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Day
2 (Wednesday) Photos and Highlights from the DOMAINfest
Global Conference
The second day of the DOMAINfest Global Conference
in Santa Monica, California opened Wednesday
(Jan. 27) with a pair of stuctured networking sessions
that gave attendees a chance to ask questions one on one
with leading experts in two different fields. In the
photo below an inquisitive group gathered to get advice
on Buying and Selling Domain Names from Michael
Berkens, Ari Goldberger, Larry Fischer,
Monte Cahn and Kathy Nielsen. 
Scene
from Wednesday's networking session on Buying and
Selling Domain Names At
the same time, in another corner of the exhibit hall,
another group congregated around attorneys John
Berryhill, Paul Keating, Will Delgado and
Steve Atlee for a Q & A session on Domain
Names and Legal Issues. Next
up was one of the show's main events - a fireside chat
with Zappos.com Founder Tony Hsieh. Oversee.net
CEO and President Jeff Kupietzky interviewed
Hsieh, a 36-year-old Harvard graduate who sold
his first company, LinkExchange, to Microsoft
for $265 million in 1998. Hsieh used part of the
proceeds to start up online shoe retailer Zappos.com, a
company he sold to Amazon.com last summer for
approximately $850 million. 
Oversee.net
CEO and President Jeff Kupietzky (left)
interviews Zappos.com
Founder Tony Hsieh during Wednesday's keynote
"fireside chat" at DOMAINfest Global. Hsieh,
a very relaxed and engaging speaker with a disarming
send of humor, said he thinks the most important keys to
building a succesful business are building a strong
culture and having a vision that goes beyond just
making money. In the case of Zappos.com, the entire
corporate culture is built around world class
customer service and engaging customers on a personal
level. A
pair of afternoon panel discussions filled the remainder
of the business day. The theme of the first one,
moderated by Ron
Sheridan, was Turning Domain Names
into Killer Websites. 
Panelists
for a session on Turning Domains Names into
Killers Websites were
(from left to right in the photo above): Brian
Gilbert (Thomason Management), Rory
Holland (Credit.com), Rick Waters (Webcast
1) and Howard Wyner (Scentiments.com). The
next session was titled Domain Names: How Prime
Internet Real Estate Builds SEO and SEM
Success. I'll have commentary on both of these
seminars (as well as all of the other conference
businesses sessions) in a comprehensive conference
review article that we will be publishing a week or so
after the conclusion of the show. 
The
Domain Names: How Prime Internet Real Estate
Builds SEO and SEM Success panel
above, moderated by Oversee.net SVP and General
Manager Ryan Berryman, included (left
to right) Bruce Clay (Bruce Clay Inc.), Dan Ho
(Adknowledge), David White, Danny Sullivan
(Search Engine Land) & Melodie Tao
(MarketingMelodie.com). With
Wednesday's business out of the way it was time to get
ready for a hghly anticipated Networking Dinner Party at
the fabulous mountain-top Getty
Center art museum in Los Angeles.
Attendees were taken to The Getty on luxury buses and
found an elaborate dinner buffet waiting for them in The
Getty's entry hall. 
Above:
A scene from the Networking Dinner Party at The Getty
in
Los angeles last night. Below:
Guests at The Getty included (left to right) Barbi
Benton (probably the most famous
Playmate of the Year in the history of Playboy Magazine),
veteran domainer Marc Ostrofsky,
Bianka Krausch, domainer Chad Folkening
and Barbi's husband, developer George Gradow. 
Below:
After dinner, attendees were free to explore the
West Wing art galleries
and the many masterpieces on display at The Getty (the
first painting on the
wall in the photo below is Van Gogh's Irises.) 
The
2010 DOMAINfest Global Conference closes today with
another full day (and night) ahead. The agenda includes
three more structured networking sessions and a second Pitchfest
in the morning, followed by Moniker's
Premium Live Domain
Auction this afternoon (it is scheduled
to run from 2:00-6:00pm (U.S. Pacific time).
Tonight the show closes with a huge DomainSponsor
party at the Playboy Mansion. The party will
double as a fund raising event (with a prize raffle)
that will benefit Jenny McCarthy's Generation
Rescue Foundation. I'll have the photos and
highlights from all of the closing day events in this
column for you tomorrow. |
