Las Vegas Weekly

January 18, 2012 · 11:48 AM

Porn grows up: AVN’s new venue, new dates, new show

By Lynn Comella

Adult film star Caudia Marie talks with fans at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas Friday, January 7, 2011.

Photo: Leila Navidi

For the organizers of AVN’s Adult Entertainment Expo, the word “new” says it all.

The Expo has a new home at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and for the first time in many years the show won’t overlap with the popular Consumer Electronics Show, AEE’s geeky counterpart for more than a dozen years.

Porn, it seems, is all grown up.

Over the next four days, the Hard Rock will be transformed into Porn Central as thousands of adult entertainers, sex toy manufacturers and fans from around the world descend on Vegas for what’s billed as the largest adult entertainment trade show in the world.

“There’s an incredible vibe at the Hard Rock,” Brian Gross, publicist for the AVN Expo, explains. And unlike previous years when the trade show was held in one place, industry parties in another and the AVN Awards Show in yet another, this year, it’s one-stop shopping in a setting that, at least by early reports, promises to be more intimate and accessible than the cavernous (and let’s be honest, not that attractive) Sands Expo and Convention Center.

Fans will have the chance to meet and mingle with their favorite adult performers inside the Joint, a scene that Gross describes as a “Bourbon Street vibe with an incredible amount of adult talent.” They’ll also find a lineup of seminars and stage shows designed specifically for them.

Sex and relationship expert Reid Mihalko has been enlisted to teach a seminar on female pleasure at the Fan Fest on Friday afternoon. (It’s R-rated, folks. Lots of sexy language and sex tips, but no nudity.)

“Most porn fans, men and women, love female pleasure, but porn can be a poor education medium,” Mihalko tells me. “Learning how to be a better lover by watching porn is a lot like learning how to drive from watching The Fast and the Furious. AVN invited me to teach something that would take the fans’ love lives to the next level.”

While much has been made about the fact that AEE and CES don’t overlap this year, Gross sees the uncoupling as a plus. “Fans from all over the world can come to the Expo and not suffer the CES price inflation. That goes for exhibitors as well.”

As far as ticket sales go, early reports are positive, and organizers aren’t that concerned that the show’s new dates will adversely affect attendance.

“Anytime, but especially the beginning of the year, people want to come to Vegas,” Gross says. “And what better time to go to Vegas then when you have the biggest adult entertainment expo in the world taking place?”

For ticket and schedule information, go to fan.adultentertainmentexpo.com.

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