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Opening
Day Photos and Highlights from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas
2010 The
2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas conference got
underway Thursday (Jan. 21) at
the Hard Rock Hotel with approximately 240
enthusiastic registrants on hand. In the photo below Jodi
Chamberlain and Ray Neu were kept hopping
getting everyone signed in at the registration desk. 
Photo
below: After enjoying a lavish brunch, attendees took
seats in the conference room to hear welcoming comments
from show organizer Rick Latona. 
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Rick
Latona
Welcoming attendees to
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas |
The conference got
underway at 12 noon with welcoming comments from Rick
Latona who has taken over
responsibility for staging five of the six
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences scheduled this year
(show Co-Founders Rick Schwartz and
Howard Neu will still stage one show next
October on Miami's South Beach).
Latona, whose many
ventures include new domain brokerage &
auction house Latonas.com,
got his feet wet in the conference promotion
business with a successful show in Amsterdam
last spring. If the opening day buzz among
registrants in Las Vegas was any indication, he
will still be batting 1.000 when this show ends
Saturday evening.
After Latona's
opening comments, the first business session of
the week, a discussion about the rapidly growing ccTLD
market got underway featuring a four-person panel
that I had an opportunity to be part of.
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Photo
above: ccTLD Panel featuring (left to right) Ron
Jackson (DNJournal.com), Lori Anne Wardi (.CO
Registry), Daniel Eisenhut (InternetX Registry)
and Dan Warner (DomainAdvertising.com).
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T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Moderator Rick Silver |
New moderator Rick
Silver of N49
Interactive presided over the ccTLD
session and will also moderate the remaining
business sessions this week. Rick does a terrific
job. He comes to every seminar fully prepared for
the topic at hand and always keeps things moving
along at a pace that holds everyone's interest.
I'll have more
details on the ccTLD seminar (and all of the
individual sessions) in our comprehensive
conference review article that will be published
after the show.
The remainder of the
business day Thursday was devoted to a pair of
networking sessions that Silver directed. In the
photo at left Silver invites audience members to
come to the podium in the first networking session
to tell people about their businesses (Michael
Pallatta of TrafficMedia.com is
standing at the podium getting ready to do just
that). A second networking session followed with
the format that has been used successfully at
previous T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows. Attendees sat face
to face in |
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a circular formation
with the outer ring rotating over one seat every
two minutes allowing participants to meet dozens
of people in the course of the event. |
With the close
of Thursday business it was time to party and attendees
didn't have to go far. The first big social event was
hosted at the Wasted Space night club inside the
Hard Rock Hotel. The party drew a full house and
everyone I spoke with thoroughly enjoyed it. 
Above:
Scene from the Thursday night party at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Las Vegas. Photo
Below: A highlight of the party was a live
performance by drummer/domain developer David
Castello who was sensational. Before becoming wildly
successful in the domain development business, David and
his brother Michael (who run Castello Cities
Internet Network) had spent much of their lives in
popular rock bands (Michael was an accomplished lead
singer and guitarist). You can see a video from their
heyday at MichaelSeven.com
that will blow you away. The Castello Brothers life
story was told in a December
2006 DN Journal Cover Story. 
David
Castello rocks the house at the Hard Rock Hotel Thursday
night. |
