Only a month past summer Internext 2004, Hurricane Charley seems like nothing more than the tentative first blow in a torrent of heavyweight punches. Charley, you’ll recall, was the Category 2 storm that shut down airports along the eastern seaboard and threatened to roll right through the Atlantic side of Florida, instead sliding to the west and pummeling the vulnerable underbelly of the sunshine state.
Since then, two more powerful hurricanes have battered Florida and neighboring states, leaving untold death and destruction in their wake, and begging the question of what the future holds for a part of the country that has always been such a dynamic contributor to the economic, social, and political fabric of the nation.
Indeed, there are many parallels that can be drawn between what Florida has gone through in recent memory (not just with respect to the weather) and what the country as a whole is experiencing, but from our point of view, through the lens of business and what the future holds for the adult Internet industry here and abroad, it can all be summed up in one word: change.
Change may be something human beings either welcome or fear, but for the result-demanding entrepreneurs that inhabit this business, it’s a daily dish requiring a wide-eyed acceptance of and heartfelt commitment to the realities of the marketplace and one’s role in it. Change is inevitable and demands respect; one fights it from the unsafe distance of denial or embraces it with an attitude of future-looking optimism. Either way it comes a-calling, and in the end no business can either fend off its influence or fail to adapt to its always-impartial demands.
So the news out of Internext is that the winds of change now blow with a new intensity through this industry, and from every angle and perspective one can hear the message loud and clear: Be Professional; Prepare for the Future; Follow Proper Business Practices; Respect Your Customers; and Treat Your Competitors as You Would Have them Treat You. All else is useless spin.
Follow the Money
Still, as evolutionary as this business is, some things do and should remain the same. Attendees to any trade event go for one good reason, and without that good reason they don’t go. Fortunately, it’s the same reason that has allowed Internext to consistently attract the largest gathering of online adult professionals in the world: because there is money to be made by newbie, midlevel, and upper-echelon Webmaster alike. On the show floor, at the parties, in the restaurants, the hotel suites, the back of limos or simply hidden away in the many nooks and crannies generously provided by the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, a veritable plethora of deals were being set up or finalized everywhere you looked.
“I met up with someone I hadn’t seen in a few years,” said veteran show-attendee Jonathan Silverstein, “and ultimately we entered into a great deal together. [The show] was a great tool to reconnect with people, and was also key for me to develop other deals.”
Stephane Taboul, CEO of Alyon Technologies, echoed the networking strength of the show. “It’s been great,” he said, “to meet face to face so many of the people we deal with regularly.”
But remunerative reunions weren’t the only things going on. “As a sort of public debut for our new turnkey affiliate program, this [Internext] has been impressive,” said first time exhibitor Jeffrey Rodman, director of marketing for Lawrence Research Group (parent of the Xandria Collection), adding, “We’ve done a lot of business here.”
The Brits are... Here!
Not so surprisingly, considering the approaching hurricane and the reckless bent of so many of our friends from the United Kingdom, there was at hand a very enthusiastic contingent of exhibitors and attendees from the island nation, mostly representing the mobile and wireless sector of the industry. All said they did brisk business at their booths.
The show marked London-based Coulomb Ltd.’s (www.coulombcs.com) third appearance at Internext. The company and its sister enterprise, GlobalCharge (www.globalcharge.com), were promoting a suite of products for traditional Internet and mobile billing. CEO Dave Krell and Director of Business Development Anthony Rees said they felt “at home” in the more casual, less frantic atmosphere of the summer trade show, compared to the high-energy shenanigans that accompany January’s mammoth event.
“We’re quite pleased with the show, really,” Rees said. “It has been much better for us than the two previous ones. [The summer show] has a more European format. It’s more about the business than the big display of plumage.”
Like many of the Brits, Rees said he found the notion of a looming hurricane exciting. “We heard about the hurricane before we got on the plane, and I thought ‘Good show! I’ll get to see one close up,’” he said, laughing. “Then when we were actually in the air, I wondered if we hadn’t gone a bit off.”
Even with what amounted to a close brush with a uniquely tropical act of God, though, the pair was unfazed in their support of Internext as a superb means of promoting their products to an American market on the brink of profitability in the mobile realm. “We’ll be unlikely to miss [January’s show],” Krell said.
Bill Black, CEO of Surrey, England-based BabeCell (www.babecell.com), was likewise pleased with his company’s performance at the show. “It’s gone very well,” he said as the third day dawned. “We’ve achieved all of our objectives. We signed up 100 Webmasters and 20-30 content providers within the first two days.”
BabeCell’s innovative technology “cellular-enables” every Web image, video clip, and audio clip for immediate sale and delivery to consumers worldwide. The company never seemed to have a dearth of interested Webmasters milling about its booth. Still, BabeCell’s representatives found time to attend several after-hours events.
“The thing that struck us most was the camaraderie, even among competitors,” Black noted. “We’ll definitely be at the show in January.”
Onward to “The Bay”
As successful as the summer show was, it’s already time to prepare for the Las Vegas 2005 Internext, which, as everyone knows, will take place January 4-6 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. There have already been several message board threads expressing a shared enthusiasm about the change of venue and the fresh excitement it will bring to the Internext experience, and we can only add our heartfelt agreement to the sentiment.
Beyond change, however, growth will also earmark the trade show as it builds on the improvements seen during the summer. Not least of these involve the seminars, which are now structured to provide more concentrated value than ever to attendees and exhibitors alike. Indeed, as we move into the 21st century, it’s our opinion that adult professionals of all disciplines will increasingly regard the Internext seminars, roundtables, workshops, and keynotes as imperative requirements for success in the digital marketplace, and with good reason. Gone are the days when disinterested, hung-over panelists hawk their products under the guise of providing must-have information. In their place are tightly focused and organized presentations that offer the serious attendee a new generation of creative models, tools, and technologies that will not only improve his/her current business, but will also inspire him/her to fearlessly reach out to new markets and models.
In addition, the form these new presentations take will be designed to entertain as much as they educate. Adult is an entertainment industry, let’s not forget. We also look forward to a new generation of parties as much as to anything else, and we remind ourselves that as precarious as things such as a tight election and a violent world are, the key thing to remember about the coming years is that what they really offer is nothing less that uninhibited, uncensored opportunity.
