|
The
first day of activity
at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Down Under conference on Australia's
Gold Coast is winding down as I write this. The time
here at the Sheraton Mirage Resort is 10:30pm
Monday night, which is 7:30 Monday morning back at our
home base in Tampa, Florida where it is 15 hours
earlier than it is here on the beautiful Queensland
coastline. Coincidentally Queensland shares a nickname
with our home state of Florida - both are known as the Sunshine
State and that is printed on the auto license tags
here. This was a special pre-show fun day (no business)
that gave attendees a chance to try their hand at paintball,
go kart racing and zorbing. 
Domainers
at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under waiting to try their
hand at Zorbing - which involves two people
squeezing into a giant water filled ball after which they
are pushed down a steep hill. Yeah - that sounds like
something domainers would do!
|
We
wonder how many zorbing related
domain names were registered after this day!
|
The
zorbing photos came to us courtesy of Fabulous.com
who is staging the conference and has aleady gotten
things off to a great start. I had expected to be
there to shoot the actvity day events myself but due
to long flight delays in both Los Angeles and Sydney
I reached the Gold Coast five hours later than I
planned.
I did get to the hotel
just in time to make the welcoming cocktail party that
was very well attended. There was a great mix of
familiar faces and new ones (many from Down Under) and
it was a pleasure to meet so many people for the first
time - especially several Aussies that I have
corresponded with but had never had a chance to meet
face to face.
It was a particular
pleasure to meet Fabulous.com founder and domain
legend Dean Shannon for the first time. Today's
professional domain conferences all owe a debt to
Shannon
|
|
who got the ball
rolling with a gathering that came to be known as Deanfest
in Beverly Hills, California in 2002. In
the snapshot below, taken shortly after I arrived
at the welcoming party, Shannon (in a short
sleeved black shirt) is seen in the lower right
hand corner of the picture talking with two other
attendees.
|
Scene
from the welcoming cocktail party at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Down Under Monday night
(Monday morning in the U.S.) on Australia's Gold Coast. The
Sheraton Mirage is a spectacularly beautiful ocean front
resort. It was getting dark when I arrived but I will get
some photos of the facility during the week to show you
what I mean. The party was still going on when I
retired to my room to post this and get some sleep after
spending the past 36 hours traveling. The
show officially opens for business tomorrow and runs
through Thursday with another special activity day
scheduled after the show Friday. I'll have a daily post in
this column with highlights from each day's events and a
more comprehensive show review a few days after we return
to Florida next week.
(Posted Nov.
17,
2008) |
