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won the
9am on-stage battle, then the audience
got to play. They could remain
standing as long as they kept
getting each question right. Brandon
Abbey (Payoneer.com) wound up
being the last man standing -
answering them all correctly for
the win.
At 10am
it was time to get down to business.
The Internet
Commerce Association,
the non-profit group that protects
domain registrant's rights, was
given a prime spot in the Main Hall
to tell attendees about the
association's good work and how they
could become involved as members.
Above:
ICA Board member Nat Cohen
and Executive Director Kamila
Sekiewicz were on hand to
represent the Internet Commerce
Association. Kamila shows the
audience examples of some of the
major industry companies that have
supported the ICA's work on behalf
of domain owners over the years.
However, both she and Nat also
emphasized the importance of individual
memberships and the affordable
cost to join this vital
organization.
Below:
In an adjacent room, Alex
Schaefer (standing, from
DeepCrawl) and Dave Davies
(Beanstalk Internet Marketing)
explained the intricacy and
importance of Mobile Search.
At the same hour in other rooms
topics included Everything You
Wanted to Know About BoldGrid but
Were Afraid to Ask and how Technical
Debt is Killing Your Software Team.
Above:
Another round of business sessions
began at 11am Tuesday including this
one in which attorney Karen
Bernstein (Bernstein IP) covered
Online Promos and Contests:
Cautionary Tales of FTC Crackdowns.
Below:
At the same time in the main hall Rob
Garner (email: rgarner at gmail)
was covering Marketing/SEO and
Leasing Domains. In another
room the topic was Harnessing
Multilingual Joomla.
Above:
As was the case each day of Merge!,
attendees could take advantage
of the two-hour lunch break to get
in some informal networking and
visit sponsor exhibits. Here Louie
Borrego and Nancy Bianchi
from Above.com
welcomed show moderator Braden
Pollock (center) to their booth.
Below:
Business resumed at 2pm Tuesday with
a big announcement by the Domain
Name Association.
They named a new Interim
Executive Director and their
choice was already onsite -
Merge! Co-Founder Jothan Frakes!
Left to right below are DNA Board
members Joe Alagna (Afilias),
Jeff Sass (.CLUB) and Jon
Nevett (Donuts) with their new
IED - Jothan Frakes. The DNA is a
non-profit global business association that represents the interests of the domain name industry. Its members are groups, businesses, and individuals involved in the provision, support, and sale of domain
names and includes many domain name registries, registrars, resellers, and registry service providers.
Above:
The 2pm business sessions Tuesday
included this panel discussion
devoted to Innovation in the
Hispanic Business Community.
The experts, from left to right,
were George Verdugo (Hotels.club),
Alberto Jauregui (Director, Blockchain Education Network)
and Alfredo Pinochet (LatinTLD
President).
Below:
At the same time a seminar on Paid
Search was staged in another
room by William Leake (Apogee
Results) and Lisa Raehsler (SEO
and PPC strategist). Other rooms
offered Allegravita's China
Boot Camp (conducted via
Skype) and The Magic of
Joomla's MVC - Override Everything.
Above:
The next round of sessions started
at 3pm Tuesday, led by this one in
the Main Hall where a panel
discussion centered on Crypto
Launch/ICO Showcasing. On
the dais from left to right were Colin
Pape (Founder, Presearch.io), James
Drake (Co-Founder & CEO,
Embermine), moderator Christa
Taylor (dotTBA Inc), Marco
Rinaudo (investor) and Chad
Folkening (eCorp).
Below:
At the same time a couple of doors
down, a session on CMS's for
Profit - E-Commerce Solutions was
being conducted by Steve Burge
(CEO at OS Training). In other rooms
the 3pm topics included Buying
& Selling Domain on NameJet
and WP-CLI: Don't Fear the
Command Line. Those were the
final panel discussions of the day. Two
special events followed in the
Main Hall and no other sessions were
scheduled during those so all
attendees could enjoy them.
Above:
Kelly Hardy, the personable
Director of Business Development for
the .ME Registry, is
obviously happy in this shot and she
had good reason to be as she was
about to interview Erika Mann
(Covington & Burling LLP, Senior
Advisor) in the Main Hall for a 4pm Fireside
Chat keynote.
Below:
Erika is a former Member of the European
Parliament and a world renowned
expert with over 20 years of
experience in policy related
matters. She is a current member of
the GNSO (Generic Names
Supporting Organization) Council of
ICANN which she joined at the
end of 2016. She provided a wealth
of information in the wide ranging
interview and also took time to
answer all questions the audience
had in what was one of the week's
highlights at Merge!
Above:
At 4:30pm, in the final business
session of the day, .CLUB
CMO Jeff Sass also had the
attention of all attendees - and as
a consummate showman he deserved
having the sole spotlight. Jeff's
talk was cleverly titled Vowel
Movements: How to Avoid Crappy
Domain Names (and Pay for Good Ones).
You would expect nothing less from
the author of the book Everything
I Know About Business and Marketing,
I Learned from the Toxic Avenger.
Below:
Another shot from Jeff's session
that reminds me a little of a World
War II recruiting poster. Today it
could be titled Uncle Sass Wants
You! (to join the .CLUB).
Above:
With the business day now done it
was time to enjoy The
WHIR Networking Party
that ran from 6-9pm Tuesday evening
(October 17). Here LatinTLD
Co-Founders Natalia Viera and
Alfredo Pinochet, who came all
the way from Chile, check out
the buffet options.
Below:
These ladies would stand out in any
crowd. Left to right are Kamila
Sekiewicz (ICA), Barbara
Dillman Neu (Merge!), Tessa
Holcomb (BrandIT) and Diana
Jackson (DNJournal).
Above:
Also enjoying the WHIR Networking
Event were (L to R): Gregg
Freeman (DomainCapital), Kelly
Hardy (.ME) and Dave Evanson
(Sedo).
Below:
Another all-star group that included
(L to R): Domain and real estate
industry veteran Rob Grant
and his wife Pat, Alex
and her boyfriend Ray Dillman Neu
(Merge! Co-Founder).
Above:
Last (and probably least!) Ron
Jackson (center), flanked by
his domain media pal Theo
Develegas (DomainGang) at left
and - fortunately - a guy who lent
some class to this line up - Dallas
based SEO consultant Bill Hartzer!
Below:
After the WHIR event ended
the party moved upstairs to
the 15th floor Merge! Hospitality
Suite (where it ran until way
past midnight). These two guys (who
came all the way from Norway!)
were smart enough to get there early
and claim a seat. They are my
friends Truc Tran (left) and Reidar
Rytter-Fjoeren. Believe it or
not, though they are both from
Norway, Truc and Reidar did not know
each other until they met at a
domain conference in Florida
a few years ago!
Above:
The inaugural edition of Merge!
closed with a few final business
sessions that ran from 10am to 1pm Wednesday
(October 18). In this one The
Art of Brokering High Value Domains
was covered by (left to right)
moderator Bill Sweetman, Dave
Evanson (Senior Broker at Sedo)
and Tessa Holcomb (Managing
Director, North America, for
BrandIT).
Below:
Another session in the Main Hall,
moderated by Bill Hartzer
(standing at podium), centered on Search.
Above:
This panel helped bring Merge!
to a successful conclusion
Wednesday. The topic was Branding,
Domain Hacks and Online Identity:
Using ccTLDs to Create a High Impact
Internet Presence and the participants
were (left to right) moderator
Bill Sweetman, Kathy Nielsen
(Neustar), Kelly Hardy (.ME)
and Joe Alagna (Afilias).
Above:...and
That's a Wrap! Merge!
Co-Founders Ray Dillman Neu and
Jothan Frakes at the end of
their inaugural show. Our
congratulation to them and their
entire team on an ambitious mission
accomplished. It went so well
they have already decided to bring
it back in 2018 - most likely
at the same location and time of
year. Whenever it is, we certainly
plan to be there.
Below:
The last Merge! attendees
making their way through the
fabulous lobby at the Orlando
World Center Marriott at the end
of the show Wednesday (October 18,
2017). Before they know it, it will
be time to check back in for
round two a year from now!
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