A second annual Gay Porn Biz gathering of Webmasters and other adult professionals is set to go at Moby Dick's Patio Bar here Saturday, June 28, starting at 6 p.m., host and sponsor Traffic Dude has announced.
Spokesman Scott Rabinowitz says it's not strictly for gay erotica people. "It's generally a pretty good mix of people," he says. "Our company does not exclusively focus on gay erotica. We have traffic and erotica services related to that end of the business, but there'd never been a stand-alone event here that catered to that audience."
Last year's Gay Porn Biz event, also an informal, single day-and-night event, drew 60 people with four weeks' notice. Rabinowitz said that by announcing this year’s event this early, his company is hoping to draw as many as 300 people. He also said he wants to try keeping it to that level for the foreseeable future, avoiding the kind of throng-and-gong racket often associated with major trade shows' social and networking gatherings.
"We're going for a little bit less raucous, trying for a quasi-upscale approach," he said. "It's at a nice sports bar overlooking the San Diego harbor, and there'll be a lot of mini-events around town. People can enjoy the beach; enjoy San Diego. Our goal would be, basically, to get people to take a weekend off and enjoy the business aspect of San Diego.
"I've always been absolutely horrified at doing a major event here, since it's basically a conservative city," Rabinowitz continued. "I think that inherently, contrary to what people think of Southern California, this is generally a conservative town. But there's still a proportionally higher number of people here supporting adult, though. A lot of those people like the semi-reclusive existence you can have in San Diego."
Rabinowitz said Gay Porn Biz isn't ready to announce its corporate sponsors just yet, for the sponsors’ benefit as well as for Gay Porn Biz's, though he expects sponsorship continuity from last year's maiden voyage.
"The thing is," he said, "we don't ultimately want to see this as a thousand-person event, for everyone's comfort. We want it relaxed; no stress for people. It'll be catered with an open bar, entertainment, and a lot of places to go gather for late hours. If they can make a weekend out of it there'll be a lot of good, quality business and networking time. That's the beauty of it – it'll be structured but unstructured. One day, a few hours' event, that's a good excuse to get a bunch of people into the city for the weekend."
The event runs from 6 p.m. to what Rabinowitz called "an open-ended midnight. I hate going that 6 p.m.-to-question mark way. I mean, enough comedians make jokes about it. So you can call it 6 p.m. to whenever if you like."
To register for the event, fill out a form at GayPornBiz.com or e-mail [email protected] by May 16. Include how many will attend from your group or business. For directions to Moby Dick’s, click here.
