The Venus show is both a consumer show and a business-to-business trade show. This means that some parts of the show are visitable by anyone, and there are other areas reserved for industry 'professionals'. The Venus show is in its 13th year, and I've been warned by other folks in the 'industry' that it is incredibly wild in comparison to North American trade shows, and I really didn't know what to expect.

My first pleasant surprise was actually in my hotel minibar where I discovered a pickle-in-a-can with self-contained pickle spear. Brilliant.

Once I arrived at the show, I noticed two big differences between the shows I've attended at North American venues and the Venus show in Berlin.

Similar to the Everything To Do With Sex Show in Toronto and other cities, there is a combination of sex retail (sex toys, dvds, books, etc) and stages set up for live sexy shows. In Toronto, these tend to be pretty softcore - lingerie shows, sexy dancing, etc. In Berlin at Venus, the stage shows were full-on stripping and on the consumer floor, web-companies had smaller stages with full-nudity, lots of sex toys, and super explicit action. Comparitively, Toronto is a tease.

On the trade side, Venus was also very different from the shows I've been to in the U.S. Visiting the booths of sex toy makers at Venus often felt like I was peeking into the future of sex toys. I saw so many sexy and innovative toys - some about to be released, some a year away from production still - from so many interesting and independent sex toy makers. In the U.S. when I visit booths from some of the big, old, mainstream sex toy manufacturers, I feel like I'm looking into the past of sex toys.

There are awesome toys (books and dvds!) coming out of North America - they just tend to be from the smaller or independent sex toy inventors.  In fact, perhaps the biggest difference was the number of independent manufacturers from all over the world presenting at Venus.