WebExpo '99, an adult Webmasters convention in its second year, moved from New Jersey to Montreal, Canada, for this year's convention at the Wyndham Hotel on May 19 to May 22. Forty exhibitors and according to convention organizer, Fay Sharp, approximately 900 to 950 attendees showed up for this event.
"The show was timely. There hasn't been an adult Internet convention in several months," she said. Sharp worried that the mainstream media would portray the show in a negative light, but was relieved when the media covered it as a business convention rather than as a porn looky-loo event. Sharp says that the Canadian press swooped down upon the convention and was also pleased that the show didn't garner any gawkers from off the streets. She says that she went to great lengths to publicize that there would be no nakedness at the show.
THE SEMINARS
Ron Levi from Cybererotica, Greg Dumas from iGallery, John Bennet from Cyber Entertainment Network and Rich Botto from RJB Telcom participated in two back-to-back seminars about preparing for the new millenium and making paysites pay. The group discussed how consolidation and acquistion would be the name of the game in the industry. "Prepare yourself for buyouts," Dumas said.
Levi noted that when the adult Internet industry was younger, the players lied to each other. "Now we all work together. We could all lie but we're being straight," said Levi. He stressed that an open information flow is vital to the industry and while they (the panel specifically) were all competitors, they were still friends.
Tempers flared in the E-commerce seminar hosted by the third-party processors iBill, Epoch and WEB 800 (fomerly known as DMR). Webmasters were angry about how quickly the processors have forced the end of the "free trial" marketing strategy. Ron Levi blasted the Internet billing companies for not being grateful to the industry that built the Internet billing companies into what they are today.
Arthur Thomas and Kelvin John of Thomas, John, and Co. presented a legal panel on offshore banking. Arthur Thomas minced no words as he began the seminar by hitting on offshore banking's chief benefit to corporations: While it's illegal to not pay one's taxes, "it's perfectly legal to avoid taxation."
John went on to explain how establishing an offshore corporate trust can protect against would-be creditors and discourage frivolous lawsuits. In the Commonwealth of Dominica, for instance, a claimant must first make a $25,000 deposit before filing a lawsuit. "Of course, that is quite a deterrent," John said wryly.
Kelvin John summed up the seminar by saying that taking the time to carefully attend to financial concerns isn't a luxury, "It's a question of being prudent."
A seminar on marketing niche sites was presented by a panel comprised of John Epp from Insite Investments, Kjell Petridis of WebQuest, Samantha Lee of KSL Marketing and Mike Fold of Playboy Collector's Gallery. Marketing a free site is vastly different from marketing a pay site and the panelists advised Webmasters to spend a great deal of time working the search engines, getting to know their product better and paying attention to site stats.
Epp suggested working search engines harder by using more words, "... the more specific you can be, the more niche-y you can be," the more surfers who are looking for your specific niche are likely to find you. Fold exhorted Webmasters to get out their "dictionary dot com and thesaurus dot com" and use them.
Kjell Petridis emphasized the importance of knowing one's product. Whether or not foot fetishism tickles you, if you're running a foot fetish site, you need to try to get into the consumer's head and figure out what their trigger points are, what exactly they want. He suggested joining a successful niche site, learn what's working and take those principles and apply them to your own site.
United Adult Sites (UAS), a non-profit organization which lobbies for adult Internet interests, held a meeting where the main topic under discussion was the thorny and continuing problem of keeping minors out of adult sites. The general consensus was that there needed to be some way of verifying users' ages in order to keep Congress from stepping in with further regulations. The workshop also discussed First Amendment violations against Internic for arbitrarily denying registration for certain domain names and not for others. For example, fuck.com is forbidden while drippingpussy.com has managed to leak through the cracks.
UAS offers a variety of services to Webmasters from providing legal advice to members, acting as a fraud watchdog for the industry and keeping listings of reputable content providers. Fellow members offer each other discounts for services rendered.
Web Messaging Technologies, Inc. debuted state-of-the-art voice communications for Internet applications via digitization of voice recordings. A streaming audio file is made available to the recipient or Website for distribution. The company offers several variations for their technology including WebVoiceMail (voicemail over the Internet), VoiceMessages (an interactive service that allows visitors to ask a question of a Website and receive a recorded response) and VoiceSignatures (a personalized "autograph" from a celebrity). They suggested the adult industry would be particularly interested in the VoiceSignatures, since adult stars can offer this to fans.
THE PARTIES
No doubt the parties were one of the best aspects of the trip. The first industry party of the convention was hosted by JMR Creations at the Wyndham and was timed to coincide with the release of Star Wars. Bartenders and waitstaff were decked out in storm trooper and Wookie-wear. Guests drank from souvenir plastic Star Wars> cups as televisions in the room ran, what else, but the original Star Wars. Party background music consisted of a Star Wars soundtrack a la martini-lounge style, a very interesting combination. Lieberman said that he and his cronies planned to see the midnight showing of The Phantom Menace.
Later that night, guests dressed up for Indecency '99, an Altitude with Attitude shin-dig sponsored by iemedia.com and Cybererotica, held at the chic 737 club atop the Place Ville-Marie, a famed Montreal skyscraper. Along with pretty views and pretty guests, partiers were treated to a free buffet, free alcohol and free entertainment. A lingerie fashion show entertained guests while it ran simultaneously on two floors (same show-same music). The models were tight, toned and beautiful as they graced the catwalk in lingerie that ranged from silk to latex. The first model came out in pajamas that Hugh Hefner might consider purchasing for himself, but, after that, the outfits got skimpier and the fabric lacier. One model received particularly high accolades for her sans bra outfit.
The Indecency '99 party was definitely one of the favorites overall. The views of the city were incredibly dramatic and iemedia.com and Cybererotica added a lot of nice touches to the party, including an ice sculpture.
Cyber Entertainment Network and RJB Telcom's contribution to the WebExpo industry party agenda was held at the Hard Rock Cafe on the second night of the convention. Bodies tried to maneuver their way through the two-storied, tiny restaurant amidst a crush of people, consequently causing a Homo Sapiens overflow outside. The party wasn't dampened, however, as guests enjoyed the complimentary spirits and networked wherever they could.
Party sponsors hired local talent, about a dozen girls, to walk around in skimpy-skimpy tight outfits. One sponsor got on the mike and offered words of encouragement to grab a CEN Cutie. "They're here for your entertainment. Grab one and take her to the dance floor."
Speaking of entertainment, unconfirmed rumors had it that a woman performed fellatio on an unidentified man, consequently requiring Hard Rock officials to ejac-err, eject him from the premises. She was allowed to remain, however, thereby making him the real sucker. CEN and RJB Telcom provided VIP passes that allowed guests free entry into neighboring Crescent Street bars and clubs, without having to wait in line. Crescent Street contained an array of upscale shops, restaurants, clubs (including strip clubs) and bars.
The final night's finale ended at Chez Paree, one of Montreal's finest strip clubs. Jonathan Silverstein, formerly of iemedia.com, formally announced that he's Cybererotica's new president.
AFTERTHOUGHT
A few problems arose because of the venue. The Wyndham Hotel was under major construction, which was scheduled to be completed six weeks prior to the show. The elevators frequently had problems, which at times caused much mayhem. Also, an International teen beauty pageant that was being held in the hotel triggered a bit of controversy, as some Webmasters invited the girls to participate in nude photo shoots. Overall, though, event promoter Fay Sharp said that she was pleased with the city's more relaxed atmosphere toward sex and it provided a good backdrop for the show. She is considering Montreal for next year's convention.
