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This
morning the first full day of business got underway with a
session featuring representatives from four of Europe's
most successful registries, Germany's .de, Great
Britain's .co.uk, Austria's .at and the Netherlands'
.nl. It was a very interesting overview of each
ccTLD, covering their growth rates, nexus requirements and
other registry policies that investors need to be aware
of.
Scene
from the opening session at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs in
Amsterdam today.
In
the lunch break that followed, Internet
Commerce Association President Jeremiah
Johnson spoke about new threats facing domain owners,
including efforts being undertaken by trademark interests
to have the UDRP process replaced with a new system that
would make it easier for them to take domain names away
from their current owners.
The
first afternoon session was an especially informative one
that featured five major portfolio owners discussing their ccTLD strategies. The panelists were
Rick Latona (USA), Hennie Groot Lipman
(Netherlands), Nicco Ziefang (Germany), Alexander
Schubert (Germany) and Edwin Hayward (a British
domainer who has lived in Japan for the past 15 years).
I'll have the details of what they talked about (as well
key points from all of the other seminars) in our
conference review article that will be published a few
days after we return to the U.S. next week.
Next
up was a session featuring three of the world's fastest
growing registries; Poland's .pl, India's .in
and Mexico's .mx. As I expected from this
conference I am getting a great education in how the
world's various ccTLDs differ and where some of the best
opportunities lie. It really opens your eyes to the many
possibilities beyond the dominant .com extension that most
American investors seldom stray from.
The
day's final business session was T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s always
popular speed networking event.
Scene
from this afternoon's speed networking session
In
a slightly different twist, an inner circle of chairs was
placed around the sofas where people can lounge in the
sponsor exhibit area during the day. An outer ring of
chairs was placed around the first circle so attendees
were facing each other around the hall. Every couple of
minutes those on the outside circle moved one place to
their right so that each person was able to meet dozens of
new people during the 90-minute session.
This
evening attendees will walk to the historic West Indies
House for cocktails and dinner to complete the first
full day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs. Tomorrow I will have
photos and highlights from that event as well as
Wednesday's business sessions.
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