AVNChris says it was silly of XBIZ to give away free registration, what do YOU think?

Fitty..................Free Registrations To XBiz Vegas

buy my tubing products.

Hello, I am fashionably late... for a sig spot

there is battle here who need rpg or anti aircraft missile i supply to everybody AGA is equal opportunity saleman

Interesting read, curious to know what was said about Xbiz to make Alec write the second 1/2 of the post.

As a sponsor and attendee of almost every show for the past 10 years, I think Free or discounted registration prices are where we need to be with all of the shows out there now. I love AVN, love Xbiz, and the CCbill shows too and well as Cybernet and Webmaster access but I do think if you want to get people to your shows you have to make it cost effective to be there. To be totally effective, you need to have low cost admission, low cost hotel rooms and not be at a location where food and drink are priced out too. Otherwise, you are only going to get the few of us that can really afford to bring ourselves and our staff, and this will leave out many webmasters and affiliates.

NOTE: All of these shows are great for us as a billing company. You guys need to focus on getting the affiliates there because as you know, the program owners are there to make affiliate deals and it all trickles down from there. Many programs do not come and attend or sponsor anymore because many of the affiliates are not attending.... get them there somehow.

IMO

Mitch

avn man I have stock for show in florida patriot missle mail me I give free ship

Personally .. I believe ALL the shows should have FREE registration... it is going to get more affs to the shows and us owners can deal with promo..PR .. and the ass kissing that goes on .. as a program owner I end up spending more than I think is worth it at these shows... free regi is fucking great and think it should be a sponsor option .."Come to the Westin Diplomat on us " so to speak .. just lower the damn prices .. we're spending an awful lot on legal battles and content recovery these days ..

I am a whale. I need a big hotel room. I need big chairs. I need big plates of food. I need a big hotel. I need a big badge. That badge needs to be free.

I don't think we can argue whether the free show works or not, it worked!

Now here's my opinion, as a person who has been throwing events for these shows for over 10 years, I lost count on how many parties I've thrown.

When someone attends a show, you can look at it like this:

Trade show floor (or cabanas)
Seminars
Parties

Out of those options, usually you hear about the parties the most or the networking that gets done. I hardly hear anything about the seminars or the show floor.

That being said...

Whether the show is free or not, there should be some kind of incentives to the people who throw parties. (Alec takes good care of me when I throw parties at his events by the way).

Since parties are done out of the kindness of the promoters heart, usually I scratch and claw just to break even, sometimes I take a hit on them. So why throw parties to make the trade shows better when the trade show is the one charging the money, their guests get in free, but the party thrower has all of the stress and no money in pocket.

My proposal for trade shows. Add an upsell. Make it the "party pass" and split the money with those people who open up their doors to everyone at the show. Or charge per party and have the trade show collect the money, take a 10% fee, then give the 90% to the promoter. If a trade show is free, like XBiz, and you have a party pass upsell, then you would get rid of the hustlers that shouldn't be drinking our booze and hitting on our models and pulling out guns. Those that registered for the trade show, still get the seminars and show floor. Meanwhile, the party organizers have more incentive and more money to put back into their events.

How much money did AVN pay me over 10 years of making their shows better with Players Balls that catered to the whole show? $0.00

I'm at the point where I'm not sure I even want to throw events for shows anymore. There needs to be some kind of incentive that the trade shows should offer to make it worth it.

Now you can argue that the party promoter gets visibility and branding and all of that. But in the end, it's a ton of stress, tons of criticism and heads aches.

Imagine at Internext if they charged for the badge and had an upsell for the parties? How many of you would pay for that? Personally, I think this is something that shows should start doing. Even if it's $100 for the party pass and there's only 2 parties that cater to everyone at the show. With 1000 webmasters paying $100 each, that would be $100,000. If I split that with another event, I could continue doing the big production shows like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg or I can just pay for the drinks for eveyone at a party. Then my sponsorships for sponsors could be lower, thus giving them a higher return on investment.

I've proposed this idea years ago, but it fell on deaf ears. By the way, it's getting harder and harder to raise money to throw parties.

What do you all think? Would you pay for the parties separately? Or admission at the door?

I only bring this up because the issue is "free or not free". I think the parties are at least 1/3 of the trade shows.

Thoughts?

Hello Everyone. Just wanted to say hi

I need extra large condoms in my room too. I am big Don, I like everything big.

if snoop dog at you party i give you 50k for banner for my webpage mail me $

See JFK-
Our momma didn't raise no dummies

hahahaha

D, definitely an interesting idea...

Question... why exactly DO you throw the parties if you don't make any money? I've been to a couple and they were a lot of fun. I just don't understand why anyone would put that much heart and soul into something with absolutely no return... you must be getting something. I know you're smarter than that. :-)

Nothing wrong in my mind so long as you have a good reason for getting in free for example I got into internext 06 and played poker no badge no nothing. However I was with one of biggest webmasters in the industry settling a dispute so somewhat justified. I don't really see it being a big deal.

I am big Don. I don't need no stinky party. Just give me big room. Big girls. Big bag of yayo. Big bottle of Jack Daniels. Big room service menu. I don't care about parties.

I think free is great, esp. for pre registration. D-Money makes some good points though, what is the cost of the show badge for?

Just to keep out riff raff or line someones pockets?

Free shows in Vegas, so that we could lose that money on the tables.. That's my

branding my friend

What is D-Money branding? That he can throw a party?

there are some fucking retarded posts in this thread....whats wrong with you?

Well, it started off as a way to give back to webmasters, still is.

I also figured one day I'd make money from the footage, but it's not that easy to get licensed.

I tried a few times to make money doing them, but it always works out to break even.

For me, I love music and I'm a big fan of the artists I book. So it gives me an opportunity that most people never get. I'll admit, there is a fun side to doing them or I wouldn't do them at all.

But after 10 years of hard work and stress, it's not as fun if I have sponsors flake on paying me (which happened last year during Internext's summer show) and another show back in S.D. during Cybernet. One day I'll post who didn't pay me, shame on them!

So, I'm making a suggestion that the shows should think about very seriously. I'd have no problem doing these parties forever if at the end of the day I had no stress on raising the money and some extra bucks in my pocket to make it worth the time and effort. But with so many new show formats coming out, I thought I'd plant the seed here.

I never thought she did! What I said was totally out of friendship and came from the heart. I hope D$ is still talking to me after bending his ear, till he had to be rescued
Also a 2 Tier admission would be a great answer

It was a great show Alec, thank you

I forgot to mention branding.

Usually I like to brand my name on the event, so when I cold call someone, they know who I am. Sometimes I don't offer services to the masses (like my marketingfirm), I only take a few clients at a time. But right now, I have some services like Feedmorphers that gets visibility in my Players Ball newsletter.

Lot's of biz gets done during the year from these events I throw, but you don't see an immediate return most of the time.

But hey, most people in our biz knows who I am because of the event. It opens up doors.

I have said it before, I think it was a brilliant move. With all the shows going on I imagine it is difficult for most to attend, or to even decide which to attend. I am sure that free registration helped quite a few make that decision a little easier.

I know there are those out there that will say I just automatically side with XBIZ, but the XBIZ people know better than that.

Actually Connor, I would have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. THis was a big determining factor for me going to the show. THere are way too many shows now a days so I am trying to be judicious with my show budget.

I decided to go to this show becuase the overall cost was mitigated by the free attendance.

I was so happy I ended up going 'cause it turned out to be a great show for me biz wise.

so all in all..I think for many of us webmasters, it does make a huge difference.

I Like burritos

Hey Mitch -

In addition to everything I said before regarding why I'm skeptical of free badges... no matter how much D-Money disagree. ;)

Something for you to consider. At the end of the day, the people who are running these shows (like YNOT, AVN, etc) need to make sure the COST of running the shows is covered. It's not a simple matter to organize shows like these... there's a lot on the line, and you want everyone to have a good and profitable time, feel like the show was worth attending, etc. Nobody in their right mind is going to run a show at a big loss. It just makes no sense. And I think we all would agree that the people who run these shows SHOULD at least cover their own costs.

The only serious ways to do that is through sponsorships and registrations. So, if you make the registrations free, that means you have to shift the burden of cost over to the sponsors. And since most sponsors get hit up to sponsor a ton of shows each year, is that really appropriate? It's also getting harder for the sponsors, and if they drop out, NONE of us will have shows to attend.

I totally agree about keeping costs as low as possible. That's been the approach at Cybernet for years now. That's why we've been a regular event in June for many, many years, and will be back next June as well. We had hotel rooms for WELL under $200 in San Francisco. Low badge costs for advance registration.

AND.... we also made sure our sponsors weren't soaked, because they too need to see some ROI.

Wow, times are really THAT tough for you guys? Sorry to hear that.

He wasn't being rescued as far as you know....

bahahahaha!

Plus, he loved it.
I love anytime you have your red face on and are feeling no pain
I am your biggest fan!

lol!

Okay, so... is anybody else against free registration that does not run another show? So far they seem to be the only one with that stance.

Well when attendee's not in the industry show up with hand guns like they at the recent XBIZ in Vegas one can guess a few factors lead to it...

PS3 was stolen as well.

I have no idea if "Free" had anything to do with it, or if security was inept.
Either way it goes to prove the shows these days attract alot of trouble maker's, non industry invader's and poser's that have no business in our community. I view that alot of us are really just fun people and would never hurt anyone and when hearing of violence, guns, drugging of people reflect's smaller attendendence from long time industry people. If the shows were more secure the environement would be far more inviting to people like myself.

I have written off going to shows for some time now largely because they are infact dangerous and get more and more dangerous each year. Security of our event's is a growing problem. I think the attempt to attract as many people as possible to these events has gone to far.

Twas a great night

That seemed like a slam...hope it wasn't... I'd be very surprised and disappointed.

I was merely stating that there are too many shows to go to. If some of the costs are mitigated then its an easy decision to go.

and times are not THAT hard

JFK, I love you man.

Believe me, I'm a seasoned vet to criticism and feedback.

I understand what you were saying. I think? LOL

Was this last Ball on the level of some in the past?

No.

But that's my point in this thread. It could have been, but we need more support from the sponsors or from the shows to continue it on that level.

"Party Pass" - $50 or $100

Pay to play...

Or shit, maybe I should start charging at the door and let the sponsors give a limited amount of passes to their people.

Sly, the Genie is out of the bottle, now it needs to be tamed and refined

Hey I think that was a low blow-
If his business is hurting I'd like to hurt like him.

It hurts working with clients like Vivid and Hustler...

I am sure you know that...don't they advertise on YNOT?

lol

Connor I am not picking a fight but he never said his biz was hurting...he was being smart about his show budgets

EXACTLY!

I'm glad to see at least YOU got it

thx

Well Sly, of COURSE you're not going to find many people to come out and say "please charge me" when they can shift the burden to someone else. It's like taking the position that you will hand out free health care if you're elected president. It's a position that will always be popular. But that doesn't make the points I'm making any less valid.

Both free and paid shows have their place, for the previously stated reasons.

The free shows may attract some douche-bag civilians , but bring smaller affiliates that may not have otherwise attended, an acceptable trade off.

A paid show may discourage douche-bag civilians form attending, but keep some smaller affiliates out, another acceptable trade off.

It's really a non-issue to me, I will continue to attend XBIZ and AVN shows.

Well said

Interesting comparison, LOL.

It doesn't really matter to me. Paid or free. If there is a show I want to go to, I will go to it.

Anyway... I was merely commenting on the perception that others may be getting from the responses of this thread. You may want to think about that.

I know you're not, and I'm not either... I'm just saying that if $120 registration is the deciding factor in whether or not to attend a show, either a) times are really tough, or b) it's not REALLY a factor but why not take the free cheese if you can get it. That's just my honest opinion.

I don't have 149 dollars for a show badge. I am a big guy in this business. If I had to pay 149 dollars I would not go. I am a huge webmaster.

Your show is always great, either way... :-)

Oh look, the chief scientist of retarded shit has arrived.

Hey, I have to throw parties to get free badges!