The 2015 NamesCon conference doesn't officially begin until later today but things were already hopping at the show venue (the Tropicana Hotel) and around Las Vegas last night as some of the more than 800 expected attendees began arriving from around the world. 

They'll all get down to business when the four-day show gets underway with four simultaneous sessions starting at 10:15am local time today  (1:15pm U.S. Eastern), but Saturday it was all about greeting old friends and meeting new ones.

A very special highlight for me was meeting a friend of more than a decade in person for the first time after all these years. I originally became acquainted with friendly Kuwaiti Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim, the founder of 

Future Media Architects through DNForum.com (where he was known by his nickname - Elequa) the year I entered the industry in 2002. The following year he was the subject of just the second Cover Story in our history (back then they were more brief sketches than the detailed profiles the Cover Stories later morphed into).

Though Thunayan didn't come to any of the dozens of domain conferences I've covered since then, we stayed in touch through email, phone calls and Facebook. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I learned Thunayan would not only be attending NamesCon but also speaking in two of the conference sessions. I didn't have to wait for those to finally meet though. Thunayan invited a group of friends to a pre-show dinner last night at the Guy Savoy restaurant at Caesars Palace that could not have been a more perfect way to kick off conference week.

Above: The dinner group hosted by Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim at the Guy Savoy restaurant in Caesars Palace Saturday night included (clockwise from bottom right) Frank Schilling, Bret Fausett, Adel Alali, Diana Jackson, Sevan Derderian, Jothan Frakes, Jeff Gabriel, Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim, Amy Freeborn, David Lee, Stevan Lieberman, Vern Jurovich, Nat Cohen and myself (not pictured, as I was taking the picture).

Below: A final guest who arrived after the shot above was taken was NamesCon co-founder Richard Lau (left), seen after dinner with his fellow show co-founder Jothan Frakes. Richard had a good reason for running late - he has been scrambling making last minute preparations for a little party of his own (NamesCon) that could draw more than 900 people when final registrations are tallied later today.

Above: Mr. AL-Ghamin I Presume? (left to right): Bret Fausett, Ron Jackson, Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim and Amy Freeborn.

Below: Bosom Buddies - long time friends and business associates Vern Jurovich and Frank Schilling who are now scaling new heights at Uniregistry.com.

Above: The view from the another end of the table as the evening is just getting underway.

Below: Uniregistry's Jeff Gabriel with our host and mutual friend Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim.

When we got back to the Tropicana Hotel after dinner, the lobby was filled with excited NamesCon attendees enjoying the night with fellow travelers as they anticipated the start of the show today. We will be running on four hours of sleep when the doors open, but there will be plenty of time to sleep next week. Now it's time to get this show on the road! I'll have daily photos & highlights of the previous day and night's events at NamesCon in this column for you throughout the week ahead.