LAJ,

We've never attended Cybernet. We considered it a year or two ago, when someone was actively courting gay attendees, but it just didn't fit into our schedule.

I can't speak for any other webmasters, but for us, 4 weeks advance notice is waaaaaay too short a time for us to be able to seriously consider attending a new show. Not to say we've never done it - our first Phoenix Forum we went to with about 10 days notice - but now we're a little more schedule-conscious and things have to be fit into the mix.

I don't think anyone was saying that you were intentionally blowing off gay webmasters, but when you have been promoting the show on a dozen other boards (many of which probably do not have a significant gay webmaster presence on them) and wait until 4 weeks beforehand to make any mention on either of the two highest traffic gay boards, it does tend to look like an afterthought.

Forward thinking gay webmasters want to network with straight companies, no question. But we also appreciate creating opportunities to network with people we already know, and it's nice to have seminars, parties, or events focused on our community, in part because it's an easy networking opportunity and in part because there's no question that at least a few straight webmasters are not very comfortable or open about mingling and interacting with people on the gay side of the industry.

So... next year, if you want more gay presence, seek out some people on the gay side of the industry early in the production cycle of the show, find out what you can do to make the show more inviting, and start communicating with the community in the places where the community hangs out... and you'll almost certainly get a warm reception.