MIAMI – XBIZ Events Director Moe Helmy announced the winners of the first-ever “gamified” show competition at the XBIZ Summit, presented by AWEmpire, on Friday morning during the Farewell Toast at the Mayfair Hotel & Spa.
As attendees sipped complimentary mimosas in the hotel's casually chic Spartico Restaurant, Helmy tabulated the final results. Kevin Heidorn of Las Vegas took first place, winning a MacBook Pro Retina and $5,000 XBIZ advertising campaign, narrowly edging the two runner-up contestants. In a bit of “gamification” irony, Heidorn was not present to pick up the grand prize.
Second-place didn't come without a little drama. There was a tie between Video Secrets’ Flirt4Free Talent Manager, Luba Urman, and Vette Nation Army captain, Vicky Vette, so Helmy used a coin flip to determine the official silver medalist. Urman won the toss and received a MacBook Air along with $2,500 in advertising money; and Vette took home an iPad Retina and $1,000 in advertising with XBIZ media products. Five other participants each received $100 iTunes Gift Cards after Helmy pulled their names out of a hat.
The contest kicked off with the Opening Mix & Meet Marketplace on Tuesday evening at the Mayfair in Coconut Grove. All registered show attendees were eligible to participate simply by attending XBIZ Summit's lineup of seminars, workshops and special events.
To earn points, attendees had to post a photo of themselves standing alongside each session/event's designated “official show babe” who carried a digital tablet device displaying a unique code. To receive credit, show name badges had be clearly visible in photos.
Then those photos were posted to either Facebook's XBIZ Summit group, to Twitter using the #XBIZSummit hashtag or to XBIZ.net via photo upload.
Flirt4Free’s Urman said that “dedication” was what placed her ahead of the Summit pack.
“I was very dedicated from Day One,” Urman said. “It was hard work being everywhere. For me it was mostly competition. I wanted to compete.”
Urman, who started at Video Secrets in February 2012, said this was her first XBIZ Summit and her second adult industry tradeshow.
“I knew I wanted to participate and my department was very supportive of me,” Urman continued. “Jamie Rodriguez my manager even changed my flight today so I could be here. It’s a great prize. I feel my time was not wasted. This was a lot of fun, I really had a blast.”
She said her favorite session of the week was Thursday’s seminar titled Progressive Strategies: Maximizing Competitive Advantages. The panelists included Jeff Wilson of Video Secrets, Utherverse’s Anna Lee and Amy Starr of SexyDeliciousThings.com, on behalf of Sssh.com. XBIZ senior technology editor Stephen Yagielowicz moderated.
“Everyone was very knowledgeable and easy to understand," Urman said. "In some of the seminars people talk about themselves a lot. For this one everyone was always talking about the topic.”
