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For
the past eight years
my
life, like a planet orbiting the sun, has revolved
around domain names. That's not a complaint,
I have loved every minute in this business - but
after being forced to spend a full week away
with almost no Internet access it dawned
on me that there is life beyond the web
and that other world has a lot
going for it too! As I wrote in my last post
before heading out of town, the occasion that
pulled me away from the computer was the wedding
of our son Aaron that was held Sunday on the
stunningly beautiful white sand beach on Sarasota,
Florida's Siesta Key.
A
scene from Aaron and Nancy's wedding
Sunday on the beach in Sarasota.
Aaron
and new bride Nancy live in Boston where
Aaron is a chemical engineer, but he grew up in
Sarasota and wanted to come back home for his
wedding (Diana and I lived in Sarasota for 11
years when I was the Sports Director at the
local ABC-TV station and it is still just over
an hour's drive away from our current home in
Tampa).
I
have been to a lot of weddings but the way this
one was done made it the most fun of them all.
Dozens of members of both families rented condo
units for an entire week at the complex where
the wedding was held. Most arrived five days
before the wedding, so every day we all had
a chance to get to know each other as we hung
out on the beach or by the pool and moved from
one impromptu condo gathering to another in the
evenings.
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We
had only met Nancy once prior to the
wedding and had never met any of her
relatives before going to Sarasota, so
this was a fabulous family bonding
experience that we would not have
had otherwise - especially since most of
her relatives live outside the U.S.
There
was no Internet access in our
condo, so the only way to get online was
to sneak off to the complex clubhouse to
use the wifi access there. I did it only
twice during the week and |
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that
was just to check to see if there was
any critical email. To my surprise, the web
withdrawal symptoms I had expected
didn't materialize (OK, so maybe getting
an occasional fix through my iPhone
helped a little - I didn't want to be a
fanatic about it!). |
I
did take a half day to run around town
collecting photos and information for a Sarasota
website I am thinking about building. I know the
town and its current media situation well and
think there is an opportunity there for a new
website to do well. It is a very popular and
wealthy resort town with some of the world's
best beaches, a gorgeous waterfront, great
restaurants and a thriving art, theater and
museum scene - so content would never be in
short supply.
Above:
Part of the Sarasota skyline looking east
from the city's beautiful bayfront park.
Below:
Life-size bronze dolphins play in a
stunning fountain adjacent to the bayfront
marina.
This
would be my first geodomain project, so I have
some more research to do - the most important
being to determine the kind of subject matter to
focus on that would allow us to
stand out from the crowd and reach our goal,
which would be to become the city's signature
website. That is much easier said than done but
I love Sarasota and one thing I have learned is
that having a passion for what you
do - the kind of passion I have for domains -
dramatically increases your chances to succeed.
I wouldn't take on full scale development on any
topic I wasn't personally excited about.
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