectively we want to go for it and can see the value from doing so."

The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 2, from 6:30 p.m. onwards. To minimize the risk of "gate crashers," the venue has been posted on XBIZ.net, in an effort to limit the attendees to industry professionals.