“We want to apply some of the things we learned from the May event to the fall event,” Erotic Expo Coordinator Tim Tripp told XBiz. “We had 64 exhibitors in May and we want to get up to 110 or 120.”
May's exhibitors included Tera Patrick, KSEXRadio, Smash Pictures, Taylor Wane and HeatParty.com.
The trade show was initially billed as Erotic Expo NY, but Tripp and his staff decided to make the name more generic should they choose to move the function to another city. In the end, they shortened the title to EroticExpo and resolved to stay in the original venue.
“They loved us,” Tripp said, noting that more than 11,000 people attended in May.
Visitors to the autumn show will notice differences in scale and design, Tripp said, with more exhibitors being courted. Also, Tripp wants to attract more couples, “rather than single guys running around with cameras."
"If you have couples,” he said, “the guy won’t feel guilty about his purchases.”
Tripp said that most of May’s exhibitors will be coming back for the second show, scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The decision to add another show didn’t come until the first one closed successfully.
“But I don’t think the market will bear three shows,” he said. “It’s a large enough business where all the trade shows can play nice with each other, but I don’t want to create a situation where our clients have to choose between shows.
“If anything, we will remove one show from New York and open one in another city for variety, but that’s a couple of years down the road.”
Tripp said he was amazed by how many companies wanted to help the trade show. “We really need to exploit companies’ resources more,” he said, referring to the marketing potential of the combined press departments. “We were on [Howard] Stern and in the Village Voice and the Daily News, but we need to take advantage of the public relations of the separate companies.”
According to Tripp, one of Erotic Expo’s selling points is its northeast location. “There’s nobody else here,” he said, “and New York has a lot to offer.”