Miami 2008 in Review

[gonzo]

Heres the word as I saw the show before it all fades away.

Show attendence a little smaller than last year. Wasnt many people there to just party and with a $350 at the door charge tp just be in the hotel this was a good thing. All in all the people that were there seemed to have a sharp business focus more than ever with the downturn of the economy.

AVN ripped off LAJ for a mix and meet thing that had a room full of tables with people behind them and a little swag thrown out.Several new billing ventures there as usual. One of note is the guys from WebBiling who have a no credit card solution for getting to those surfers in Europe.

You might remember these guys from Sexmoney a few years ago which did and EXCELLNET job initially by installing java code on your machine tha detected the language of the surfer's browser and moved them to a pay site which had coutnry native paysites and billing solutions.

Look for BIG things from them in the near future.

Our very own Forest was out in force as the show with a solution to obtain a merchant account. This expands Forest's business from design and traffic. If your interested in hearing about merchant accounts and etc you should speak with him and see if he has something that is right for you.

As our yearly tradition holds - I opted to forfiet a limo ride into the show from WebBilling and instead rode in with Forest and had a grilled dophin sandwitch meeting at Turks with him. Better use of my time.

Also to mention Firest quickly put our own lovely Ali trolling the show and handing out his flyers to make contacts again making better use of what was on hand than big dicking.

The boys from NATS had an airconditioned tent at the end of the pool. I guess they needed it to escape the heat from all the security and Naked Rhino lawsuits. Apparently all is better at least on those 2 PR fronts. I have to admit that a tent at the end of a pool facing away from the ocean couldnt tempt me so I missed the premiere of the new script release.

Same for tall the cabanas around the pool and up top. I cant say that they were a great investment either as most people I saw were networking on their own and passing up whatever was in there.

As as custom I took my seat at the end of the bar and let the business come to me.

I did have the chance as mentioned earlier to tour the Terramark facility where Mojohost keeps my web 2.0 server. This facility is mega secure, super connected and incredibly redudant.

We had to give up our ids. I coudnt take any pictures so you will have to rely on words. This place is rated to withstnad a cat 5 hurricane, is strictly monitered in all respects as well as double redundant for power, cooling, and pipe.

They have a 100% uptime on all of these issues. The facility is an internap exchange point so there is so much fiber going into the building its not funny. The international telecom cables that run under the ocean all terminate into this building for direct communication to all points south.

I figure my box is safe there along with akemai,youtube, verisign and several government key surver clusters. If uptime is a concern for you along with security of your box then talk to Brad Mitchell about a solution there for you.

Cory [not from Weg or Brads lawyer] did drag out several of us to the greek resturant Opa about 5 minutes from the hotel. Spent some quality time with him and KevinG and his friend the 6' + San Fransisco ballerina.

I will post the picture I have of the warrior prawns I had for dinner. Im glad after all these years to have had a meal there. If your looking for a quiet dinner this isnt the place for you. They gots bellie dancers!

Thanks MojoHost... once of these days Im going to actually be able to pick up my own tab after hanging out with you.

The seminars apparently have settled down to nothing but business as I was told by ClipClinic's Amber that I missed probably the most informative discussion shed ever heard at one of the shows.

I canf find the seminar but apparently there was a great panel on acuasitions and mergers with the boss up there that I know I would have wanted to sit thru. Youll have to get Amber to tell you about if your lucky or just have to make sure to attend at the next show.

All in all there wasnt anything new or ground shaking shown off at the show. What I did see was what we all know that the consolidation is in full force in this business. People are more concerned about the bottom line than taking part in someone's big dicking exercise.

Ill load some pictures in this thread. You know IM not resizing them.

I was promised that new innovations will be announced on several levels in Vegas and finally there would be some new things to work with.

So if youve missed it in my signature... Think Virtual Sex.