MONTREAL, CANADA – With bars that close at 3am and after-hours clubs that run til 10am, Montreal is one of the more adult industry-friendly cities on the continent. Bilingual, multi-cultural, and fairly liberal when it comes to all things sexual, Montreal is a natural home for a porn convention, and yet, for the last two years, it was relatively abandoned as a site for industry events.
Montreal hadn’t seen an official industry event since Cybernet Expo in 2003. The Webmaster Access East convention remedied that sorry state of affairs, and helped prove once again that Montreal is an important hub for business in the adult industry. With a few simple words in white blazed on a black background, the slogan on the official show t-shirts echoed the sentiment felt by many North-eastern adult industry professionals: “Back where we belong.”
Despite the chilly spring weather, show-goers were not deterred from taking advantage of all the city and the show had to offer. With seminars during the day and scheduled dinners and parties at night, WAE offered everyone plenty of opportunity to sample the city’s highlights and rediscover Montreal’s easy-going attitude. Seminars during the afternoons were largely well-attended and covered topics including traffic, content, legal issues as well as the requisite newbie seminar.
Food and dancing were two of the more popular evening activities, including Thursday night’s show opener: “The Ultimate Poutine and Beer Happy Hour at the Peel Pub” which led to dancing at Reality Cash and JoinRightNow.com’s WarmUp Party at Club Living.
Gamma’s Friday night dinner at Buena Notte nearly filled the restaurant to capacity and sated most everyone’s appetites, while poker players at the My Virtual Card poker tournament counted chips and held bluffs until the wee hours of the morning, and others found their way to Club Exit for some ear-pounding tunes. On Saturday night, 2much opened their office and studio in old Montreal for the show’s final bash, and revelers eventually made their way to one or another of the city’s after-hours clubs.
There were no protests from picketers, no controversy over the convention, no scandal at the hotel, and despite the diversity of the hotel’s guests, no arrests were made and the hotel security guards were never even bothered. Even if opinions varied on the show, which they invariably do, one thing everyone agreed on is that the return of an industry show to Montreal was long overdue.
