In an industry where perception is (nearly) everything, and where, often, quantity and style can overrule quality and substance, respectively, it’s important to not forget why the vast majority of us got into this industry in the first place. These reasons include, but are not limited to: money, fun, love of porn, and the desire to break away from the dull mainstream grind.If your overall impression of Internext was “what an expensive and complete waste of time,” then you didn’t do it right. Granted, not everyone can afford the luxury of flying out to Vegas, spending money on a booth, and staying at the Venetian for four days. But just being there enabled me to at least achieve the aforementioned interests regarding this industry. That’s not to say that Internext was not without its flaws, but all up it was a valuable and rewarding experience and can see some improvements for 2007 in hopefully getting back on track.

I’ll be honest here… my thoughts are most likely going to seem biased to you whether you know my background with AVN or not. My contact list of AVN employees both past and present is quite long, and frankly, I love everyone over there that I’ve ever had to deal with – sales, marketing, tradeshow, writers, executives, assistants, art department, the list goes on. AVN has always been very good to both YNOT and myself personally, so naturally I’m looking out for their best interests not only as a company as a whole but for all the wonderful individuals who work over there.

Like many attendees, my first gut reaction upon finding the Internext show floor (which took longer than I had wished) and witnessing the first few hours of the less than crowded show floor were, “This is not good… everyone is at AEE.” But guess what? Like everything else I involve myself in, I always try to find the positive side of things. If business isn’t coming to you… you go to it. Early fears that the entire show would end up being described merely as a “clusterfuck” were fortunately unfounded. Once you got past the initial shock of how long it took to actually find the Internext floor, and of dealing with all the CES and AEE crowds, it was up to you to sink or swim. My biggest gripes would be the long cab lines and the fact that too many parties were offsite, and I didn’t feel like traveling away from the hotel. But I guess that’s Vegas.

Internext and AEE were both good for business, hands down. The people trolling the floor at Internext truly wanted to be there, therefore your chances of approaching a legitimate business person was near 100%. The fact that I could move freely around both shows was a major plus. I came home with numerous business opportunities and quickly sold enough advertising on YNOT to pay for all of our expenses – and then some. Although I will admit that the majority of the people to whom I handed a business card have yet to follow up – which is a typical example of how not to maximize your tradeshow experience, folks.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are too many trade shows and webmaster events, but I’ll always support the Internext shows. If I had to offer any advice here for 2007, I would say that AEE and Internext should be combined into one huge show floor and run the event for 4 days. You can have the consumer side and the B2B side of the industry in their designated areas, but there is a decent crossover of traffic since most of us have something to sell to consumers.

It would also be nice if all exhibitors, attendees and sponsors could be condensed into staying at 2 main hotels, with the prices lowered if possible. Sure Internext is not really a “unifying” event like the smaller shows, like The Phoenix Forum or Cybernet Expo, but it would sure be nice not cabbing it 2 or 3 times a day or waiting to see the FUBAR pics and the hundreds of people I didn’t run into at the shows themselves.

Like many others… I got into this industry for several reasons, one major one of which was to have fun. My first Internext (back then known as IA2000) was in New Orleans in 2000 and the show floor then was similar to what the current AEE show floor is now. Since the industry is constantly evolving and the days of the huge booths are not gone (as seen at AEE)… I’d like to see the good old days back again for the internet crowd.