YNOT – Vivid Entertainment founder and co-chairman Steven Hirsch will deliver the keynote address during the 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, AVN announced Monday morning. Hirsch intends to address how the changing climate within and outside the adult industry presents shifting challenges for studios, manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Journalist Damon Brown will moderate the ensuing discussion. Brown is the author of Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tom Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture (Feral House, September 2008).

The keynote session, “Still on Top: How the Leading Adult Film Company in the World Continues to Reinvent Itself,” will take place at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.

“The adult entertainment industry has briskly evolved and continues to embrace new technology and business models,” said AEE spokesperson Sean Devlin. “AEE is pleased to present the head of the world’s leading adult film company and one of the most recognized global brands, Vivid Entertainment, to remark on the changing adult market and discuss Vivid’s strategies to adapt.”

The 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which will host the AVN Novelty Expo for the first time, will take place at the Sands from Jan. 6-9. ANE will occur Jan. 6-8. More information about the show is available at AdultEntertainmentExpo.com.

Hirsch founded Vivid Entertainment in 1984, early on differentiating the studio by signing exclusive models known as “Vivid Girls.” The studio also established the practices of shooting films targeted for couples, focusing on high production values and creating glamour magazine-type packaging. With the dawn of the 21st Century, Vivid Girls began appearing on billboards in high-traffic areas, and they frequently emerge in mainstream media.

Most recently, Vivid popularized the “sex tapes” phenomenon by releasing home movies of sexually explicit romps featuring celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian, Jimi Hendrix, Kendra Wilkinson and Montana Fishburne. The company also made headlines during 2010 for its porn parodies of pop-culture super heroes.

In addition to authoring Porn & Pong, Brown writes about sex, technology, music and video games for Playboy, New York Post and Family Circle, and is the tech columnist for AARP Online and other publications. In 2009, he became Mobile Games Editor for About.com.