By Peter Berton

MONTREAL – The 10th annual Qwebec Expo will take place Aug. 9-11 in beautiful downtown Montreal. Combining the intimacy of a mid-sized convention with big-city attractions and an elegant venue, the conference exudes a level of social and sexual sophistication that is unique to the metropolitan French-Canadian city and its people.

Michel Plante is the founder and chief executive officer Qwebec Expo. Who better to give us the lowdown on the event’s first decade and what to expect this year?

YNOT.com: You’ve been around the adult industry a long time, haven’t you?

Michel Plante: I’ve been in the industry since 1996, starting as a designer for mostly solo-girl sites. I got my big break when, in 1999, I redid Penthouse photographer Carl Wachter’s website. Then Carl started to send me Pet of the Month photos for Penthouse’s websites, and that’s how I started my involvement with the company.

In 2007, when Penthouse launched its affiliate program, I was hired to run it. I did that until [Penthouse] merged with [FriendFinder Networks]. In 2008, I worked a bit as head of sales for Virage Media until we mutually agreed to part.

How would you define Qwebec Expo?

Qwebec Expo is a trade show and technical conference serving existing and prospective online adult entertainment professionals across North America. We host it in Montreal, Canada.

This annual [business-to-business] event acts as an international crossroads for U.S., Canadian and European members of the online industry. It is a great opportunity for people to meet face-to-face with industry suppliers from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe and other countries. The latest industry technologies, trends, products and services are marketed and displayed here.

This is also a great opportunity to meet Canadian webmasters who can’t get across the border to attend U.S.-based events because of passport restrictions [that arose post-9/11]. The same is true for Europeans who can’t get into the U.S. visa-wise but can come to Montreal to meet U.S. people.

Putting together a trade show of any size is an enormous undertaking. Why did you decide to start one?

In July 2003, when Faye Sharp announced that Cybernet Expo wasn’t coming back to Montreal in 2004 but [moving instead] to San Diego, we started to work on Qwebec Expo — a year and a few months before we planned to launch it in 2004.

We wanted to do something different, so we had the [first] event in Quebec City, which then was the prime tourist destination in Canada. After a nice success in 2004, we decided to move the event to Montreal, which made it easier for everyone to get flights and hotels.

How has the expo changed over the years?

The show by itself never really changed that much, beside the number of attendees — now around 300. We pretty much kept the same successful recipe. Even though we may try to reinvent the wheel, it is still a wheel.

A few years ago we brought to the industry a very new way of meeting people called speed networking. We tailored a special networking method allows participants to meet each other in a quieter, more intimate room. We structure the event using “mini meetings,” so attendees are guaranteed to meet a large number of individuals they would never otherwise have had the chance to network with.

What do you have planned for this year?

Since it is our 10th anniversary, we are planning a few surprises for our attendees. It is too early right now to unveil them.

One new thing we are happy to have this year is the YNOT Grand Prix, which is coming to Qwebec Expo for the first time thanks to JuicyAds and other sponsors.

This year we also are introducing a new and very unique meeting scheduling platform, which will be available for all registered attendees. From an opt-in list, attendees can invite others [to meet] at a time and place they see fit during the event. Both parties can then communicate and accept or edit meetings [through the application].

What are some of your fondest memories from past shows?

In the first few years, we used to have the Best Adult Awards, which were inspired by the AVN Awards. But instead of having awards for best adult movies and stars, [we gave] for the best adult websites and adult companies’ sites.

We also had great parties over the years. Last year Karaoke Night was simply awesome — so much that our dear corporate sponsor, Too Much Media, wants to do it again this year.

About those parties….

The very first year in Quebec, a now-closed model agency brought a few “upcoming porn stars” to the show. These girls were pretty wild! I can remember one of them banging the other one on the club’s speaker with a strap-on. The rest is up to your imagination.

Now that the industry has matured, our parties tend to be more “serious” and more focused on the business and networking aspects. But they’re still very fun.

What makes Qwebec Expo stand out from the other shows around the world?

Even if Qwebec Expo is still a medium-sized “boutique event,” we do have a high proportion of decision makers and rainmakers from most of the companies represented. Montreal is such a nice city that many CEOs prefer to attend themselves rather than send their sales representatives. This is a good mix of business and pleasure for them.

I like to think we do a very good job putting this event together. Putting our love, tears, blood and sweat — plus our 10 years of expertise — into this event makes it a good and very productive conference for everyone.

[SIZE=1]All images courtesy of JFK, FubarWebmasters.com.[/SIZE]