"Porn has gone from magical to business."
Marilyn Chambers

Today, everyone is selling sex with bland, heartless imagery, promoting products rather than passion.

This conference will provide inspiration on bringing back some reverence to sex, promoting the the richness of all its possibilities and deploring its trivialisation and exploitation in the British media. Sex is, after all, one of the few pleasures we have left to share with each other, that should cost nothing at all.

The programme will provide a mixture of the political and the personal, with demonstrations and performances.

This is an intimate venue with limited space so please come early to ensure a place.

PHOTO GALLERY

SPEAKERS

Dr Petra Boynton
1) Those offering sex 'advice' via the media are commercially motivated, and possibly less qualified than others.
2) Pharmaceuticals hyping up sexual problems and medicalising our sex lives so we have to buy pills, potions and products in order to feel 'normal'.

Ciaran Mckinney
The UK Network of Sex Work Projects grant from the National Lottery is being used to create a new centre in Manchester. Plus news of the Manchester Sauna Group and the Liverpool Council's attempts to get zoning in the city.

Aksel
Kink Fest will be providing a whole day of stalls, workshops and talks.

Lisa
BoutiqueBoutique - a new company providing fantasies for couples including kidnapping and other surprises.

David Flint
The origins of striporama.co.uk - how his interest in striptease, burlesque and vintage glamour developed and his fanzines, freelance work and promotion. No matter how commercial the industry becomes, there will always be people looking to challenge preconceptions and do their own thing - hence the burlesque revival as a reaction to the relentless march of the table dancing club, and the popularity of sites like Suicide Girls which challenge mainstream porn's idea of acceptable beauty.
Only excessive regulation such as the Video Recordings Act prevents more individual expression and I will argue that the UK sex industry is still dominated by unimaginative, money-men who are afraid to invest in new ideas.
Site link: http://striporama.co.uk

Ted Goodman
Ted is the lawyer who helped compile all our political and legal documents. He will be talking about the current situation, particularly the illegality of sending hard core through the post, by messenger or delivery person

Jerry Barnett
In the past, the British porn industry has had little acceptance and has operated in a semi-legal and semi-accepted fashion. Today's more liberal climate is fostering the emergence, for the first time, of a mainstream porn industry. It is tempting to paint the industry as either a valueless exploiter of the public demand for porn, or alternatively a champion of freedom of speech. While both views have some validity, the reality is less black and white. Jerry Barnett is Managing Director of StrictlyBroadband.com, a service providing online adult movie rentals to broadband Internet users. He has around 8 years experience in the online porn industry, and has worked with a variety of publishers, large and small.
Site link: www.strictlybroadband.com

Poonam Thapa
Poonam will be telling us about her journey from working in South Asia and Europe for the world's largest international charity for sexual and reproductive health and human rights; to meditating with tantric masters in Nepal and India and now aiming to start her own social enterprise on positive sexcare.

Steven O'Kane
Although I am both single and disabled, I don't buy 'girlie' or 'lads' magazines. The models typically follow the commercialised sex images and appear to me as unreal and manufactured images; not as real women (or men). When it comes to finding women sexually appealing I need to feel a sense of reality which is just not there. I reckon this example provides a warning for SFC campaigning. I agree with the principle of Outsiders that we should focus on relating to people as they are and not commercialised images. However, for that reason it's important to make sure that sexual freedom campaigning does not itself encourage the images by concentrating on the public world of politics, films, theatre, books, etc., along with its slogans, and focuses on matters like health and stress in relationships which are most relevant to people's actual lives.

Strawberry Suductress
We need new licensing laws that will allow R 18 rated films to be sold not just in licensed sex shops but also at sensual boutiques and through the producers website. There is a market but we can not prove it as we can not reach it. -I would like to inspire you to be creative, cross boundaries and let yourself be surprised when you have sex rather than copying what you see other people do on film, over and over again.
I would like to inspire you to open your mind to a sexual culture of creating rather than consuming and discover bliss that lies beyond the standard five porn positions and the money shotŠ

John Clement
Speaking on 50 years of H&E Naturist magazine

Tuppy Owens
Updating everyone on SFC progress and her latest projects

Timon
Editor of Forum and The Erotic Review on the workings of the posh end of erotic magazine publishing

Jahnet de Light
On being a mature and experienced prostitute

Ingo
Discussing her views about gender, diversifying out of the gay ghetto. She runs Club Wotever and Club Fuck.

Marco
Talking about the Queer Pagan Camp which takes place each summer

Charlotte Regan
and her sexual freedom transgendered community

Solitaire
The financial side of stripping sometimes gets in the way of my enjoyment; that my favourite venue is the one where the audience is not obliged to tip me. If I could take the money element away altogether and just strip for the love of it and the positive energy exchange with the audience, I would. My talk will explain my views, how commercialisation is poisoning erotic dance for both the dancers AND the audience, but how there is hope for change.
With major table-dancing clubs charging dancers a 'house fee' of up to £100 per shift, and even small strip pubs charging £10 or £20 a shift with a complex systems of fines, dancers have to make a sometimes substantial amount before breaking even. As club owners increasingly view the dancers' fees as a prime source of income, they book more dancers per shift, giving each less opportunity to earn. The girls are often motivated primarily by the (misleading) stories they read in the papers about dancers earning £1,000 per night. However, a tiny number of venues and events still exist where dancers perform for the love of their craft. I will talk about them before beginning my striptease act.

UK Rude Girl and Lawrence Thompson
On sexual generosity

Maggie Allen