VANCOUVER — The 2015 edition of the Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention got underway this week with a pair of “Industry Days,” targeting porn’s performers, promoters and service providers.
The 2015 AEVC runs in the RedLightCenter.com-powered virtual realm from Feb. 25-28, culminating in Saturday night’s 2015 AEVC Awards After Party.
This fourth annual, four day event uses the latest technology to bring real world trade events into the virtual realm — with this year’s convention hosted on the all-new RLC 2.0 platform — which added Mac and Oculus Rift compatibility to the innovative RLC realm.
The company showcased this advanced system at the recent XBIZ 360 Digital Media Conference in Hollywood, and is continuing its development alongside the latest Virtual Reality technologies. AEVC attendees are also able to tune in via the RLC Classic interface, as well as through the streaming sessions available on the AEVC website.
Among the topics of interest to industry professionals was a session on adult web hosting, with Bryan Larkin and Michael Maring discussing web hosting company FilthyDonkey.com’s free cloud-based CDN services and cross revenue platforms, where clients only pay for the bandwidth they use — while the company provides its content delivery network services free.
Social media strategist Lauren MacEwan, owner of 7Veils.com and recipient of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection’s 2015 Service Recognition Award, presented a session entitled “Twitter is Dead, Long Live Twitter” — a topic that is near and dear to performers and promoters, who typically use the network to attract a fan base and to build customer loyalty.
MacEwan advised attendees to use Google+ and to monitor their traffic sources, pruning those with the highest bounce rates, saying “If you are getting a 98 percent bounce rate, take a second look,” and also predicted that Social SEO will be the next big thing, now that Google is indexing tweets.
“From servers to social media and onto SEO, our sessions really provided a great foundation for any adult site online,” says Haley Sawyer, Sr. Project Manager for AEVC parent Utherverse.
The SEO component was provided by EngineFood.com’s Stewart Tongue, in a session entitled, “Modern Adult SEO — What Works and What Doesn’t In 2015.” The SEO expert brought Google’s bottom line into focus, noting that if Google is making money from your site, then it will rank it better. He also advises the use of Boodigo.com, an alternative, adult-friendly search engine.
Stewart says that the three most important aspects of visitor behavior on a web page to study are their bounce rate, the time on site, and average pages viewed.
In one popular session, two well-known adult marketing consultants, Jay Kopita and Jo Merlone, shared some valuable tips for obtaining clients and maintaining those relationships, in a presentation entitled “Mastering the Mojo of Acquiring Clients and Managing Global Business Relationships.”
On the topic of how to make relationships with international clients, Kopita advised attendees to be polite when traveling, saying, “If you go to another country, be aware of their culture.”
It is important advice, since so much of the business of adult entertainment today revolves around folks from around the world meeting and sharing ideas and opportunities — both in the physical world, and now in the virtual world.
Both Kopita and Merlone emphasized the importance of balancing your work life and the hours you are available when serving clients in all time zones. They also explained that it is important to present small gestures to clients, saying that “‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ goes a long way.”
Another popular session featured Affil4You.com’s Joey Gabra presenting the “Top 8 Things to Know about Mobile,” telling attendees how to grow their adult business in mainstream markets in Europe, Asia and South America, with mobile solutions that provide a strong channel to reach customers in any business category. One takeaway is that optimization, privacy and convenience is another advantage of a quality mobile experience.
Veteran adult attorney and intellectual property guru Greg Picconelli looked at the money end of porn production through equity based crowdfunding, while MiKandi’s Jen McEwen and Jesse Adams brought the future of adult games and the mobile market to attendees.
These and other industry oriented sessions were only the beginning, however, with two days remaining for the event.
Several question and answer sessions with adult performers, including Nikki Delano, Alana Evans, Ela Darling and Lexi Belle, as well as sessions on how to enjoy a more satisfying sex life, exploring the world of fantasy, and how to enhance intimate moments through role play and more are still to come.
A video of all sessions will be available after the show, providing further reach for this next-generation event.
A full schedule is available online.
For more information, visit AdultVirtualConvention.com.
