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Above
& below: The Sunday
sessions began with a keynote
presentation from Founder &
CEO Jen Wolfe of Dot Brand
360. Jen is an entrepreneur,
author, digital leader, branding
expert and global IP strategist who
has written a series of highly
acclaimed books including Digital
in the Boardroom, Brand
Rewired and Domain
Names Rewired.
Above
& below: Larry Fischer
(standing, from GetYourDomain.com)
revived his popular conference game
show - Domain or Not a Domain?
at Merge! Sunday. The
contestants were (seated left to
right) Ron Jackson
(DNJournal.com), Dave Evanson
(Sedo), Donny Simonton (Voodoo.com)
and George Verdugo (Hotels.club).
Larry would toss out a series of
"domain names" and the
competitors had to decide if the
names had actually been registered
or not. The person who guessed right
most often won. I honestly thought I would get smoked by these guys as they are among the smartest in the business but I somehow scored an upset win. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile!
Above:
The morning business sessions
continued at 11am when Ken Hansen
(BlockchainRoadShow.com) drew
a big crowd to his session detailing
the basics of the red hot new
technology in Blockchain 101.
Below:
At the same time website developers
were given a golden opportunity to
learn the ins and out of WordPress
from one of the leading experts in
the field - Brett Napoli of AmbitionInsight.com
(at top left).
Above:
In another meeting room the value,
benefits and market values for ccTLDs
were discussed in a session that
featured (left to right) moderator Joe
Alagna (Afilias), Jochen
Kieler (BrandIT.com), Ilze
Kaulins-Plaskacz (ExcellentDomains.ca)
and Alfredo Pinochet (DotLatin).
In other 11am sessions, Paul
McGrady covered The Legal
Nature and Uses of Domain Names
and Djamil Legato spoke on Gantry
5 - a cross-platform theme
framework for all skill levels.
Below:
A two-hour lunch break followed the
morning sessions and gave attendees
time to visit the booths in the Exhibit
Hall. One of the most popular
ones was set up by Domain Token,
again demonstrating the increasing
popularity of crypto currencies.
Above:
Right after the lunch break, in one
of the day's highlights, ICANN
Board Member Chris Disspain
(who flew in from Australia)
was featured in a wide ranging Fireside
Chat with moderator Braden
Pollock. For 16 years
(2000-2016) Chris was the CEO of the
.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA),
the independent governing
body/manager of the Australian
Internet domain name space. Sergei
Gritsenko followed Mr. Disspain
to the stage to give a brief
introduction to apartment rental
powerhouse Rentberry.
Below:
The next round of business sessions
started at 3pm including on
Ownership Protection and Domain Name
Security that featured Theo
Develegas (at left, from Acro.net)
and Bill Sweetman (Name
Ninja). In adjacent
rooms others topics being tackled
included Organic SEO and Grav
CMS.
Above:
Also at 3pm, Ken Hansen (at
right) returned to the stage to
moderate a session called Business
With Blockchain: Meet Innovators
that featured crypto currency
experts Bennett Collen, CEO
at Cognate (left) and James
Drake (CEO & Co-Founder of Embermine).
Below:
At 4pm, insight into promoting your
brand on Facebook was
provided by Mary Davies (Beanstalk)
and David Szetela (FMB
Media).
The
Registry Premium Domains
business got its turn in the
spotlight in another 4pm session
that featured five experts
panelists. On the right side of the
dais (above) Moderator Braden
Pollock (standing) listens to
information provided by Victor
Pitts (MMX.co) and Kathy
Nielsen (Neustar). On the left
side of the stage (below), left to
right, Jay Westerdal (CEO,
Feedback), Joe Alagna
(Director of Business Development at
Afilias) and Christa Taylor
(CEO at DotTBA Inc.) weighed in as
well.
Above:
In yet another session in the 4pm
hour, leading industry attorneys
offered advice on UDRP and
Disputes. The panelists
included (left to right) Gerald
M. Levine, Esq, moderator Howard
Neu and Stevan Lieberman
(Greenberg & Lieberman).
Below:
The business day closed with a Speed
Networking session in the main
hall (as well as a session on Drupal
8 in another meeting room).
Above:
With the Sunday business day now
done attendees were free to spend a
night on the town. This group stayed
nearby for a dinner hosted by Hotels.club
and the .CLUB
Registry at the Hawk's
Landing restaurant that is part
of the Orlando World Center
Marriott complex. Hotels.club
founder George Verdugo is at the
head of the table at top right and
.CLUB Co-Founder and CEO Colin
Campbell is the 2nd person to
the right of George.
Below:
Some of the guests who made the Hotels.club/.CLUB
Registry dinner such a pleasure
to be part of. Left to right, K.W.
Boswell, Ilze
Kaulins-Plaskacz, Anna M.
Bastian and Barbara Neu.
As
I write this day three of
business is winding down with the
night still ahead. I'll have all of
the Monday photos and highlights for
you in my next post from Orlando.
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