YNOT – Evil Angel General Manager Christian Mann and Wasteland.com founder Colin Rowntree will present the keynote address for the first Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention, scheduled to take place Feb. 24-26 online.
Expected to run from noon until 1 p.m. PT Feb. 25, the address, “Surviving Porn’s Evolution: A Darwinian Perspective” will take the form of a question-and-answer session, with Rowntree pitching questions and Mann fielding answers.
“When Utherverse asked me for suggestions as to who would be a great keynote speaker for this event, the first person that came to mind is Christian Mann from Evil Angel,” Rowntree said. “Mann has been in the biz for three decades and has a vast knowledge base of what works in the adult industry. He’s also a charming, witty and very entertaining speaker, so I will be delighted to spend an hour with him, picking his brain for ideas and solutions that will help show attendees flourish and prosper in the coming year.”
Mann’s 32-year career in adult entertainment has encompassed magazine publication, mail-order distribution, video production, sales and marketing. As owner of Video Team, he pioneered niche marketing with the all-girl video series No Man’s Land and the urban series My Baby Got Back. Currently, he focuses his attention on Evil Angel’s marketing and brand position with an emphasis on both subscriber- and advertiser-funded new media.
Mann serves on the board of directors for adult industry trade organization Free Speech Coalition; he received the organization’s Good Guy Award in 2000. In 1991 he received AVN’s First Amendment Defense Award and was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2010.
“I’m honored to have been asked to deliver a keynote speech,” Mann said. “After 32 years in the adult industry, I have no shortage of opinions, nor am I shy about voicing them. Even so, a monologue from me can be monotonous, so instead Colin Rowntree and I will have a dialog.
“Since this is the first-ever 3D virtual adult convention, it seemed fitting that our topic should focus on the evolutionary changes in the business that led us to this point,” he continued. “When the human sex drive met commerce, porn was born. If Charles Darwin studied our industry, the questions he might ask are ‘How did porn and the business of porn evolve? Which species survived, which new species emerged … and why?’ Colin and I are a couple of dinosaurs, but we’re still here, so we may have some answers … or at least some new questions. If nothing else, I promise we’ll keep it fun and irreverent.”
Rowntree, whose sarcastic wit and finely tuned sense of irony has made him a perennial favorite to moderate forums at adult industry trade shows, knows irreverence. As the founder and CEO of Wasteland.com, the oldest BDSM and alternative sexuality website, he is a pioneer in the online adult entertainment industry. Since launching Wasteland in 1994, Rowntree has been inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame (2011) and received the XBIZ Award for Excellence in Alternative Erotica (2010). He also was the recipient of FSC’s Leadership Award in 2011. He is a frequent contributor to trade publications and a frequent interview target for mainstream media including BBC Television, Fox, HBO, Time and Wired magazines, The London Times, ABC News, Cnet.com and Bnet.com.
The first Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention intends to bring fans, exhibitors, high-profile guest speakers and adult stars together inside a virtual convention center using Utherverse software. Attendance is free but requires registration and a software download.
