Posted by Michael on April 5th, 2016
Just got back from this year’s Phoenix Forum, an annual adult industry trade show. Had an AMAZING time and came away from the experience feeling more educated, rejuvenated, and motivated than ever before to make BBA the best black gay website it can possibly be!
Hosted at a beautiful resort in sunny Tempe, Arizona (right outside of Phoenix), it was pretty much your usual business convention during the day, with lots of meetings, networking, and seminars led by panels of experts from some of the most successful brands in the business on topics ranging from Virtual Reality as the potential future of porn, to tips on adapting and succeeding in a rapidly changing market, to the various legal and political challenges facing the porn industry today.
As you might expect, things got a little wilder at night with music, dancing, strippers, poker, and various parties catering to both the gay and straight crowds. On Friday night, they even had a live concert featuring the Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man and Mix Master Mike of Beastie Boys fame.
This year’s show overlapped with Isaiah‘s Spring Break, and since I was already planning to do some filming with him earlier in the week, I invited him to join me and represent the BBA models.
It wasn’t exactly the most racially diverse crowd, so a 6’3″ tall black college basketball player with Isaiah’s physique and striking good looks turned plenty of heads – and hopefully had many pulling up the site on their phones to check out his scenes 😉 !
This was no doubt the largest crowd of gay men he’s ever been around at one time, and I think he was a bit overwhelmed by everything at first, but ended up coming out of his shell and having a fun time with everyone. I’m sure the free lap-dances from the female strippers didn’t hurt either, LOL! (Check out the BBA Tumblr for some gifs from one of his many lap-dances). He has told me several times that it was his best Spring Break ever, and an unforgettable adventure for him for sure!
One unexpected highlight is that I finally got to meet and hang out with the creator and owner of FlavaWorks in person for the very first time, as well as his new exclusive model Trey Donovan who I personally think is one of the hottest and most exciting new faces in black gay porn today. And believe it or not, he’s even sexier in person! (Reminded me A LOT of Blake Bishop).
It was definitely more than a little surreal to be hanging out and discussing business as an industry PEER with someone whose groundbreaking company and websites I was watching as an obsessed fan long before BBA ever began!
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