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We went to the first Bondcon in NY back in 2001 partially for our company promotion - but I was quite interested in meeting a lot of colleague bdsm/fetish photographers who's work I've known and admired over the years. I looked forward to putting faces to the names. We'd been invited as exhibitors and partially (graciously) comp'd for our hotel by the organizers. It was originally to be held in Connecticut - but then the 9/11 attacks happened and they moved the venue to Queens, NY to bring everyone together as a show of support and solidarity.
It was the first time I discovered that fellow colleagues knew of our work and were just as eager to meet 'n greet as we were. Honestly, that caught me rather off-guard...I wasn't expecting any sort of mutual admiration, lol. I genuinely thought we'd hear a lot of, "Umm...who are you again?" And then we got fingered to be on-stage panelists in front of several hundred convention attendees, general public, fellow producers, models. That was just...surreal.
I still considered ourselves a fledgling production company at that point - technically we were only two years old - although we'd been producing images for about four years. And all I could think to do was give my best, "Well...we started with just a shoe-string budget...and did everything ourselves" speech - with a few jokes and goofy anecdotes thrown in. The feedback I got later was many people related to us - a small ma-and-pa startup company that almost anyone could start with a modest budget. It wasn't my intention...but we seemed to project an inspirational tone for some.
It's been 14 yrs - but I look back on that first trade show with fondness - good memories.
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