The traveling XBIZ roadshow continued its journey from Chicago, IL in June to London, UK in September, with their first [that I recall] European show, XBIZ EU 2011. The adult B2B event was billed as being held September 23-25, but the only thing going on the 25th was the double-decker bus tour. There were two days of the actual show.

This was my first visit to London, so I was unaware that I needed to arrive at the airport a good 12 hours before my first appointment. Unbelievable. Gatwick has to be the slowest airport I have ever been through. Combine that with the distance factor, and suffice it to say I missed the speed networking and lunch the first day. By the time I arrived at the venue hotel, the Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury, the seminars had begun. (more…)

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Billed as Europe’s leading B2B conference for the online entertainment industries, The European Summit (TES) 2011 was held in Prague, CZ at the Hotel Praha. While the show was said to last from September 20-23, that was stretching it. The show itself was really on the 21st and 22nd with some warm-up activities provided by YNOT and Cybersocket. I am not sure what, if anything, went on the 23rd. Most people were headed to London or Munich from what I could see.

The Venue

The Hotel Praha is huge. Sadly, there are only 136 rooms. If it was Las Vegas they would have made it into a 700 room hotel. In Prague they make the rooms very large. The result was inevitable, the show hotel sold out quickly. Several of us stayed at the Silenzio Hotel which was just down the hill. I know others stayed closer to downtown Prague. It seemed that attendees were pretty spread out, more than normal.

It was pretty obvious that the hotel and staff were not prepared for the influx of business at the bar. I arrived fairly late Monday evening after traveling from Amsterdam. There were several of us that had the same thing in mind, and that was food. The front desk told us there was none to be had in the hotel and no one knew of much other than a KFC that would be open past 10:00 PM. I opted out of the KFC option and discovered that there was some food that could be ordered at the bar. What they failed to mention was that the bar only had a very limited number of beers in stock. That was gone in a flash. Yes, they had other alcohol available, but I really wanted a beer. (more…)

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Webmaster Access 2011 is an adult B2B trade show that was held at the Park Hotel in Amsterdam from September 16-19, 2011. While it seems like every show has chatter suggesting “this must be the last one,” it would be difficult to attend Webmaster Access and come away feeling that way. If anything, this show seems to grow each year.

The Venue

For the second straight year, Webmaster Access was held at the Park Hotel. Once again, I stayed off-site so I will not comment on the accommodations other than to say that I heard the same talk as last year. Small rooms. Well, it is Europe. I have found very few hotels with rooms the size we have become accustomed in the states.

The hotel itself is nice. I had little cause to interact with the staff, but whenever I did it was pleasant. My favorite feature of the hotel is their coffee machines. When dealing with time zone changes, those little machines were lifesavers.

Dutch Webmaster Meeting

It is my understanding that this was the second Dutch Webmaster Meeting. Apparently there was a scheduling conflict, so the organizers got together with AVN and made the Dutch Webmaster Meeting as the first day of Webmaster Access. I have to admit, I was impressed. While the days of adult trade shows with booths seem to be dwindling, the Dutch Webmaster Meeting had a room full of them. For a second time around, this event was quite impressive. (more…)

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