Above: After NameSummit Co-Founders Steven Kaziyev and Jason Schaeffer welcomed attendees to their first conference in New York, Brett Napoli from Ambition Insight took the stage in the first business session - Taking Focused Action: Strategies to Grow Your Internet Presence Today. Brett covered all of the bases with respect to  successfully creating, managing and distributing your content online.

Below: The weather outside was frightful but by noon the Hilton ballroom was nearly full after many New Yorkers braved the elements to join attendees who had flown in from around the country for NameSummit.

Above: In the next session SEMPO Research VP Marc Engelsman (left) and Chairman Mike Grehan give attendees insight into Understanding the Need for Integrating Content and Intent Marketing.

Below: While the scope of NameSummit goes well beyond domain names alone, plenty of major league domain investors could be spotted in the audience including industry pioneer Larry Fischer (GetYourDomain.com)

Above: Those interested in leveraging the power of video were able to learn from one of the best when master Author, Educator and Content Creator Roberto Blake took the stage to provide tips on Leveraging YouTube - Understand What It Takes to Thrive.

Below: NameSummit scored a coup by landing national TV commentator, author and attorney Lisa Bloom as their featured speaker to start the afternoon session Monday. It no doubt helped that one of the most well-known figures in the domain industry (and the moderator at NameSummit) is Lisa's husband Braden Pollock! Lisa's topic was Protecting Your Number One Asset - Your Personal Brand. She also talked about the widely heralded work her firm has done, especially on behalf of women who have been subjected to abuse or discrimination (very often working pro bono for causes she believes in). Her well received talk, in front of the largest audience of the day, had an especially touching moment when a female attendee stood up and, weeping, thanked Lisa for the extraordinary help she had given her. 

Above: In the next afternoon session .CLUB Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass captured immediate attention - and that was just appreciation for the title of his talk - Naming You Startup? Stop Drppng Vwls & Making Sh*t Up! Fortunately Jeff's talk was equally creative and informative, no doubt winning more fans for .CLUB, a mission that has taken him all over the world since the new gTLD was founded.

Below: At mid-afternoon the subject changed to Making the Most of Digital Marketing with Google with two well qualified experts covering the topic in depth - Google Agency Development Manager Timothy Jordan (left) and Michael Venezia, Digital Marketing Director for Cool Nerds.

Above: Conference Director Jodi Chamberlain (32Events.com) added a special member to her team for NameSummit, her son Noah! With the early start this young man is getting we may be looking at another Frank Schilling here!

Below: Back on stage, the next panel tackled Creating Brand Equity Through Digital Marketing. Left to right are moderator Braden Pollock, Michael Melen (Co-Founder and COO at SmartSites, and Alex Melen (Co-Founder and CEO at SmartSites) and You Tube guru Roberto Blake (RobertoBlake.com).

Above: The new .NYC domain extension was a must cover subject for New York based NameSummit. This panel covered the new gTLD inside out. Left to right are Lori Anne Wardi (Vice President at Neustar, the administrator of the .NYC Registry), John Colascione (CEO at LongIsland.com), Art Malkov (Co-Founder & Digital Director at Souvenirs.NYC and Silicon.NYC) and NameSummit Co-Founder Steven Kaziyev (NewYorkMedia.com).

Below: These days everyone understands the importance of social media outreach but not necessarily how to do it successfully. That was covered in the next session - Social Media Management and Monetization Across Platforms. It featured (left to right) moderator Braden Pollock, Gerard Adams (The Millennial Mentor), Ryan Malone (Senior Manager for Sales/Operations at Likeable Local) and David Zaretsky (Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Scientist at Snips Media).

Above: At 5pm a day closing Cocktail Party got underway with the celebrants including (left to right) Steven Kaziyev (NameSummit Co-Founder), Ilze Kaulins-Plaskacz (ExcellentDomains.ca) and Steven's lovely wife Zhanna Shiman.

Below: While the cocktail hour had started, the business day still wasn't over as some special sessions ran concurrently including Rob Monster's talk about Smart Cities - a Smarter Way to Do Business - Local First. Rob is the CEO at both Epik.com and Digital Town.

In other sessions that ran concurrently with cocktails, Loren Stocker (TollFreeMarket.com) talked about Business Texting - the Next Wave of Communication, and Geoffrey Gonzalez (Senior Director Sales at Natcom Global) went over The Route to Monetization via Evergreen Shirt Form Video and the folks from FOWNDERS were there to provide personal coaching.

Last but certainly not least, NameSummit Co-Producer Ari Goldberger (left) took the stage to propose a toast to his ESQwire.com colleague - conference Co-Founder Jason Schaeffer (right) and Jason's fellow Co-Founder Steven Kaziyev, for the remarkable job they did in putting this show together in an extraordinarily short period of time (the show was announced just four months ago when we broke the news).

As I write this, the second and final day of NameSummit is just getting underway. I will have all of the closing day photos and highlights for you in my next post from New York