We're less than a month away from the 2010 Desiree Alliance conference, which takes place in Las Vegas from July 25th to 30th, so it's high time for me to tell you why you ought to be attending.  If you're a sex worker, curious about getting into sex work, or a genuine ally, it's the event of the year for you to learn new things and network with you kind.  I haven't been before, (the last one was in 2008), but it event seems to garner much praise all-around.

I've not attended many sex worker-specific events in the past, just the 2008 march in Washington DC and the 2009 Sex Worker Fest in San Francisco.  While I've been a sex worker for 8 years, I've mostly just lurked online and kept an eye on what other people are up to.  In the last couple of years, though, I've been aiming to "get out more", both in terms of actual events, and blogging about sex worker issues.  (I used to spend a lot of time debating anti-porn feminists in public and semi-private online forums, but I'm done with wasting my energy on that stupidity.)

At this year's Desiree Alliance conference, I'll be presenting twice, once on my own, and once in a group.  Here are descriptions:

"Solo girl": An introduction to operating your own porn site

A "solo girl" site is adult webmaster terminology for a site that features content primarily of one model/performer, and tends to be focused on nudes, masturbation, and/or fetish content.  Furry Girl has been operating her own solo girl site, FurryGirl.com, since January of 2003, and has also expanded into running a small online store and three other niche porn sites.  Unlike most solo girl or amateur sites that purport to be run by the model they feature, but are actually run by the woman's husband/boyfriend or a company, FurryGirl.com has been mostly solo adventure.  Furry Girl will walk you through the basics of why you might want to run a solo girl site, some legal and business issues to be aware of, privacy concerns, deciding on your online niche/persona, needed equipment and computer gear, why you need to know how to run everything by yourself, content production and editing- including shooting your own photos, building a navigable adult site, billing, promotion, viewer interaction, managing an affiliate program, and networking with other adult webmasters.  (Since she's not a man or a trans person and doesn't have personal experience running queer/male/trans solo sites, the focus of Furry Girl's presentation and its language is on women, but most of the information is applicable to other genders as well.)

Everyone who's always asking me how to start your own porn site - here's your chance to get an introduction to the topic!  I'm probably not going be posting my presentation online afterwards.  I'm wary of setting myself up as a porn advisor because I've already met a ton of unsure time-wasters who want me to hand-hold them through the long process, and those who get pissy at me because I'm not telling them what they want to hear when they ask for my opinion.  I'd rather set the standard that if you're interested in starting a real business, you can trouble yourself to attend a conference for your new chosen profession.  That's really not a huge barrier to entry - it shows that someone is serious, and not just flirting with an titillating concept.

And the panel, which will be the last of the day to allow more room for Q&A:

Safety for Sex Workers Through Personal Privacy: Digital and Real-World Techniques For Safeguarding Your Identity and Your Life

From pornographer/web model Furry Girl: As someone who's a model and a small business owner, I'd like to point out the potential identity breaches rooted in the United State's federal 2257 laws.  I'm not a lawyer - so my focus is explaining from an indie pornographer's sex worker's perspective how 2257 laws put everyone in a bad place and work to stifle free sexual expression online.

From author and escort Amanda Brooks:  Offline privacy and money management.  I will offer simple, legal methods of disassociating your real name/home address from your work name.  It can also be important to keep your real name and actual place of residence separate from one another.  Learn which prepaid card can be used for registering domain names, do business banking without opening a business account, and discreetly move your earnings across state and international borders.

From author and former escort Dr Brooke Magnanti (aka Belle de Jour):  My contribution will be focussing on maintaining privacy in traditional media - how to publish anonymously, sign contracts, and give interviews without compromising anonymity.  It will discuss using limited liability companies to your advantage and managing profits to minimise tax burden.

Professional hacker (and official sexy geek) Alex Sotirov will be covering online/digital privacy, with a focus on how your activities can be tracked online and what steps you can take to try and maintain as much anonymity as possible on the net.

To see what else is in store for attendees, check out the Desiree Alliance schedule.

If you're going to be attending, drop me a comment so I can get excited about hanging out with you.  Also, if you're a sex worker, I'd love to know your questions on either my porn talk or the privacy panel - there might be something I'm missing that I can incorporate into either presentation.  Both talks will be filled-to-the-brim with information, but it's nice to check in with my readers and see what you'd most want to hear on either topic.