Shane...there's only two kinds of webmasters. Those who are nervous at their first conventions...and those who lie and say they aren't.
Rochard...you're absolutely right about a "gimmick." My own personal "gimmick" is that I actually look like a PTA Mom. That makes me very approachable. Nervous people felt perfectly comfortable approaching me and introducing themselves. I liked that. It gave me the confidence to walk up to other people and introduce *my* self.
It's also amusing as hell being a portly, middle-aged PTA Mom who writes hardcore porn. Watching the faces go from "Omigosh I just love your stories!" to "I just told somebody's MOM I loved their fuck stories IMGONNABURNINHELL!" is a kick!
(This is why "never judge a book by its cover" got to be such a popular saying. I don't think the originator intended it for me...but I certainly get a lot of mileage out of it.)
Rochard again...I do indeed envy you your comfortable attitudes toward many and varied things. For a pornographer, I have a remarkable collection of hangups that are awkward at times. I hate. loathe and despise having my picture taken - I take a miserable picture, always have - and for some reason, many people have wanted to have me photographed with my arm around a nearly naked human. I remember that film "What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?" a lot at those moments...and realize that what I personally do is stammer. (The best time I had was when I remembered I had a sense of humor. I looked a model up and down and said archly "you could put somebody's eye out with that." Luckily for me, I got a bright, intelligent, witty model who cheerfully offered to...well, never mind. Great lady, though. It was a pleasure to meet her.)