The Everything to Do With Sex show, Eastern Canada’s most effervescent adult entertainment exhibition, turns five this year and promises its strongest lineup yet. The newest version of the show will hold court in Toronto on Halloween weekend, from October 28th through the 31st, at the National Trade Centre’s Automotive Building.
The increasingly consumer-friendly celebration of adult lifestyles has corralled a number of big-name entertainment and media partners, laying the foundation for what organizers hope will become a fall tradition for attendees and worldwide industry representative alike. A forthcoming media blitz, to include radio, newspaper and television, has promoters confidently planning for more than 50,000 attendees.
“We wanted to raise the bar. We didn’t want the show to degenerate into something we don’t want to be,” show manager David Stein told AVN.com. Reinforcing more than 100 exhibitors is an entertainment calendar with acts like Second City, Red Storm Burlesque, the Yuk Yuks Dirty Comic Comedy Show and the B-Girls Drag Show. Toronto radio stations Q107 and Edge 102.1 will bring live remotes to the exhibition floor, and sex expert Sue McGarvie will film a segment of her “Unzipped on Global” at the show.
Perhaps most fortuitously, the Toronto Sun, the show’s primary media partner, will stage a “sexiest people” contest in the weeks preceding Halloween and is planning to print show schedules the day before the exhibition’s formal debut. The weekend will climax with Saturday evening’s Halloween bash, featuring live music, contests and games.
Organizers attribute the success of the show to delicate negotiations that helped establish standards that meet the needs of a wide variety of attendees and exhibitors. “We have seminars that are fun and informative, or fun then informative,” says Stein. “The idea is to run the full gamut.” This includes on-floor entertainment ranging from stage shows to a fully stocked “aphrodisiac bar” to a Friday night lock-and-key party –even an area called The Dungeon.
“The idea,” Stein notes, “is to please the people coming in and make sure they get value for their money. We’d like to focus on the entertainment aspect of the adult entertainment industry. We want to create an environment where couples can come and enjoy themselves, straight or gay.”
Making sure the show works for exhibitors may be the biggest concern of show supervisors, who will hang a number of screens at various vantage points to keep attendees moving throughout the show. “The only time there should be any vacuum for exhibitors is on Saturday night, 10 to midnight,” says Stein, “when this place becomes a big party. I’ve already warned them!”
Everything to Do With Sex will also feature a separate level for buyers, where business can be conducted away from the tumult of the exhibition floor.
"This is exactly the way we want it to grow,” says Stein. “There’s an edginess to it, but it’s not overly edgy.” Looking toward the future, Stein hopes the show can move south into the U.S. “We do believe that exhibitor growth is going to come south of our border in the years to come. We believe we’re a growing marketplace.”
