Adult entertainment vets Don Waitt and John Cornetta have teamed up as producers of Storerotica, a new tradeshow for adult retailers scheduled for Aug. 27-30, 2007 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Encompassing adult video stores, lingerie shops and strip clubs, the new show will coincide with the 15th annual Gentlemen’s Club Owners’ Expo, which Waitt has been producing since 1993. “There are other specialized adult conventions being held, but this is the first time that the owners and operators of every type of adult or ‘erotic’ retail outlet in a city will be under one roof,” said Waitt. “We are very excited that not only will we be celebrating the Expo’s 15-Year Anniversary next year, but we will be more than doubling the size of the show by teaming up with the Storerotica Show.”
Waitt and Cornetta are the publishers of three adult-industry trade magazines: Exotic Dancer, Teeze and Adult Store Buyer. “At first glance, adult video stores, lingerie stores and adult nightclubs may seem to be different businesses, but in publishing three trade magazines for these groups we have found an incredible amount of shared interests,” Waitt said. “For example, one of our best columnists, Rick Segel, writes for all three publications and his tips on how operators can hire and motivate the best staff, and how they can find new customers while keeping existing clients on board are topics of interest to all three groups. Legal columns from such noted contributors as First Amendment attorney Alan Begner appear in all three magazines. And even our advertising vendors, like Elegant Moments, Dreamgirl International, Eldorado and Hot Movies.com, sell their product to all three groups. It just makes sense to do one huge convention for retail store owners in these three groups so that they don’t have to leave their businesses numerous times during the year to attend more narrowly focused shows that don’t meet all of their needs.”
“We are not hesitant to use the words ‘adult retail’ in the pages of TEEZE Magazine,” added Waitt. “Here’s why: Show us a lingerie store owner who only sells lingerie or an adult store owner who only sells adult DVDs ... and we’ll show you a store owner who is trying to make a profit with one hand tied behind his or her back. It’s time to diversify. It’s time for store owners to fulfill all of their customers’ needs for both adult products and intimate apparel. Once lingerie store owners realize that there is a profit to be made by augmenting their apparel offerings with adult products, then an industry convention and tradeshow like Storerotica makes sense. At that point a lingerie store owner shares more in common with the retail adult store down the block than with the retail pizza parlor on that same block.”
Cornetta and Waitt are promoting Storerotica with the tagline: “Three Tradeshows—One Badge—No Fans.”
“We will have some panel sessions that are very industry-specific for each of the three groups, and also some panels that are more general and will be open to all the attendees,” said Cornetta. “The same goes for the night-time events; some will be industry specific and some will be for all the attendees. But, there will be no fans. This is a business-to-business convention. We don’t want to dilute it by letting the fans in.”
In addition to the Gentlemen’s Club Owners’ Expo and Storerotica, Las Vegas will host two other adult-oriented business conventions the same week. Lingerie Americas will be holding its first Vegas convention at the Venetian Hotel Resort August 27-29, while apparel show MAGIC Marketplace takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Convention Center the same week. Retailers can register for free badges to both shows at www.lingerie-americas.com and http://show.magiconline.com
For more information about attending STOREROTICA, log on to www.STOREROTICA.com or any of the three publication websites: www.ASBmagazine.com, www.TEEZEmagazine.com and www.ExoticDancer.com or call (727) 726-3592.
