ANME Founders Show 2026: The Complete Guide to North America's B2B Adult-Novelty Trade Show

ANME Founders Show 2026 is North America's leading business-to-business adult-novelty trade show, where manufacturers exhibit intimate toys, lingerie and lubricants to retail buyers and distributors. The trade-only event marks its 30th anniversary in July 2026 at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank, California.

What is the ANME Founders Show?

The ANME Founders Show is a business-to-business trade show for the adult-novelty and sexual-wellness industry, where manufacturers and brands exhibit products to retail buyers and distributors. ANME stands for Adult Novelty Manufacturers Expo, and the organizers describe it as 'the leading business-to-business tradeshow for the adult novelty sector,' according to the official ANME attendee page. The product focus is firmly on physical goods: intimate toys, lingerie, lubricants and novelties across the adult-novelty and sexual-wellness category, per the official ANME Founders site. It is a trade-only show, not a consumer event and not a pornography or performer convention.

The ANME Founders Show is run by ANME Founders LLC. The event was initiated by industry 'Founders' to give manufacturers a dedicated space to exhibit to retailers across the United States and Canada, according to the Neventum trade-show directory. The 2026 edition is the show's 30th anniversary, billed across official channels as 'Celebrating 30 Years as the Leading B2B Adult Trade Show,' which implies a founding around 1996, per the official ANME Founders site. The exact founders and precise founding year are not confirmed by a primary source, so the anniversary framing is best read as the organizers' own milestone branding.

The ANME Founders Show's purpose is straightforward and commercial. It is an order-and-relationship show: brands launch products with show-only wholesale pricing, distributors line up supply, and retail buyers discover ranges face to face. That rhythm is why the event skews toward serious trade meetings rather than spectacle, and why attendee badges are complimentary, lowering the barrier for qualified buyers, according to the official ANME attendee page.

What can you expect at the ANME Founders Show 2026?

The ANME Founders Show 2026 is scheduled for July at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank, California, with the official ANME registration page listing the show floor as July 13-15, 2026. The homepage frames the broader event as July 12-15, 2026, with July 12 appearing to be a setup day plus welcome reception and badge pickup rather than a public floor day; third-party aggregators also list 'July 12-15,' so verify the precise schedule on the official site before booking travel. Because the show takes place in mid-July, the 2026 edition is upcoming as of this writing, and no post-event recaps exist yet.

Anyone planning to attend the ANME Founders Show 2026 should expect a multi-day exhibition floor of product launches, show-only wholesale deals, networking receptions and direct manufacturer-to-buyer relationship building, according to the official ANME attendees page. The organizers cite 500+ exhibitors for the attendee and distributor experience, giving buyers a broad cross-section of the adult-novelty and sexual-wellness category under one roof. The headline-grabbing statistics promoted alongside the show - 40,000+ attendees, 6,000+ vendor booths, 25+ countries and $300 million+ in business transactions - are explicitly listed as cumulative 30-year totals under '30 Year Statistics,' not per-show or annual figures, per the official ANME attendee page. A reliable single-edition attendance number is not published, so those big numbers should never be cited as annual attendance.

Who attends the ANME Founders Show 2026?

The ANME Founders Show 2026 draws a trade-only audience. That includes retail buyers, distributors, manufacturers and brands, procurement professionals, press and media, educators, and smoke-shop and crossover-retail operators, according to the official ANME attendees page. Attendee badges are complimentary for verified trade, per the official ANME registration page. Because admission is restricted to qualified trade professionals, individual content creators and members of the public are not the intended audience; for creators and their managers, the value lies in reading the product and industry trends the show surfaces, not in walking the floor.

What are the StorErotica Awards at the ANME Founders Show?

The StorErotica Awards are the signature side event co-located with the ANME Founders Show, honoring achievement in adult-novelty retail, distribution and manufacturing, with winners determined by online voting. The 2025 ceremony was presented at ANME in July, according to the StorErotica announcement and the official ANME Founders site. For the ANME Founders Show 2026, attendees should expect a comparable awards program presented during the show, with categories spanning the retail, distribution and manufacturing sides of the industry.

What digital and hybrid elements have appeared at recent ANME shows?

Recent ANME editions have layered digital and hybrid elements onto the physical floor. Most notably, Williams Trading University partnered with ANME Founders to run a free, Zoom-based 'Digital New Release Show' livestream during the 2025 event (July 14-15, 2025), featuring live product training, digital showrooms and real-time Q&A with brands such as CalExotics, Doc Johnson and Nasstoys, according to JRL Charts coverage. Williams Trading reported using virtual new-release shows and real-time buyer feedback to decide stock, citing 900+ products debuted and 500+ added based on buyer response. Whether the 2026 edition repeats this exact partnership or adds special 30th-anniversary programming is not confirmed beyond general anniversary marketing, so check the official site for the final program.

Which industry trends will shape the ANME Founders Show 2026?

The ANME Founders Show 2026 sits at the intersection of the sexual-wellness product industry and the wider creator economy. While ANME itself is a products-and-retail B2B show rather than an OnlyFans-style content-creator conference, the technology and consumer trends on its floor mirror the forces reshaping how creators and the agencies that support them work. Below are the four trends most worth watching, with practical context for creators and the management teams behind them.

How is AI changing adult-industry products and creator operations?

AI and digital tooling are a clear trend across recent ANME shows. The Williams Trading University 'Digital New Release Show' that ran alongside the 2025 floor used digital showrooms, livestreamed product training and real-time buyer feedback to drive stocking decisions, a data-driven approach reported by JRL Charts. The same digital-and-AI wave is reshaping creator operations behind the scenes. At Bunny Agency, which manages 400+ creators, AI-assisted (but human-supervised) chatting systems and a proprietary CRM handle the volume of fan messaging while keeping a real person responsible for tone, consent and authenticity. The lesson the ANME Founders Show 2026 reinforces is that AI is an amplifier for human relationships and smarter decisions, not a replacement for them.

Does the ANME Founders Show 2026 reflect creator independence versus agency support?

The ANME Founders Show 2026's exhibitor base of manufacturers, distributors and retailers underlines a structural truth that also applies to creators: scaling a business usually means choosing between doing everything yourself and partnering with specialists. Many creators eventually weigh full self-management against working with an agency, and the honest answer depends on goals, bandwidth and revenue. Before signing with anyone, creators should understand standard agency commission rates and read every clause in an OnlyFans agency contract. For those who prefer the independent route, Bunny Agency runs Creator Education to help creators move toward confident self-management.

Why does a multi-platform strategy matter at the ANME Founders Show 2026?

The ANME Founders Show 2026's framing as a sexual-wellness event reflects a broader mainstreaming trend: adult-novelty products are increasingly positioned as 'sexual wellness,' and the organizers point to big-box and mainstream retailers - Target, Ulta, Walgreens and Anthropologie - entering the category, with a projected $65 billion-plus global market by 2026. Those market figures come from ANME's own marketing framing and were not independently corroborated, so treat them as directional rather than audited. The same diversification logic applies to creators: broader 2025-2026 creator-economy reporting points to platform diversification, including OnlyFans expanding beyond adult into fitness and wellness verticals, as a hedge against any single platform's policy shifts. Agencies that manage creators across multiple platforms and regions, as Bunny Agency does across the DACH region, LATAM, the US, Spain, France and Hungary, treat multi-platform presence as risk management, not just growth.

How do age verification and regulation affect ANME Founders Show 2026 attendees?

Regulation is a constant backdrop for everyone in the adult and sexual-wellness space, and the ANME Founders Show 2026's trade-only model is itself a form of compliance: the show admits verified trade professionals only and is closed to the general public. For creators and agencies, the tightening of age-verification and content rules across jurisdictions makes compliance a core operational competency rather than an afterthought. This regulatory pressure is also why vetting matters so much when choosing partners: creators should learn to spot the warning signs in scam OnlyFans agencies and follow a structured process for choosing the right agency.

What does the ANME Founders Show 2026 mean for creators?

• ✓It is a trade show, not a creator event. ANME Founders Show 2026 is closed to the public and built for product buyers and sellers, so individual content creators are not the target audience; the value is in the trends it surfaces, not in attending.
• ✓Digital and AI tooling is arriving fast. The Williams Trading University 'Digital New Release Show' livestream that ran alongside ANME 2025 (with brands like CalExotics and Doc Johnson) hints at the AI-assisted tools that increasingly support creator workflows, from messaging to content ideation.
• ✓'Sexual wellness' positioning widens your audience. The industry's shift toward wellness and lifestyle framing - with mainstream retailers entering the category - gives creators more legitimate, brand-safe ways to position their work across platforms.
• ✓Diversify across platforms and regions. Mirroring how brands broaden distribution, creators should avoid over-reliance on a single platform to protect income against policy changes.
• ✓Know the economics before partnering. If you are considering management, understand typical commission rates and prefer learning self-management through Creator Education if independence is your goal.

What does the ANME Founders Show 2026 mean for agencies?

• ✓A read on where the industry is heading. ANME Founders Show 2026 is a useful sensor for product, AI and retail trends that filter down into how agencies build tools and advise creators.
• ✓AI-assisted, human-supervised operations are the standard. The digital showrooms and live product training shown at ANME 2025 reinforce that automation works best paired with human oversight; Bunny Agency's full-service management uses AI-assisted chatting kept under human supervision for exactly this reason.
• ✓Mainstreaming is real. With mainstream retailers entering the sexual-wellness category, agencies should expect more legitimacy, more competition and more demand for professional standards across the sector.
• ✓International reach is a competitive edge. With ANME anchored in the Los Angeles market and drawing buyers from many countries, agencies operating across multiple regions, as Bunny Agency does across six international studios, are better placed to serve global creators.
• ✓Compliance and reputation matter most. As regulation tightens, agencies that operate transparently stand apart from the scam operators that damage trust across the industry.
• ✓Compare events to plan your year. Pair this guide with our AVN Novelty Expo 2026 guide, ETO Show 2026 guide and eroFame 2026 guide, or browse the full events hub.

About Bunny Agency

Bunny Agency, founded in 2019, is an international creator-management company with 112+ team members across six studios, managing 400+ creators who average $55,000 per month. Bunny Agency operates across the DACH region, LATAM, the US, Spain, France and Hungary, and builds proprietary CRM and AI-assisted (human-supervised) chatting systems to support its full-service management. For creators who want to take the independent route, Bunny Agency also runs creatoreducation.com, a learning resource for those moving toward confident self-management. To weigh your options, see our guide to the best OnlyFans agency criteria.