A symphony of fireworks and bombs permeated the night air late Saturday night, and it wouldn’t be long before YP2004 was history. With approximately 110 webmasters in attendance, including old timers, newbies, models, YNOT friends and business associates, and various industry personnel, this year’s YP was the biggest one yet and was a smashing success.A symphony of fireworks and bombs permeated the night air late Saturday night, and it wouldn’t be long before YP2004 was history. With approximately 110 webmasters in attendance, including old timers, newbies, models, YNOT friends and business associates, and various industry personnel, this year’s YP was the biggest one yet and was a smashing success. After three days of partying, networking and relaxing it was time to head back north and face reality again.

To those of you not in the know, “YP” stands for YNOT Party (website: http://www.wypd.com) and has been held in La Salina, Mexico on the beach approximately one hour south of the U.S. / Mexico border once or twice a year since 2001. It is truly a one-of-a-kind webmaster “falling apart” that is cheap and a ton of fun. You know you’ve had a successful YP when you come home after being away from your computer and the outside world for four days and feel disoriented and ready to head back over the border again. The charm of YP is hard to explain unless you experience it directly. I’m happy to report that there were no major incidents this year, killer business deals were made, and the Baja Seasons Resort (where the event was held this time around) has graciously invited us back.

As my sunburn continues to peel and the wheels in my mind struggle to get back up to speed, I’d like to rehash several aspects of what made this year’s YP so special. First and foremost, everyone “survived” the YP. Now while that may seem like a ridiculous statement, anything is possible when you have over 100 people from our industry looking for a good time in a remote and foreign location. Especially since over 1/2 of this year’s attendees had never been to a YP before. But broken glass, riptides and overindulgence aside (there were a few minor bumps here and there), overall the crowd that went to YP this year, including all of the sponsors, really just kept an open mind and left all whining and egos at the door. I’d especially like to thank all the newcomers for putting their trust in YNOT to show them a good time in a considerably less than 4-star arrangement.

And of course it goes without saying that without all the great sponsors of this year’s YP, there would have been a lot less to do and everything would have been more expensive.

This year’s agenda was loaded with things to do. In planning for this year’s YP, my goal was to have enough stuff going on so that there wouldn’t be any major lulls in activity during the day, but not so much that attendees would feel compelled to do something all the time. With my primary focus being to bring the entire group together a few times every day, there was a major meal sponsored on all three days – the opening night Mexican buffet by Naughty America, the lobster and margarita dinner hosted by Movie Dollars on day two, and the closing night pig roast and luau sponsored by and organized by YanksCash.

In order to keep the free drinks continuously flowing, I had our own separate bar set-up and handed out prepaid drink tickets. Homegrown, Megahung, Solarcash, Adult Profit Network and Lightspeed all stepped up to the plate to chip in for a group sponsorship. Not only was it the hot spot much of the time, but in typical YP fashion, the bar ran out of one thing or another before the end of the night all three days.

TNAcash stepped up to sponsor “Rockfish,” one of the best Southern California beach bands around, who played for hours and hours during the closing night luau. Ghostcash and Desert Entertainment graciously sponsored the evening party on Friday night, while PicassoCash made sure that no attendees would be harassed should things get out of hand. There were no arrests and no major incidents this year, even with Womack and Chaos in top form.

Two additional major highlights this year were the WeConvert “Stupid Human Olympics” event, and one of my personal favorite highlights of YP, the XXXCash golf outing at Bajamar – a stunning, full-length golf course rivaling Pebble Beach. I’m thrilled that the “Olympic” games went off so well. What had originally started out as an off-the-cuff idea took off in directions and proportions that I would never have dreamed of. Next thing I knew, it was sponsored; HoneLynn offered to assist me, and two dozen attendees stepped up to get in on the fun and compete. Amazing! The pre-hype and post show photos were incredible.

And last but not least, Bimini Bucks sponsored a bus to get a few dozen of us to and from the San Diego airport. There were tons of carpoolers, but this last sponsorship helped in a big way.

In addition to the large number of sponsors this year, a few things that really helped pull the YP together included all of the attendee help with set-ups and take-downs, and everyone just generally having a “can do” and “how can I help” attitude. Plus there was seemingly a complete absence of egos and bullshit. Problems were few and far between, and nothing was unfixable. I greatly appreciate everyone’s easygoing and roll-with-it attitude this year. Makes it much more enjoyable for everyone. You really can see what people are made of when they step up at events like this.

The post show compliments and thank-you’s thrown my way have been tremendous. I won’t lie… this was a difficult event to put together in addition to my other YNOT responsibilities. Especially given that it was my first YP to run, and I had to deal with language barriers while planning the event. Plus we had to close registration due to running out of space… let’s just say I hit my head against a wall a few times. It’s always nice to get praise, but in the end what really makes me happy is that everyone enjoyed themselves and got a ton out of YP2004. They can now understand the magic that YNOTBob brought to the industry three years ago and get a better look at what YNOT and friends are all about. YP is more than “just another webmaster event.” And now with several industry people considering it their favorite gathering, it really doesn’t get much better than that. High praise indeed!

Well, lobster boy here has some more aloe to apply and some serious catching up to do, so in the meantime enjoy the Fubar gallery from JFK, who managed once again to capture the essence of every event at YP this year… enjoy!

http://www.fubarwebmasters.com/yp2004/yp2004.htm

See you at YP2005 Jamaica in February and YP2005 Mexico at Baja Seasons again in September. Dates to be announced later. Any and all questions and requests for attendance and sponsorship can be directed towards me at jay@ynot.com.

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is VP of Marketing & Communications and VP of Project Development for YNOT Network, LP. LAJ can be reached by email at jay@ynot.com.