Venus Berlin Expo .... Any experiences?

i have been there regularly the last 6 or 7 years...

it used to be like the AVN show in Vegas, just much bigger. but this year will be very difficult since most of the B2B exhibitors were very unhappy over the last years and now decided to run their own strictly B2B show - also in Berlin at the same time. so the Venus might end up as a consumer show but since also some big B2C exhibitors cancelled it could also be that this will be the last Venus. Lots of drama going on behind the scenes right now.

bump bump

What I describe might not be true this year considering MaDalton's information, so I'll try to add some general info.

Visited three times from 2006 till 2008, never exhibited.

Berlin is an interesting multi cultural place, ain't that much expensive and even hotel prices in the center are quite reasonable, Berlin is also the world's only city, where you can see East German and West German artifacts next to each other.

English is OK although knowledge of conversational German definitely helps in the common city contact, taxi drivers, according to my experience never tried to rip me off and always went according to their built in navigation.

Be aware Berlin is the German's protest capital and it's very often that certain areas are inaccessible by car over the weekend, due to manifestations of every possible political or ideological group out there.

What concerns the show, the venue is easy to find and easily accessible, used to be visited by pretty much everyone, much bigger than AEE Expo as I visited that as well.

The Estrel hotel, which was always the official hotel for Venus is a little bit out of hand, I always stayed in the center in a close distance to the venue, and since Estrel is where lots of the "unofficial" program happens, I usually took a cab there in the evening.

Even there was consumer vs. trade only parts the crowds of "fans" were quite a pain.

Anyway, if there will be a rivaling business to business show then I hope they come up with better return and service for their sponsorship / booth prices, true that I remember quite a lot of the people who exhibited were not exactly always happy.

I've never been there. But being German and having heard of Venus, I would classify it as mostly consumer-oriented. Don't know about any B2B areas, though.

The biggest B2B show in the world, I've been to both AEE and Venus and Venus is much bigger than AEE Vegas what concerns B2B

Let's see what this year brings.

I went there last year.

Show was great and well organized
I did great buisness there just from walking around.

Estrel Hotel was comfortable and also great biz done there as well.

I didn't go last year; but, did so in 2008 and several previous years. I found Berlin to be a great city and the Venus show to be rather lame.

Berlin has many great sights, restaurants, swinger scenes, museums, etc. I suggest a week in Berlin and a day at the show.

Yes, the show is physically bigger than AVN; but, it is split into several buildings with huge aisles so the net effect only seems larger. Anybody that I needed to talk to, I could do so from my desk at my office in 10 minutes. The shows content was hard like last year's AVN.

I found that I was already doing business with most of the exhibitors so I spent most of my time just saying "hello".

I'm not going this year either. Maybe I'll go to Australia/New Zealand or India looking for something really new and different.

Just my opinion.

It is the most fun show I have ever been to.

We were part of Pure Play's booth in the business to business section, and to be honest there was not much that much business to be had, but it was a LOT of fun.

A strong fan show is fine. Vanessa is distributing through Justin Slayer International now so getting European fans interested in her content would be good...

http://justinslayerint.com/directors/vanessa-blue/

I would like to make some in roads for European distribution though. Does anyone know how strong the DVD side of the industry is at the show ? Are distributors there ? Store owners/buyers attend as in the old days of AVN ?

And what about content producers/models ? We are also looking to produce in Europe for her lines. Are there shooter and models at the show ?

I have never gone there. Berlin is in Germany.

Actually, I read a book called "The German Mind of the 19th Century." I found the book very interesting and I recommend reading it. The book has very interesting paragraphs written about Hölderlin. I think the book said his wife said she heard his voice speak something even few weeks after he died.

been there quite a few times, as previous posters have stated it is like AEE but bigger

There are B2B sections and scecific trade only days, usually has godd attendance.

There are pics of it up on FUBAR, just go to the Archive section, look around october in each year

Been many times over the years. It has B2B days only when it's easy to move around and talk to people. Only problem is the people exhibiting are there to sell and not buy. So have something punchy and good to show and say to them in a few minutes or they will just exchange cards.

There is a better possibility for a model to pick up work than for her to find a DVD distributor.

There are many DVD distributors there from the biggest to the smallest.

Thanks for all the responses. I think we have to go just to see this one before it really dies out like out shows in the US....

i try this once again, maybe i didnt say it clearly enough or everyone just keeps ignoring me:

the B2B section this year will be very small to almost non-existing. probably only those who didn't hear about the drama going on or keep ignoring me.

the big wholesalers will mostly be here: http://www.erofame.eu/?l=en