I thought this was a great show and just as important (for me) - it was a fantastic working vacation! I've enjoyed staying at the Diplomat every single year. It's one of my favorite places PERIOD ... and the weather was great - not overly hot/muggy and oppressive in the least this year!
It cost about 5K total for my wife and I including flights, cabs, badges and food and drinks. Sure, it was a little "spendy" but overall it was well worth the trip because the end result was we both got a ton of biz done.
For me personally, the immediate ROI is completely measurable and the future biz (based on new contacts) will be as well.
The fact that I'm in the content biz makes it a little easier to calculate my returns, for which I'm fortunate - maybe more fortunate than most.
There may have been less attendees this year in comparison to past years but there were more than enough quality people for me to talk biz with. I set 6 meetings up in advance and took all of them on the first day. 4 of the 6 were conducted poolside which was great. The other 2 were up on the show floor which was cool too. I spent about an hour up there on both friday and saturday and (although it wasn't slammed wall to wall with attendees) it looked like everyone was getting business done there too.
My guesstimate is that the show was 2/3's the size of last year, but again FOR ME - it was big enough!
The cabanas were great poolside - and it seemed to me that business was getting done all around. Everywhere I looked from poolside to the lobby to the bars and resturaunts - there were mini meetings going on.
Obviously, I can't speak for anyone else - and I know that many others spent WAY MORE than I did to attend and bring 'their people" ... but I think the show was a success!
Thanks to AVN for providing this yearly event for me to have an enjoyable vacation, get a tax deduction and make money while doing so!
