Good Vibrations Magazine

Day 1
I arrived in Las Vegas on January 9th, the day before the AVN show began. I’m one of those people who prefer to arrive early and leave later. My friends call it FOMS – Fear Of Missing Something – and I’ll admit… I have it bad. I always insist on arriving at the movie before the previews start and leaving after the credits are done rolling (what if there is a surprise ending?!?)

So there I was – San Francisco Airport, 6am. It wasn’t pretty.

So imagine my surprise when I ran into one of my vendors who had the same idea as I had and was on the same plane. I shouldn’t have been surprised by his appearance as I had run into venders at the airport before. It’s always a mixture of excitement and… something else. I use this pre-show time to relax and prepare. I was in travel mode… and my “work mode” had to kick in hours before I had planned. But I love to laugh and this vendor always makes me laugh so the airport had just become a little more fun… and, as it turns out, he was being picked up from the airport so now I had a ride. Perfect.

After an extremely uncomfortable airplane ride, Uncle Mike from Treasures picked us up and offered one of the more interesting rides from the airport I’ve ever had. It was the perfect way to arrive in Las Vegas and the perfect welcome as we headed to the 2007 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.

Now, I love Las Vegas. I try to go at least once a year. It’s not the gambling that draws me but the theatricality, the neon, the grand scale of every single element. Everything you encounter in Vegas has been thought out – every scent, color, texture, sound. It’s like a large scale amusement center and it certainly amuses me. So having to go to Las Vegas for work isn’t the worst thing that could happen to me.

But the minute we walk into the Venetian the reality of what my week will be like hits me via the intense floral perfume that is pumped into the Venetian to create their chosen ambiance (and to cover up the scent of stale cigarettes and debt). Not only that but I am not here to relax and linger but to rush from the Towers to the Sands Convention Center, meet with vendors, walk the floor and to try and find the “next hot thing.” It’s a little daunting and definitely not relaxing but, like I said, I love Las Vegas and was feeling up for the challenge.

After checking into my beautiful room and settling in I headed down to the convention center to get my pass and see how the set-up was going. This is my 6th show and I still love this part – a huge room filled with crates, rolls of carpet and the sound of drills. The pre-show. Exhibitors walking around looking for the anybody who can provide electricity, the other person who has their carpeting and is allowed the install it and the other person who is delivering their merchandise. And that is exactly how it was playing out when I walked in.

Upon entering the exhibitor area I immediately ran into a few vendors, a few friends and some other industry folks who I hadn’t seen for months. After a round hellos and how are yous I headed to our booth as I’d heard rumor that it was already set up… and it was!

I snapped a few pictures and chatted with some folks I realized I only had a little time before I had to meet up with people from AVN for dinner. So I head back to the room and got ready for the long night ahead.

Day 2
This was the first day of the show and I woke up feeling a little rough around the edges. But after a power breakfast of bananas and Ginger Ale I headed to the convention center in search of the room where I was to speak on a panel…A Novel Approach-Workshop and Demonstration of Adult Toys & Novelties… and I was super nervous. I’ve been on panels before but not in this industry and not with the caliber of people who would be sitting up there beside me – the owner of a large distributor, another distributor, the co-owner of another retail chain, the marketing force at once of our largest manufacturers… and little ‘ol me. It was daunting.

We all gathered at a table to get do a little meet and greet before the panel began. Little by little my anxiety went away. These were all professionals who have worked in the industry for years and even with all the differences between us, there were more similarities than I had thought. I felt ready. And really positive about what Good Vibrations represented on the panel.

It went great – there were about 50-60 people there who listened and asked great questions. For my first industry panel, it felt pretty successful.

After the panel I had a couple of hours and decided to walk the show …which is no small feat. The Sands Convention Center is large but that wasn’t neccissarily the reason why. Every year the AVN show overlaps with CES aka “The world’s largest technology tradeshow”. So in addition to the thousands of porn enthusiasts attending the AVN show there was also around 140,000 people filling up the same space for CES. And this was an AVN industry-only day.

So I did my best to avoid the crowds and headed to the B2B Marketplace – a huge room filled with booth after booth after booth of vibrators, games, dildos and much more. I did a quick tour trying to orient myself to who was where and how I was going to get a chance to see everybody. The great thing about this area is that it is trade only – every day. No fans. No public. Just industry.

Overwhelmed and faced with the reality that IF I wanted to go upstairs to walk the adult video floor and GAYVN to see which of my vendors had booths there – I should go now. After the first day AVN allows fans to attend and the trade floor becomes something entirely different.

I grabbed my camera and headed upstairs. And here’s some of what I saw:

Day 3
Talk about a marathon. Thursday was filled to the brim with vendor meetings and hoofing it from one side of the world to the other. It was a lot. My day started out with a quickie jaunt upstairs to the world of porn to try and seek out some of my favorite talent (Bella, Jenna, Janine – I’m old school that way). I did not run into any of them right then but we did see Jesse Jane. She was busy signing many an autograph and was trying to do right by her fans by signing a huge stack for one guy. She was very sweet… and tiny. Did I mention how tiny she was? I think that is what struck me most about many of the girls – how small they are. And next to me they seem even smaller. Hilarious!

After milling around I headed up to the Grand Luxe to lunch with a vendor . We had a great time getting to know each other better and talking about the show. I was telling her how I really wanted to see Belladonna and I looked over and Bella and her entourage were hustling through the casino. I was speechless. Literally. She nudged me to go get a photo with her and I didn’t move. I was stunned. She was so incredibly beautiful. Her force was intoxicating. My vendor had to tell me multiple times to get my photo with her before I was able to pull myself out of it, grab the camera and run over… and I am glad I did.

What a powerhouse.
My next meetings were up in the towers so I was able to spend more time with vendors, relax into the conversation a little and then rush off to an afternoon filled with more meetings and lots of new products. I really value these shows because our vendors always show up with a selection of new items. Not all are a fit with Good Vibes but it’s so great to be able to have a hands-on with them before they are released and get an idea of what is coming down the line. I really love that element of my job.

That night I headed to the circle bar to meet with up a different vendor to have a drink and unwind from the busy day. The circle bar is located at the center of the Venetian casino and is a common meeting place during the show. It’s a great place to spend time if you want to drink stiff cocktails, inhale A LOT of cigarette smoke, and (as my vendor can attest) have really bad pick up lines used on you. But, if you can avoid the gawkers it can be a great place to do business and relax a little. Exhibitors show up after closing down their booth and, since most people are staying in or around the Venetian, the talent usually winds down there as well. It’s super busy but a nice stop-over before my evening plans.

Day 4
Friday. The last day of the B2B marketplace. I was already so exhausted from walking the floor, looking at every and any items the exhibitors were showing and talking talking talking all day and night. But it wasn’t over. One more day. One more day that I was thankful to have because it was a busy one. I started out having breakfast with my co-workers then heading out to cover aisle after aisle in only 3 hours. I can’t tell you where the hours went but suddenly I was faced with 3 hours of floor time left before heading back to the Towers for more meetings in the suites. I hurried up and down the aisles seeking out all the exhibitors I had missed and all the friendly faces I had not had a chance to chat with. I always hate the rushed meeting but that day it was necessary. And nobody seemed to mind. They understood how busy the buyers were and how important it was to at least get a moment to re-connect and show new product. So that’s what I did.

I was dining with vendors who had booths both in the B2B and in GAYVN so they had really busy. I headed to meet them at one of the restaurants within the Venetian and when I got arrived we were seated. Not only were my reps from the show there but we were joined by the spokesmodel for one of their lines Pete
Ross and his boyfriend, Ex-Navy Mike.

We all hit it off and had a great night and promised to get together when we were back in the city. It was so fun!

On our way back to the circle bar we ran into the www.jcsgirls.com girls who had a booth in GAYVN next door to where Pete Ross was and as I had never heard of them I had to get a photo!

After that I was done. It had been such a long and busy show. I’d met up with so many people, seen to many products and talk endlessly. I was exhausted. I headed back up to my room and to sleep.

Day 5
Even though the B2B was over I wasn’t leaving Las Vegas yet. My sweetie flew in first thing in the morning and we spend the rest of the day meeting up with vendors and walking the porn floor where she got to meet the JC Girls as well!

That night we had dinner at Tao and then headed to Mandalay Bay for the actual AVN Awards!!! It was surreal and, for a while, a blast. I am a huge fan of the Academy Awards so I can pretty much get into any awards show. Again, the theatricality. And this was no exception. This was also the first year at Mandalay Bay and the first year they allowed fans to buy tickets.

It was a “we laughed, we cried” even and, though I never thought I would admit it, we left early. Not just because of the not-so-stellar teleprompter reading and not because of the dry line delivery – but mostly because the drunken yells of the fans reminded us too much of baseball games and we didn’t want to be amidst the chaos of trying to leave when everybody else was.

There were highlights – Dave Navarro, Chris Angel, Jenna and Tito looking gorgeous… not to mention my friend Xavier Towers being nominated for Best Non-Sex Performance. Love it!

My next few days were spend relaxing and coming down from the show… My sweetie and I had a blast…