By mid-afternoon, the central courtyard of the Tempe Mission Palms teemed with attendees, with many others still arriving for the three-day show that offers a robust schedule of seminars, workshops, activities and parties.
The full seminar schedule begins tomorrow morning; today, the smaller conference rooms that ring the courtyard offered focused workshops, such as Legal 101, Solo Girl Roundtable, Content Delivery and Streaming and a Fraud Workshop, among others. YNOT President Connor Young presented a hands-on Newbie Roundtable, which was attended by about 25 current or wannabe adult webmasters.
The number of seminars and workshops dedicated to newbies has dwindled over the past few years, but Young, a longtime webmaster, writer and responsible industry citizen, provided a valuable check list of the many essential elements anyone entering the biz needs to consider before making the leap, and the audience was appropriately appreciative.
The check list included such subjects as web hosting, content and domain acquisition, billing, traffic, sales and marketing, networking and legal and political considerations, each of which often demand their own seminar. This hour, however, was about touching lightly on all the subjects newbies need to know about, so that over the following days, weeks and month, at this and others, interested parties can slowly attain a necessary level of understanding and proficiency.
Later today, webmasters will congregate for a number of social gatherings and parties, including Hooters Happy Hour, sponsored by Just Blow Me, the official Phoenix Forum Welcome Reception, sponsored by CCBill, a Gay Webmaster Kickoff Party, sponsored by Dirty Ducats and the GFY Phoenix Forum Kickoff Party, sponsored by Playboy Webmasters, PussyCash, JuggCash and BrazBucks.
But the day's partying does not stop there. Starting at 1:00 a.m., there are three choices for hardcore somnambulists, Breakfast with AllureCash, Lightspeed Latenight and Manites/PrideBucks Late Night Suite.