Sex is more than just a fun pastime. For many of us, it’s also a business we’re deeply passionate about. How can those of us who partake in the business of sexuality use new media to increase sales of our products and services? Join this dynamic group of sex positive entrepreneurs as they share their knowledge and secrets to success.
How to Succeed in Business – Giving Customers What They Want When They Want It
Moderator
Nina Helms
Panelists
Princess Kali
Emme
Shanna Katz
Jacq Jones
With the wave of New Media and the speed by which one now can receive information, society has been given the tools to freely voice its opinion about sensual health products via personal blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. As men, women and couples have grown increasingly more secure with their sexuality; high-end manufacturers can harness this public information to fulfill the needs of clients and customers. New Media has become a powerful new avenue for market research and demand.
Nina Helms
In 2003 Nina Helms, founder and President of DevineToys launched a new product category in the romance/adult industry to market accolades. DevineToys is one of the pioneer companies to shift the perception of and to bring high quality and design to an industry known for its rough edges and cheap manufacturing practices.
Helms made DevineToys profitable after 1½ years in business, and doubled revenues for each of the first 5 years. Responding to customer demand the DevineToys collection grew from 4 to over 10 SKUs. Industry giants turn to DevineToys for private label products to add to their own brands. DevineToys enjoys global distribution, being in doors in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa. DevineToys is passionate about bolstering sexual satisfaction and gratification . . . Live, Make Love, and Laugh! For more information visit our website at www.DevineToys.com.
Before launching DevineToys Nina Helms was of EVP of Business Development for Imagination, an international branding firm, winning business with Nasdaq, and managing multi-million dollar accounts with Ford, Coke and Samsung. She was also EVP of Business Development of an international e-business solutions company and an early licensor of multimedia content to the new media industry (AOL, yahoo!) for the Associated Press.
Princess KaliPrincess Kali is a foot-fetishist and lifestyle dominatrix with extensive experience in humiliation, corporal punishment, female supremacy and TPE play. Hailing from sunny California but now based in Boston, this young and vivacious blond hair, blue-eyed Domina is best known for the unique way she combines her sweet-natured appearance and natural charm with her insatiable appetite for cruelty and unbridled sadism. Transitioning into the BDSM community was a natural step for this dominant Diva, who has actively been cutting boys (and often girls) down to size her entire life.
Princess Kali has been lecturing on a variety of BDSM topics throughout the country since 2003 in the US and internationally. Presenting at such educational institutions as Harvard, RISD, and Brown University as well has Lifestyle venues such Black Rose, Fetish Flea Fair, Leather Retreat and Kink in the Caribbean has garnered Princess Kali respect in both the vanilla and kink worlds.
Always on the lookout for new and fabulous ways to explore her kinky creativity, Princess Kali spends much of her time working on her personal website (www.PrincessKali.com); organizing Washington DC and New England’s monthly foot fetish events, Footnight (www.Footnight.com/ne.html); updating her line of Fem Domme DVDs; and, naturally, keeping her personal stable of willing sluts, submissives, and slaves in line.
Founding the Kink Academy in 2007 has allowed Princess Kali to reach an even broader audience in a more personal way, with her particular form of kink positive sex education, helping couples and singles reach a deeper understanding as well has a heightened creativity in their personal perversions.
Emme
Emme, along with her D/s and life partner, Robert own and operate www.MauiKink.com and create custom and unique gear for kinksters from their shop in Hawaii. Before moving to Maui and making kink a career, Emme worked with autistic children and used her BA in English (Tech Writing) as a freelance writer for pharmaceutical and biotechnology websites, print magazines and manuals.
After falling in love with island life, she and Robert turned their kink into a business, launched their website and are working on dominating the world one flogger and length of rope at a time! Emme has helped to create a niche market for their products and is active in learning innovative ideas to transform and grow MauiKink.com into a profitable and eco-friendly business while still keeping the “Aloha Spirit” their company is known for.
Emme teaches workshops and classes with Robert locally, on Maui and Oahu, over such topics as Pervertables, Fire Play and Fire Cupping, Whacking and Smacking and BDSM 101. They are big supporters of the Kink/BDSM/Leather/Fetish/Sex Positive communities as a whole and work with and support such events and companies as Tied Up Events, the NYC Sex Blogger’s Calendar, IMsL, Fetlife and Graydancer’s Ropecast.
Shanna Katz
Shanna Katz is a queer kinky disabled feisty femme sexuality educator and professional pervert currently based in Denver, CO. From topics like vaginal fisting to non-monogamy, and oral sex to how sexuality and dis/ability intersect, she talks, writes and teaches about the huge spectrum of sexuality, both from personal and professional perspectives. She’s using her Master’s of Sexuality Education to provide accessible, open-source sex education to people around the country, and is currently working with Fascinations to bring sex educators, kinksters and teachers to educate in the Southwest as well as online.
A member of AASECT, NCSF and the ACLU, Shanna is actively involved in work towards equality and social justice for people of all identities. Teaching classes at colleges and universities (such as Brown University, Colorado College, SUNY-Purchase, ASU, U of A and more) is one of her favorite ways to expand horizons. She also loves traveling to speak at conferences, sex toy stores, dungeons, women’s groups, LGBT centers, art galleries and more.
She has written for many sites, including FunLove.com, GoodVibes.com, OutFrontColorado.com, FemmesGuide.com, has had her erotica published in multiple anthologies and has run the popular blog Sexuality Happens for more than four years. When not blogging, teaching, writing or tweeting about the oh-so-many awkward moments in her life, you can find Shanna drinking tea, eating cupcakes, and cuddling with her partner Q and their three rescued cats; Kinsey, Kali and Jasper. For more info, please visit her sexuality education site, www.ShannaKatz.com.
Jacq Jones
Jacq Jones is a sex educator and the owner of Sugar, an award winning women and trans operated, for profit, mission driven sex toy store. She has taught classes on sex, sexual techniques and relationships around the country at diverse venues including: Babeland (NYC), The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, PhaseFest, The DC Eagle, community basedorganizations in Baltimore City, the Maryland AIDS Administration, Dark Odyssey and colleges and universities.
Jacq has a degree in Women’s Studies and has worked in Reproductive Healthcare and Sexuality Education as a manager, educator and crisis counselor since 1994. She is certified in HIV Counseling, Testing and Referral and as a Sexual Assault Advocate.
She brings her own unique style to teaching. Her passion for positive and healthy sexuality comes shining thru. Because of the depth of her experience in reproductive health care, she is able to blend hot tips and techniques with balanced, accurate and up to date information about anatomy, and safer sex.
Jacq’s classes receive rave reviews from a wide variety of people. She normalizes sex and creates a class environment that is fun, safe and hot!
This high powered panel, How to Succeed in Business – Giving Customers What They Want When They Want It, will be presented on Sunday, April 3rd, from 11:00 AM to 12:10 PM in the Chesapeake Room.
