7 Up!

795

I has taken me way to long to get to this subject as I have needed time to process my thoughts but if I don’t do it now then I probably never will so here goes…

7 things about Eroticon 2018…

The three of us…

make an amazing team. Working with other people always has potential for friction but I can genuinely say that in the 2 years we have been running Eroticon the three of us have always fitted together. A bit like a jigsaw we bring different things to table but when you put us all together we make a truly great picture. We just all get on and it is fucking perfect. If I never got anything else of Eroticon apart from a truly great friendship with a truly awesome person (I am talking about Girl on the Net in case you are not following me) then it would all be worth it just for that.

The Sponsors…

There is much talk of the sex toy and related industry is being ruthless in their pursuit of profits and whilst there is some truth to that of course, the sponsors at Eroticon showed that you can be a commercial company who genuinely cares about doing things better. Every single one of the sponsors totally embraced the ethos of the conference and as well as bringing their products to the event they also bought their knowledge and their enthusiasm for our community. I can’t emphasis this enough though, without their support there would be no Eroticon or if there was then the ticket price would probably be double what it is now which basically no one could afford. The sponsors really do play a huge part in the success of the event and this year ‘The Corridor of Swag’ as it shall henceforth be known having been named such by Hot Octopus in their round-up, really hummed with excitement so a huge shout out to all those folks for just being the best!

The Speakers

Last year was so mad that I barely managed to attend more the few minutes of any of the sessions so this year I promised myself that I would not let that happen again and for the most part I managed it. All the sessions I went to were awesome but some that have really stuck with me are Remittance Girl’s Taboo session which will hopefully inspire me to delve into some slightly darker fiction again this year.

Kayla Lords session on making money through you blog. Not only was it packed full of useful information but I found myself utterly in awe of her as a speaker as she held her audience the whole way through and presented the whole thing out of her head. Even when people asked questions she seemed able to keep her place and slip straight back into her talk once she had answered them. Now that is skill.

Hannah Witton’s session on Vlogging 101. I have dabbled in the Youtube space but not like Hannah who has made it her bitch, for want of a better phrase. I have been watching her stuff for ages and she comes across as a funny, thoughtful and caring person and so I was both looking forward to meeting her in person and listing to her talk. Her session was excellent and informative and it has given me plenty to think a about when it comes to that platform.

I have been following Kendra’s blog since just before I started my own and so finally getting to meet one of my blogging hero’s who definitely inspired me to start my own blog was a very special moment. I actually found myself being moved to tears in her session as she talked about all the things she had gone through over the years to get to the place where she is now including freely acknowledging the mistakes and errors she had made along the way was inspiring.

When Emmeline submitted her proposal for her session I knew it would be one of the ones I wanted to catch. I sadly missed the first quarter but I managed to catch most of it and I was not disappointed. She approached the subject of sex toy activism with intelligence and enthusiasm as well as a critical eye which is something that I think is hugely important. She made me feel much more confident about my own thoughts on this subject and how I want to approach it going forward.

I knew the Vac Play session was going to be popular but I had not idea just how popular it would be and so I want to say a massive shout out to my amazing friend Mactire and his trusty assistant @bashful_masopup for basically working their snazzy little socks off and giving so many people an amazing experience. You guys totally rock.

Air BnB

This was the only terrible part of the whole weekend and Fuck you Ozi! The place we booked looked like it would be fine. We were not expecting a palace but we did get was substituted from that place to another which was a complete shit hole. Not only did it smell of drains and was dirty but it was also fucking freezing. Because we were running a conference we didn’t have time to find somewhere else and so had to accept it. We have made a complaint and are still waiting on a resolution but it has made me a lot more cautious of using Air BnB in the future.

Friendships

I am delighted to have made so many wonderful friends through this community but what I super love about Eroticon is getting to indulge in some of them face to face especially with those people who the rest of the year live to sooooooo very far away from me and so this is about 3 of those women in my life who are very special to me. Kayla Lords, Marie Rebelle and Hyacinth Jones, I love you all and you enrich my life in so many ways.

Self Belief

Last year Eroticon made me ill. I didn’t tell anyone at the time as I just couldn’t cope with people asking me if I was OK as it might have made me cry. I have a raging gum infection and was on really strong antibiotics. By the Sunday night I was exhausted and what had the beginning of oral thrush too. It took me nearly a month to get rid of it and looking back now I know that much of that was caused by stress and anxiety. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed Eroticon 2017 but I would also be lying if I said the same about Eroticon 2018. I was not without my nerves and worries but unlike last year I believed not only in us as a team and in the venue but also in myself and that is a very powerful feeling and one that is pretty new to me.

Ideas

Unlike last year when I staggered away from Eroticon with germs and relief this year I have come away feeling enthused and excited about the future. I guess having a 2nd successful year has given me both confidence in us but also that there is space to grow and develop. We are currently working on redesigning the website, mainly caused by the fact that the tickets page is broken. We hope to have that done by the middle of April and get tickets on sale and then it will be time to start over and unlike last year. I am really rather looking forward to it.