As planned, and out of necessity, the show floor was significantly smaller than at any time in the past. The trend within the online adult industry toward less or no booths at all has developed because there are only so many companies that still need or want that sort of physical presence, and also because the old days of proving a company’s “virility” by the size of its booth are long since past. AVN wisely determined that pressuring people to have a booth to promote an intangible product is no longer a viable model. The result is a show that one can now easily envision surviving the rough-and-tumble adult trade show marketplace, especially if it continues to evolve into a conference.
According to AVN, there were several last minute requests for booths, but the end result was still an exhibit hall that contained 20-25 exhibitors of varying sizes and styles surrounding a “circle bar” serving alcoholic beverages, and a number of tables at which to sit and commiserate. I found myself at those tables often, and appreciated the fact that everyone else was in close proximity.
Well, almost everyone else. I spoke with several company owners who never made it to the show floor, but instead did business in their hotel suites. The end result of that mini-trend within a trend was a scenario in which lots of business was done, just sometimes invisibly. In fact, I just got off the phone with one affiliate program owner who I never saw over an entire week of AEE and Internext, who nonetheless said he consummated a “multi-million dollar deal” at Internext. The deal has yet to be inked, so mum’s the word, but he was certainly more than thrilled with his own Internext experience.
Other business was done more visibly, at booths or in meetings convened in restaurants or in the massive halls of the convention center. Vegas by definition creates a sense of dispersion, but this show in many ways countered that by being self-contained downstairs along an easily-accessible few stretches of wide hallways lined by conference rooms of various sizes, in which were held seminars, workshops, keynote addresses and even the ubiquitous Porn Poker tournament. The close proximity was a godsend to everyone’s feet.
Because I was alone, I was able to attend only a few seminars, but the ones I was present at were well run and informative. Of special note was the unprecedented “Legends of the Industry” panel, well-moderated by Paul Fishbein, and featuring Greg Clayman, Greg Dumas, Steve Hirsch, Mike Price and Richard Cohen. (If you do not know who those individuals are, you are dismissed.) Addressing a standing-room-only hall of many hundreds of people, they spoke about the future of the industry, with a perhaps inevitable focus on where their own companies fit in the scheme of things to come.
Those who have been involved in the leading edge of the adult industry may not have learned anything technically new, but it was nonetheless fascinating to hear the creators of these proven brands engage in a spirited discussion on how they intend to approach a consumer-driven economy. There was, as one might expect, a lot of discussion about the evils of too much content and the ability by children to access sexually-explicit content, but there were as usual few specific suggestions, other than labeling and age verification, about what to do about it; an indication of how difficult those issues are to address.
The show also featured a first-ever domain auction, which, according to sources (I had to hit the road before it took place) was well attended, with some domains demanding very hefty sums. Perhaps to be expected, the show floor traffic petered out over the last day or so, and I heard there was no boob toss as the show wound to a close, but overall Internext 2.0 was certainly a move in the right direction.
