As I’ve been reminded this week, making the most of a trip to Las Vegas is about more than pure cocaine and deniability. The merits of trade-shows are debateable, but if you’re making money in the sex industry you will eventually find yourself in a convention centre, hopefully glad you read this.
- Empty your bag. On your first day you’ll pick up a thousand free magazines, leaflets, business cards and, if you’re lucky, female booth models. They’re heavy and you’ll regret carrying much else.
- Wear comfortable shoes. You’ll walk a couple of miles on the show floor, if your shoes hurt you’ll get pissed off, act like a prick and people will hate you.
- Pack water. Unless $5 bottles of water and $7 hot dogs float your boat, you’ll be glad of having something to eat and drink in your bag.
- Ignore the first hour. The start of the show is about long lines and trying to find people who haven’t yet got out of bed. Pretend it’s not there.
- Ignore the last hour. The last hour is about people going home, packing up shop and getting pissed off that you’re trying to talk to them when they just want to go home. Forget about it.
I really messed up on the shoes bit this year. I had this great plan to wear my runners for the long walks and switching to my sexy shoes at the show. But the shoes I picked really f-ed them up. I normally do not like to swear (or fake swear) but in this case it is necessary. My tootsies are a mess.
I think I’ve walked an easy 6 miles a day during the show between ringsaround the show and excursions up and down the strip (I haven’t seen the inside of a cab yet becuase walking’s exercise and I’ve an image to consider…)
Granted that I’ve not been to AEE per se, but I did trade shows extensively when I was a tech industry journalist, and my experience is that if your aim is to get schwag, that last hour is the really critical one - people don’t want to have to pack shit to take back with them and will give you their stock for pennies on the dollar. I lucked into about $500 of computer hardware literally by doing nothing more than sticking a couple of MacWorlds out to the bitter end.
Wish I could have made it this year, would have been great to meet you.
Oh well - I know we’re not planning on being 5 weeks from popping next year, although I still have no clue what we’ll do with the baby. And we’re being horribly nagged about missing this year already - so plan on seeing myself and Ranger there for 2007!