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Domainer
Mardi Gras Forecast: Cold and Wet With a Few Missing
Guests But a Little Rain Won't Stop This Parade The
2nd Annual Domainer
Mardi Gras conference
gets underway tonight (Thursday, Feb. 11) in New
Orleans with a traditional Crawfish Boil at a
tri-level French Quarter house on Camp Street.
After the feast, guests can walk a block over to St.
Charles Avenue to watch Mardi Gras parades
but it looks like they will need to bring their umbrellas.
As I write this Thursday morning the forecast calls for
a steady rain to start falling in New Orleans
around 6pm today with the showers continuing until
around noon Friday. The good news is the weather
should clear in time for the popular Bourbon Street
private balcony parties scheduled for Friday and
Saturday nights - though it will be chilly, likely
dipping into the 30's Friday night and low 40's Saturday
night. 
Above:
View from the Parked.com balcony at last year's
Domainer Mardi Gras conference.
Below: Revelers on the street clamor for beads from
the domainers above. 
Though
the weather will be less than ideal, this is New
Orleans - a town where a little rain and cold
weather will never stop a good party (especially
when the city is already rocking in a non-stop
celebration of the Saints Super Bowl win Sunday).
A bigger disappointment is that several attendees that
people were looking forward to seeing are stranded
by the snowstorm in the Northeastern U.S.
and won't be able to make the conference.
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Attorney
John Berryhill, who was scheduled to
speak on a Friday afternoon panel about New
gTLDs had to cancel because he cannot get
out of Philadelphia. Likewise blogger Elliot
Silver, who is based in New York City,
said it is not looking good for him either. His
airline, Jet Blue, cancelled his
Wednesday flight and has no room to re-ticket
him until Saturday. Other airlines want an arm and a leg for a one
way ticket out so it looks like he is out
of luck. I'll be flying over to New
Orleans from Tampa, Florida this
afternoon and no problems are anticipated from
here. Those of us who make it to the Big Easy
will raise a toast to our friends in the
Northeast who remain snowed in and hope that you
are able to dig out soon. |
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I'll
have daily updates from the conference for you in
this column Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings (the
show closes Saturday night). The first full day of
business kicks off tomorrow morning at 10:30am (local
time) with a panel discussion called Show Me the
Money! that will focus on new domain
monetization models. After a lunch break Andrew
Allemann (DomainNameWire.com) and I will join
moderator Michael Ward for a wide ranging Reporter
Roundtable discussion that I think will be
informative and a lot of fun. You can check out the full
show agenda here. Now
it is time to start packing and get on my way.
I'll see you back here tomorrow morning with photos
and highlights from tonight's opening activities at Domainer
Mardi Gras! |
