Because this is no ordinary EXPO — we’ve never held the convention in Dallas, birthplace of ED Publications — we knew we couldn’t have an ‘ordinary’ Keynote Address.
That’s why we booked not one but TWO Keynote Speakers! One is a cutting-edge hospitality expert, Michael Tipps; the other is a Lone Star legend, Joe Bob Briggs. Both have something unique, valuable and entertaining to offer EXPO attendees.
MICHAEL TIPPS: Shift perspectives with new club concepts!
When Michael Tipps, Founder and CEO of the consulting company, Maverick Theory, and Monday’s EXPO Keynote Speaker, is brought on to assist a business, he first focuses on fine-tuning the mindset of the employer and their employees to attune them to that of the guest. It’s a psychological, subversive and submersive experience that has become Tipps’ top priority.
He began in the industry, as a teenager, tackling every front-of-house job available in Miami, before heading to NYC at only 19 years old. Decades later, his developed technique has been applied to businesses across all sectors in guest services with New York Times review-worthy successes. Now, Tipps is bringing his insight to an area in the industry where he sees special and almost untapped potential: the adult nightclubs sector.
“Whether you work at a boutique hotel in New York or a strip club in Vegas, the fundamentals are the same,” Tipps argues essentially. “It’s all about the guest’s experience.”
He calls his method of consideration, “Maverick mindset coaching,” and its culmination, as the name suggests, is applying universal tactics to an individual establishment to build something original.
“Why do club owners think ‘strip club,’ and make it look like one?” asks Tipps, who assures us he actually loves strip clubs. He just thinks that, historically, they’ve been creatively restrained by their title.
“I understand the need for stage music, audio, lighting, that makes sense, but why are so many clubs using the same model?” he continues. “One of the questions I’ve always gotten from adult nightclubs is, ‘How do I make it look better?’ Well, stop copying everybody else. You want to break the norm, so you’ve got to take risks.”
Michael Tipps’ Keynote Address is scheduled for Monday, August 26, 1-2 pm. Read more about Michael right here!
JOE BOB BRIGGS: TV host, author, and Dallas strip club historian!
Joe Bob Briggs may be best known for his career as a TV host that stretches back several decades for TNT, The Movie Channel and more recently, AMC+/Shudder, where his “The Last Drive-In” streaming show has earned hundreds of thousands of loyal followers. His work as an author has also been showcased most recently on the HBO (Max) series “Love & Death” starring Elizabeth Olsen.
But there’s much more to this Texas legend than simply his life on the boob tube. In fact, Joe Bob Briggs (real name John Bloom) is a true connoisseur of the Lone Star State’s go-go joints and burlesque bars, stretching all the way back to the 1970s. Briggs wrote about the Dallas clubs in publications such as the Dallas Observer and D Magazine, as part of his “lifetime crusade against Puritanism,” as he so eloquently puts it.
At EXPO 2024, this Texas native is going to bring his infectious charm and energy to address an industry he has long admired, written about and still celebrates to this day. In our exclusive interview with this Lone Star legend, we discuss his history with Dallas’ adult clubs, his still-flourishing TV career and what he’s most looking forward to about appearing as a Keynote Speaker at this year’s EXPO (Tuesday, August 27, 12:30-1 pm).
ED: You’re a Keynote Speaker at this year’s Gentlemen’s Club EXPO, the only convention in the world for the adult nightclub industry. What can our attendees look forward to about your Keynote, and what are you looking forward to about attending our convention as a special guest speaker this year?
BRIGGS: Well, the Keynote Speaker usually speaks in the morning or at lunch so I hope I’ll bring some energy and pep to a bunch of night people! I’m a night person myself so I intend to wake everyone up with a proud-and-loud celebration of the all-American strip-club tradition and its importance for the causes of free speech and free expression and all the other rights with “free” in the name. On many nights, in many parts of the country, the strip club is the best party in town, and the people who make that possible get kicked in the butt all the time, so maybe once in a while they should get some pats on the back, too. As far as what I’m looking forward to …meeting guys and gals who are so cool they own strip clubs, and maybe seeing a great stripper or two? It’s cruel to put the Keynote guy so far away from the action!
See Joe Bob Briggs on Tuesday, August 27, and read the rest of our interview with him right here!
