By Jay Kopita
BURBANK, Calif. – The ANME Founders Expo is a trade show I return to and support year after year. I have yet to find a pleasure products expo better than this one, where industry insiders casually meet and do business with so many decision-makers and creative types in a relaxed atmosphere. Even better: Attendees are fed twice a day for three days, thanks to the generosity of sponsors.
The organizers make sure everyone is well taken care of. The formula likely has served everyone quite well for years.
If you have any game whatsoever in the adult novelty industry — as manufacturer, distributor, retailer, inventor, sex-tech enthusiast or affiliate marketer — the conference, hosted in Burbank, Calif., each January and July, is a must-attend. Founded by pleasure products heavyweights Doc Johnson, CalExotics, Pipedream, Topco and Nasstoys, the ANME show was launched to put adult novelty distributors, manufacturers and retailers together in a traditional trade show exhibition format. But this is not the kind of trade show the adult content and cam verticals have come to expect. If you’re accustomed to fast networking opportunities, seminars and crazy parties that run through all hours of the night, you’ll be surprised.
Speaking of differences between the verticals… The vast majority of attendees were from the U.S. A few Canadians and Europeans attended, but otherwise the crowd was overwhelmingly American. Given I just came back a month ago from two shows in Romania, attending this show produced a mild culture shock.
I’m the type of person who likes to get to know everyone, so with Richard Buss, the senior account manager for YNOT Mail in tow, I set out to meet someone at every booth and any attendees that crossed our path. More than 100 companies exhibited at ANME, and the number of attendees must have exceeded 1,000. It was no small task to try to meet everyone, but, dammit, I was determined.
The show was set up in three distinct exhibiting areas, each of which was easy to navigate. Most of the displays were very nice. Eye candy took the form of product, not models, and it flowed as far as the eye could see. Aside from updated product every edition, this show has been familiar and relatively unchanged in format for several years, and I think the masses are totally fine with that. The atmosphere felt very comfortable even to an outsider (me) looking in with a press pass. I have attended a handful of these over the years but this time around felt especially productive and welcoming.
With nearly 37 years of adult industry experience between Richard and I, you’d think we’d have seen it all. In most cases you’d be right, but we still saw product that blew our minds. Some of the surprises came from smaller companies like LA Pump (offering a device that produces a prolapsed rectum); epi24, which manufacturers The Womanizer (a device that essentially sucks and pulsates the clitoris and boasts the ability to give even the most orgasmically challenged women an orgasm); and my favorite and soon to be reviewed by yours truly, the Hot Octopuss. Hook the device onto your erection, and a sensory area with adjustable vibration directly stimulates the frenulum. (Look it up.) I was told Hot Octopuss sometimes finishes the job in as little as 30 seconds. Challenge accepted.
All in all, we had a great time schmoozing with so many professionals (we spoke with hundreds of people and collected more than 100 business cards), seeing so many products, and engage in educational (and fun) conversations. I’m learning more and more about the workings of the pleasure products industry as time goes on. We even got to spend time with our friend Buck Angel, who showed us his personal line of toys designed specifically for trans people. And, of course, we gawked at all the latest creations, especially Doc Johnson’s new Kink line and Pipedream’s wide array of properties and brands.
A recurring theme at this show was that Chinese knock offs continue to be a big problem in the industry, but now the elephant in the living room is Amazon. Because, of course, no great business model would be complete without something threatening to destroy it. We saw it happen with sponsor programs in the online adult industry when tubes put a big hurt on that business model about 10 years ago. On the pleasure products side, more and more consumers and distributors are dealing directly with Amazon and lowering profits for many manufacturers. I could sense the (justified) frustration and simmering anger within some of the exhibitors, but it didn’t seem to me that the industry, as a group, is working toward a solution. I could be wrong. However… I know short-term gain that can cause long-term loss is rarely a good idea. Once that Pandora’s box is opened, there is little anyone can do to reverse the negative progression.
The novelty biz seems like one big, happy family — in many cases either looking out for each other or at least working parallel — but if people don’t work together to change consumer habits (no small task) or boycott Amazon (an even bigger, possibly insurmountable, task), some companies in the space may not stay afloat in the coming years.
In the final analysis, YNOT will continue to support ANME Founders and would love to see the industry continue to innovate and evolve — not just with products, but also with business models.
Jay Kopita is co-owner of YNOT Group LLC. He has worked in the adult industry since May 2000.
Lead image © Adam Borkowski.
