AMSTERDAM, Holland—Webmaster Access 2012, the second phase of this year’s tripartite adult webmaster European trade show experience, concluded tonight under rainy skies after three days of productive round-the-clock business and pleasure encounters in the obliging city of Amsterdam. More than 700 attendees wove through the Escher-like hallways and stairways of the Park Hotel and crowded into the venue’s several meeting rooms and networking areas, marking a highpoint for this show as the bona fide leader of the three European fall events in terms of the number of people in attendance and the quality of those who showed up. In addition to a bevy of company owners and top decision makers, the event significantly attracted a number of actual adult webmasters, a rare sighting at shows of late.
The days passed quickly, merging into one another as industry professionals from around the globe struggled (and often failed) to maintain a reasonable daily schedule. By Sunday morning, the day after the GFY Awards, enough hardy souls were present to provide a decent audience for the 11am seminar, but it still took another hour or so to get the lobby crowded again and back to its robust self. Such is the reality of shows in Amsterdam which for years has been one of the favorite destinations for adult’s digital community. That said, the daily speed networking events had no trouble attracting full cacophonous rooms each day.
Presented by LabelSex—and supported by premium sponsors Adult Webmaster Empire, CommerceGate, PussyCash and Manwin, and diamond sponsors PartnerCash, Affil4You, EroAdvertising, Playboy Webmasters, BrokerBabe, Reporo and AdultCentro, as well as many other leading companies—Webmaster Access may in fact have outgrown the Park, which seemed at times to burst at the seams as every area was occupied by lively discussion. Several attendees commented that their days were so busy taking more meetings than anticipated that they had to extend other meetings to later in the week in Prague. This, they said, was a very good thing. And indeed, for a show organizer there are few more satisfying things than to meet an attendee who is palpably happy to have had a schedule that exceeded expectations.
A show of such magnitude also tasks the event and hotel staff, to be sure, and usually results, as it did this time, in some organizational snafus, but if we have learned anything through the years it is that the one palliative that can help mitigate such mistakes is a successful business experience and the opportunities that come with it, and in that regard the feedback from attendees to Webmaster Access 2012 was that the event more than met that criterion.
The show also featured daily corporate cocktail receptions, sponsored Saturday by AWE, IMLive, CommerceGate and Manwin, and Sunday by LabelSex, as well as the AWMOpen Lounge downstairs, which was open throughout the show for use by anyone looking for a quiet place to chat.
In addition to the GFY Party and Awards on the second night of the show–which was sponsored by PussyCash, CrakRevenue and Reporo—an opening night event took place at the Odeon nightclub, which was located in an old brewery built in the 1600s that was later used as a concert hall. Reeking of history, it made a great location for the party sponsored by BrokerBabe and EroAdvertising. Last night, a tired but still lively crowd met for the Traffic Dinner—sponsored by BrokerBabe, TrafficJunky, AdultCentro and UpForIt—before peeling off to prepare either for Prague, home or other destinations.
During show hours, the main events were made possible courtesy of a number of companies. Registration was possible through the kind support of PussyCash. The Meet Market was sponsored by AdXpansion, the Speed Networking by Star Advertising, daily lunch by EroAdvertising and the seminars by Webbilling, SexMoney and SexGoesMobile. Thanks also go to media sponsors GoFuckYourself.com, MasterX, IQ69, Fubar Webmasters and YNOT, as well as the many other companies responsible for making this year’s Webmaster Access perhaps the most successful in its eight year history.
Monday, the forecast is for more rain, but some remaining hardy souls make partake in tours sponsored by Cupid, UpForIt, Magik View, 1GB.com and AVN Live.
For more information about Webmaster Access, go here.
For info about the GFY Awards, go here.
