I know this is a little late, but better late than never, right? I have attended every XBIZ Summer Forum since their first one in 2006. When I look back at the photos I took at that first show compared with this one, there are a couple of things that stand out. In 2006, it seems like it was more about the party. In 2010, things seem more focused on business and education. In today’s business environment, that is a good thing.

The XBIZ Summer Forum is billed as a three day online business event, but in reality, it is more like two and a half. The last day only had two events scheduled and they were both over by noon. On the other hand, they did schedule the XFANZ show to begin when the XSF ended, so if you stayed for that, you could easily get three or four days of networking and business done.

The Venue

As always, The XBIZ Summer Forum was held at the Hard Rock Hotel. I have a condo in Las Vegas, so most of the time when I have a trade show to attend there, I will use the condo. The exception to the rule is when the event is at the Hard Rock. My girlfriend really likes the pillows there, so I will opt to stay at the show hotel when it is held there. The rooms were a reasonable $100 a night, so no complaints with pricing.

The Hard Rock opened a new section to the hotel and the thing that surprised me the most was that the music was no longer rock. The Hard Rock might be changing their name to The Hip Hop Hotel in the near future. Additionally, I accidentally left some clothes there. They said they found them, but only returned some of my items. When I mentioned this on Facebook I discovered that several people had credit card issues with them, so I may have to rethink staying there in the future. We shall see.

The Food

Daily lunch buffets were held at Simon’s and sponsored by Dating Gold. I was not feeling well, so passed on the buffet the first day. I later found out that the meal on Tuesday was better than the one on Wednesday, but Wednesday was not bad. Both days were well attended, and the plates seemed to empty quickly.

The Networking Never Ends

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It is that time of year again, when it is time to start planning for the adult webmaster B-to-B shows that are being held in Europe. The first show of interest is The Barcelona Summit, which will be followed by Webmaster Access in Amsterdam. The Barcelona Summit will be held September 21-24, 2010 at the Le Meridien Ra Beach Hotel & Spa in Barcelona, Spain. Webmaster Access will be Held September 24-26 at the Park Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The combination of having these two shows happening one after the other is great for those of us based in the United States. While some may find it difficult to justify the cost of a trans-Atlantic flight to attend one show, having both shows occur consecutively makes it difficult to not make the journey. I am a firm believer that coming to Europe to meet your potential clients shows them that you are serious about getting their business. I have traveled to Europe four times in the last few years and I always come away with new business, so I feel this confirms my opinion.

I will be representing PimpsPromo.com as well as GotWebHost.com on this trip. As usual, I will be photographing both shows. For anyone interested in purchasing banner spots on the galleries or watermarks on the pictures I have great deals available. For example, having your button on the photos can be had for as little as $2,000 per show. Banner spots above and below the photos can be done on a monthly or permanent basis. A quick check of Google will confirm that any show I shoot and post here ranks in the top five almost every time.

Since we have been checking out rates to fly from Chicago to Barcelona to Amsterdam and back to Chicago I will pass along a little tip. The average cost if we use the same airlines for all the destinations has been around $1,300 per person. If you book from the US to Barcelona, then from Amsterdam (or Germany if attending Oktoberfest) you can save almost $300 by utilizing Vueling Airlines to get you from Barcelona to Amsterdam. They have three flights a day that average about $100, so it makes sense to at least check them out.

For more information about The Barcelona Summit visit http://www.thebarcelonasummit.com. For more information about Webmaster Access Amsterdam, visit http://www.webmasteraccess.com/.

I hope to see you at one or both of the shows.

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