Expectations seemed high for the GAYVN Summit on the night before the first-ever business-to-business gay show covering both the Internet and video sides of the industry.
Throughout the day, webmasters and content producers were busy checking into the W Hotel on Third Street, and the hotel's XYZ Bar and lobby buzzed with the sound of chatter as show attendees reconnected and talked in anticipation of the event.
After show sponsor Epoch held a short "workshop" to tutor potential clients on the advantages to signing up with the payment processing company, things got off to a much livelier start with Maleflixxx's Welcome Reception. Held on the second level of the XYZ's foyer, the two-hour party offered a chance for show attendees to meet each other in a social environment. A DJ spun an array of dance tracks, while several bartenders operated two open bars on each side of the foyer.
Later in the evening, Maleflixxx President Eric Johnson presented a series of awards to studios and directors whose movies were the top viewed on the video-on-demand company's network, marking the first time awards have been given out specifically for VOD accomplishments.
As video bigwigs like Channel 1 Releasing's Chi Chi LaRue, Hot House Entertainment's Steven Scarborough, and Raging Stallion's Michael Brandon mingled with representatives from Internet properties NakedSword, Badpuppy, and Gunzblazing, many guests expressed their excitement over the coming days' seminars and parties, as well as the potential for convergence between the two factions of the adult industry.
"I'm really excited to see the first mass-scale, organized, gay B2B event that covers Internet side as well as the video side," said TrafficDude's Scott Rabinowitz. "We've seen various parties that were done over the years, but just having a subset of another show is not necessarily adequate to cover the extremely important gay market."
Rabinowitz added that "hopefully, because it's San Francisco—and whereas the San Fernando Valley is the incumbent environment for the creation of straight porn—there are obviously enough people that are in primary production mode up here that perhaps more of those folks will be present at this event and, therefore, more receptive to looking at alternatives [to creating a pay site or VOD plug-ins] and come with a general openness to the Internet.
"I'm hoping because this is an AVN event and [because of the location] that there is a little more convergence and open-mindedness from both sides of the industry," he continued. "I try not to go into shows with expectations, but rather qualified hope that everybody is in [a receptive] state of mind to explore opportunities beyond the generic of 'What can we do together?' [and instead seek] a more tangible 'Let's sit down, let's get away from the cocktails, and figure out what exactly we can do to help each other grow each other's businesses.'"
Meanwhile, Johnson said he was looking forward to reaping the benefits that such an intimately focused show may be able to offer.
"I've always thought that some of the bigger trade shows with a big emphasis on booths and general physical presence are sometimes not as advantageous as something like roundtable discussions [or] places for people to go and find out what's going on in the industry—[places] where people address real issues that are concerning them in their attempt to grow their businesses," Johnson told AVNONline.com. "So, I think that our movement toward more intimate environments with more focus on the core things—the traffic of the business, etc.—where people can share and trade ideas and can all work together to foster a very strong gay industry is exciting. I think that's probably the direction that makes more sense for the gay industry, because it's so small."
