I will go grudgingly to Internext this summer--or maybe just go to Florida and hang out while skipping the show.
Oh, and since I hate making choices, I'll hit AOE next week and Bangkok again this year too [love me some dannyz hospitality!]
AVN really needs to make their shows convenient and affordable. I honestly don't give a shit about what is on the room service menu and I don't need to pay for the perfume scented halls of the Venetian. Give me a bed, a clean shower, a toilet, and a 5 shot expresso to start out the day and decent seminars and network opportunities and I will be there. Panelists For Life with Bad Attitudes [anyone who has gone to 2 or more shows and seen the same people on the same panels giving the same line of negative bullshit knows who they are] need to not be invited to speak on panels, no matter how many over-inflated egos are bruised. Panelists do not pay for passes. Attendees DO pay for passes. Attendees do not want to pay to hear how awful and scary everything is or how you cannot be in the {blank} niche if you aren't {blank} yourself. And speaking of passes, make them affordable. Fuck $250 per person. Keep it under $100 and get more people there. And make a discount pass available for non-seminar attendees so that studios can bring their models. Even Ron C. of CCBill complained about the need for "eye candy" at shows. Personally, I have never done anything with a model that earned me money so I could do without models at shows, but then a few attendees would tell me I could do without a pack of ciggies in my pocket 24/7 so I won't beat that drum.
AND--speaking of smoking!! This is a smoking crowd. I am sure they cannot possibly mean no lighting up outside. Or if they do, good fucking luck enforcing THAT. The Westin does have rooms with balconies so the smokers can have rooms with balconies but if they think for a moment I am not going to light up until I reach the sidewalk they had better be ready to make a scene.
AVN--listen to the attendees. Cost is important. REAL seminars are important. Good moderators are important. Networking is important. Fun activities like the Dodge Ball Tourney are important. This business is maturing and trade shows need to show value for the money spent. The Forum is growing and it is doing all of those things. Many companies, gay, straight and 'other' are staying away from Internext because of failure to listen to the people that go to shows. "We have always done it this way and we are the biggest so we can do what we want" was the motto of Montgomery Ward.
