The ninth incarnation of the Cybernet Expo will take place June 8–10, 2006, returning to the Shelter Pointe Hotel for the second consecutive year.
The biggest change is the days of the show: The 2006 Expo will begin on Thursday evening and follow with two full days of trade show action Friday and Saturday. (This year’s show got rolling on a Sunday night and ran through Wednesday.)
In addition, the return to the Shelter Pointe Hotel was precipitated by the venue offering up the entire facility to Cybernet.
“They offered us the whole building, and we needed to do some thinking about how many rooms we could sell,” Cybernet organizer Fay Sharp says. “We saw some of our sponsors at Internext, and they said they were ready to go.”
YNOT’s Jay “LAJ” Kopita, a co-organizer of the event, said the Shelter Pointe staff has promised to improve upon last year’s event on their end, as well.
“Shelter Pointe was fantastic. They didn’t even raise the room rates on us,” he says. “They’re going to make sure they’re staffed a little bit better, because they weren’t really prepared for how much Internet usage we need and how much we’re able to drink. They have a phenomenal attitude.”
Sharp adds, “When you run a show there are always little things that need to be done, especially at a new place when they don’t know you and you don’t know them.”
Cybernet’s ninth year also will mark the end of the exhibit floor, which Sharp says has become less popular in recent years. Exhibits will be eliminated and the show’s Corridor Cruisin’ event, which has grown more popular, will be expanded with additional tables and longer hours.
In fact, Sharp says that the show in general will be more centered around the bars, pool, and courtyard where Corridor Cruisin’ takes place. In light of the elimination of the exhibit room, sponsored free drinks will be available at the main bar.
Of course, there will be parties. Most likely the debauchery will remain similar to Cybernet ’05.
“The people who did the majority of the parties in ’05 have expressed interested in doing them again in ’06,” Sharp says.
