AOE begins Monday morning, and it’s a refreshing change of pace for most of the stateside attendees in the German capital city.
Jackets and slacks have replaced the typical adult convention garb of t-shirts and flip-flops. Billing and mobile ventures are at the forefront. The weather seems to be continually overcast, but the culture more than makes up for it. The show itself seems to be the focal point, rather than who’s throwing the night’s biggest party.
In short, Europeans are serious about their adult businesses.
Nevertheless, AOE is not a stiff or, dare I say, “mainstream” trade show. Like its North American counterparts, it kicked off with a party Sunday night. Specifically, the conference began with SexMoney’s Big Webmaster Warm-Up Party (cosponsored by PX24 and Commerce Gate) at Trompete, which lasted well into the evening.
The seminar series also began on a SexMoney note Monday morning with the SexMoney Academy, during which Michael Reul and company ran the unseasoned through the basics of traffic conversion, content, billing, and webmaster tools.
AOE’s seminars continued throughout the day with a focus on dating, blogging, affiliate programs, webcams, the German marketplace, billing, and attorney Chad Belville’s look at the all-American issues of 2257 and dot-xxx and how foreign webmasters should work with them.
On Tuesday the tide will turn to the mobile industry, which, by the presence it occupies at this conference – with the World Telemedia event across the lobby, which features industry notables like Opera Telecom and Bango – should be interesting.
Although it’s not the size of the larger North American shows, AOE already has proved itself to be a worthy event. The atmosphere of professionalism and the number of decision makers attending prove that one can get as much accomplished here in one day as can be accomplished at many other shows in three.
