CHICAGO — The XBIZ Summit at Chicago concluded today after a Saturday night at "Mr. Skin’s Annual Summer Soiree" and this afternoon’s "Chicago Pizza Farewell Business Networking Party."
XBIZ Summit’s parade of informative seminars and networking events, as well as a tour of the top deck of the John Hancock Building, a double-decker city bus tour and the number of parties that came about, pleased many at the first XBIZ conference in the Midwest.
Industry veterans and newbies showed up to learn more about how to increase sales, particularly within the sectors of social networking, paysites, dating and cam sites and mobile.
The ASACP and X Industry Jobs had information desks, and speed-networking events offered opportunities for participants, as well as the debut of "3-Minute Show Offs," which gave “elevator pitches.”
But connecting and deal-making were the cache words of the three-day affair at the Sofitel in Chicago.
“The overall show was a great opportunity to spend time with old industry friends and network with people that we will undoubtedly call ‘old industry friends’ sooner than we might imagine,” PornstarTweet CEO Pete Housley told XBIZ.
Housley, who moderated the "Social Marketing: Profiting From Alternative Traffic Sources" seminar, said his panelists, including Laura MacEwen, Kelly Shibari, Joanne Cachapero, Christophe and Paige Little were fantastic.
“By far this was my favorite social media panel to date — and the biggest,” he said. “The attendees were very interactive which created a very lively panel on this important topic.”
XBIZ Summit offered a lot for those in the online biz — and, surprisingly, a few in the hard goods sex toy and novelty sector who are looking to follow online adult’s charge showed up — in an exclusive setting at the Sofitel in Chicago.
Most attendees were from the spaces of online adult and mobile, as well as adult processing.
Sofitel is located in the Gold Coast area by Lake Michigan. The Gold Coast is perhaps the most urban and cosmopolitan spots in Chicago.
Larry Newell, of T.O. Entertainment, a newbie to the biz, told XBIZ that his company got a lot out of the show.
“The show was very good for us,” he said. “We learned that we have a lot to learn. We made some good contacts, especially Lauren from MacEwen, who will be invaluable in learning how to use social media to promote our websites.”
Tony Jones, a Lion's Den exec, said he was there to get in the "know" about how to social market.
"We just hired a full-time staffer to focus on just that," the retailer exec said.
MILF solo girl Rita Daniels also was in attendance in anticipation of her Rita-Daniels.com site, which is about to debut.
Saturday’s Mr. Skin party, held at its headquarters at Chicago’s Wicker Park lived up to its name — a “summer blowout.” It was the company's 8th annual summer soiree.
It was a rooftop party, complete with large-screen porn videos playing nonstop along with carefully painted naked Playboy models who strutted around attendees. Mr. Skin partygoers also sauntered into its lower offices, where videos and games were played and food and drink were flowing. Deejays Pretty Paul and Topspeed spun the music
On Saturday, XBIZ Summit attendees strolled in the afternoon a few minutes past the Sofitel to join in on Chicago pizza., where it was pure gluttony for deep dish … and networking, too.