CLEARWATER, Fla. — Generation Next, with a focus on the future of the adult nightclub industry and the next wave of club ownership and management, will be the theme of the 19th annual Gentlemen’s Club Owners Expo August 21-24 at the Mirage Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
ED Publications, the adult nightclub industry’s trade magazine, for 19 years has produced the annual Gentlemen’s Club Owners Expo, the only national convention and tradeshow for the gentlemen’s club industry.
The Expo draws more than 3,000 attendees, including more than 1,700 club owners, general managers, and club personnel from individual clubs and club chains. Other Expo attendees include liquor, beer and wine distributors; food and beverage companies; club furnishings and bar products companies; attorneys, architects, club brokers and insurance specialists; and sound, lighting and staging companies.
“This year, 2011, marks the 20-year anniversary of ED Publications as the industry’s trade magazine, and over the past two decades, we have seen a lot of changes in our industry,” said ED Publisher Don Waitt. “These aren’t the Charlie’s Angels big-hair days anymore. We’re in the Facebook world today, so it makes sense at this year’s Expo to focus on what the future holds for our industry.”
Tying in with the Generation Next theme, the Expo’s popular series of industry workshops for general managers and other personnel will follow an “Old School Versus New School” format to compare the best styles of management and marketing from then and now. The new technologies available to club owners will be addressed in a “21st Century Toys” panel session, and the convention’s team of prominent First Amendment attorneys will field a “Future Law” panel session.
“As more of our industry’s founders and leaders approach retirement age and their sons and daughters and most valued employees start to take over club operations, it will also be interesting to see how this ‘Next Generation’ of club operators run the business compared to how their predecessors did it,” Waitt said.
With that in mind, organizers said the highlight of Expo 2011 will be the “Changing of the Guard” panel session where current club owners and their family members that are also in the business will debate management styles and philosophies.
After a long run at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, the Expo moved last year to Mandalay’s sister property, The Mirage Resort & Casino. ED Publications said that attendee response was so favorable that the 2011 EXPO will again be held at The Mirage, where the hotel is offering Expo attendees a discounted room rate.
The Expo will also include two nights of private, industry parties at Vegas hot spots, and also the ED Publications’ 2011 Awards Show.
For more info on the 2011 Gentlemen’s Club Owners Expo, visit EDPublications.com.
