AVN 2025 - Who's coming?
 

Who’s heading to AVN next week? I’d love to reconnect with many of you as I step back into the payments space. Let’s set up a time and place to chat!

This will be my first time back since Virgin rebranded the venue—curious about how the new (or old) Circle Bar holds up.

I wish I could have made it out this year but had prior commitments. Enjoy the show Jason!

I am going - special speaker for SEO conference on Friday at 4pm

NETbilling will be there as a sponsor for the Meet market and speaking on the billing panel. Come say hi

The Circle Bar is completely gone. :(

And the few times I've been out to the place it's been pretty dead. The old atmosphere is non-existent. Place feels kinda "cold" now (vibe-wise).

You'll see what I mean when you get here.

As a local here, I used to go out to The Hard Rock a bit just because it was fun.
Now? The only reason I would drive 15 minutes over there is to attend the show.

I don't know why the AVN/Internext show isn't done on Fremont Street. I've been preaching that for 15 years on here (and in person to Theo when he owned AVN).

I was always told that the webmasters wouldn't accept "Old Vegas" and only wanted to stay at the newest swankiest venues.

Well...Fremont Street now has The Circa...which is as nice a resort as any. And it's right there on Fremont Street where all the fun and entertainment is.

AND...you MUST be 21 years old to enter The Circa. So no families and little kids running around during a porn show.

But anyway...I'll see everybody at The Virgin!

:thumbsup

Congrats, sounds fun!

I'm going!

Will be awesome !

I agree. It would be a different story if the event were still on the Strip, like it was at the Venetian. But since it’s not, guests staying at Strip hotels will need to take a cab regardless. Besides, the downtown hotels are now significantly nicer and offer more than Virgin.

I agree it should be at freemont, it's a good vibe down there lately

I don't feel like making the 20 minute drive it takes me to get down there. I think the last one I went to was in 2020. Didn't go to the actual show, just attended private dinners and a few meetings like I usually do.

Wow... I remember seeing one of the backstreet boys at Circle Bar, many pornstars, Ron Jeremy got groped by dozens of women while autographing tits, and then I think someone got kicked out of the casino for doing a line on the bar, and that was like in 10 minutes of arrival at the Circle Bar... fun times!

The Venetian was okay for the show...BUT, there has always been so much more to do on Fremont Street than on any of the corporate casinos on the modern strip.

Webmasters would have had so much more fun on Fremont all along. But, what the hell.
I guess we'll just keep doing the overpriced "cold vibe" casinos instead of the ones where people who live here have suggested.

See everybody at The Virgin! The casino by the way is NOT "The Virgin"
It's "The Mohegan Casino" and is operated by The Mohegan Tribe.

Reading an article in The Las Vegas Review about how the Mohegan Tribe will NOT be running it much longer and are currently transitioning out of it because of a HUGE drop in revenue.

I'm not surprised. The place just isn't fun anymore like it used to be as The Hard Rock. Maybe it will be more fun with the porn convention there!
At least that's what I'm hoping this week.

I'll be in Zinetastic booth 326.

Here is video of last year:

https://www.instagram.com/realameliag/reel/C2i6Vb0p1Qx/

and

https://www.instagram.com/realameliag/reel/C2lXYPnvrxB/

Invite Only Bukkake Party will be on Saturday night.

Do you honestly think that Vegas Hotels/Casinos are begging AVN to host a porn convention ?

Steve will be there if Anyone wants to talk about our AI API

Not "begging AVN". But that's not how it works anyway.

I remember talking to Theo when he was doing negotiations with The Hard Rock and he was telling me then that he was basically looking for the hotel that would give him the best deals and exposure, etc.
That's why he left The Venetian in the first place. They were treating him like shit and not giving him any deals.

I do think that if they approached Derek who owns The D, The Golden Gate Casino, and The Circa all on Fremont Street that AVN would be met with open arms.

And The Circa (which is one of the nicest resort casinos in Vegas) has guards at every door checking ID. No one under 18 is allowed.

Nothing more awkward than walking through the casino towards the show surrounded by porn girls half naked, posters everywhere about porn...and there's some family with small children. They are looking around like deer in the headlights. They booked a Vegas vacation (and for some reason people think it's okay to bring their children to casinos) at the same hotel as the show.
I hate seeing that.

The Circa would be the solution to all of that.

Goin' nowhere as per usual . . .

AVN was very good but Internext needs more exposure. Most could find where is was located. It was a weird setup.

As far as the hotel, the rooms are great and so was the staff. The lack of big circle bar was a downside and the food places just plain suck, expect for the pizza place.

Overall, we had a good show though snd a fun time with good friends and colleagues.

Mitch

Where can I watch video or read up on all of the innovation, news, and gooner information cumming out of the AVN this year?

I checked YouTube and only found this:

Back when pornstar's hairdos were bigger than their breasts . . .

All the girls from the eighties look like drag queens now lol

My honest impressions -

Very glad the strike ended before the show.

I like that the show floor was not on the theater floor like shows at The Hard Rock.

The layout was confusing, especially how they had a separated novelty consumer and b2b side. People hard trouble finding industry registration. Having AEE spread across two halls was also confusing. Would have helped to have a show floor map on some of the foam core signs.

I liked the use of the skybox area for Internext, but the stage was way too dark.

Hate the "Breakfast" spot, which used to be the default 24/7 coffee shop, and now closes at Noon. No place in the hotel to grab a burger. Thankfully, Famous Dave's BBQ (formerly Dog Haus) is across the street.

The hotel rooms are stylish and modern. But I don't care how fancy the shower is, nothing screams "getto" to me when there's no hot water when you need it most.

The Virgin went in and just changed stuff for the sake of changing stuff. :(

Not having a place to eat lunch was just incredibly stupid of Virgin. And of course all the dinner restaurants were booked up.

So the only meal you could eat on-premise was fucking breakfast (which everyone said was not very good).

Mr. Lucky's (the restaurant that used to be there) was so damn good. And open 24 hours.
But I guess since it was "old", it had to go to be replaced by a breakfast place.

Even though I live here, we always get a room at the show to base out of.

This time was no different. We had a room for the weekend at The Virgin.

But once we went in and got our badges on Wed. and then decided to grab lunch while we were there...only to discover we COULDN'T grab lunch (unless you want pizza every day for lunch)...and knowing that the couple of restaurants they have for dinner were all sold out...I canceled the room and we just drove back and forth every day.