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day
Sunday, you can find that here.
Day 2 coverage from Monday is here.
Above
& below: The busy Tuesday
schedule began with an insightful Keynote
talk from Verisign Senior
Vice President for Global Marketing
and Channel Management Scott
Schnell. Scott's address, Domain
Name Industry Drivers, was a
data-rich presentation detailing the
latest trends in domain
registrations.
Above:
Another key industry leader,
GoDaddy Aftermarket Vice
President & GM Paul Nicks
was the next featured speaker in the
Keynote Hall. Paul covered
Lessons Learned from Operating the
Most Valuable Portfolio in the World.
Below:
At the same time in the .Asia Space,
India's Deepak Daftari (left)
from Esiksha.com and Jay
Paudyal from DomainKhan.com
discussed the Impact of Cultural
Diversity on Domaining,
including India’s role in the
domain name industry and IDN’s
role as a growth driver of Indian
Internet.
Above:
A major highlight of the morning
Tuesday was the Internet
Commerce Association's
presentation of their 2nd annual Lonnie
Borck Memorial Award that went
to attorney Kathy Kleiman, a
fierce advocate for domain
registrant rights from the very
beginning of the UDRP process.
Kathy continues that advocacy for
fairness today. Noted attorney John
Berryhill introduced Ms. Kleiman
and Lonnie's brother-in-law Jonathan
(in this photo with Kathy) came
to Las Vegas to present the award
that honors the late beloved domain
investor.
Below:
ICA board members and managers
joined Kathy after the award
presentation. Left to right are Bob
Mountain, Daniel Law, Kathy
Kleiman, ICA Executive Director
Kamila Sekiewicz, ICA Legal
Counsel Zak Muscovitch,
Nat Cohen and Jay Chapman.
Above:
After Ms. Kleiman was honored, the
ICA presented a panel discussion on UDRP
Reform and the Worst UDRP Decisions
of 2017. The panelists (L to R)
were Daniel Law, Nat Cohen,
Bob Mountain and Zak
Muscovitch.
Below:
When the noon hour arrived many
attendees headed to the Keynote Hall
to see Daliah Saper (Saper
Law) who talked about Negotiation
Strategies in Business. As a
transactional lawyer and litigator,
Daliah regularly negotiates on
behalf of her clients. However, most
business negotiations take place
before lawyers are involved. In this
seminar Daliah explained how to
successfully negotiate your business
deals.
Above:
Two other sessions were held simultaneously
in adjacent meeting rooms. In the
one above Margot Bushnaq (Brandbucket),
Tony Kim (Hexonet) and Joe
Alagna (Afilias) offered an inside
look at Domain Search Tools.
Below:
Meanwhile, just up the hall, Mano
Samy (ENSListing.com) drew a
crowd with his presentation on Blockchain
Domain Names: Hands On.
Above:
On a walk through the Exhibit Hall
we found Payoneer Director of
Strategic Accounts Brandon Abbey
visiting broker George Hong
at the Guta.com booth.
George, the company founder,
recently closed TWO 7-figure
sales on the Payoneer escrow
platform (unfortunately we can't
share the details due to
non-disclosure agreements). Left to
right are Cindy from Guta, Brandon,
George and Tina (Guta).
Below:
After the lunch break the Keynote
Hall quickly filled up again to see
a Crypto Meets Domaining
Fireside Chat in which NamesCon
Founder Richard Lau (left)
interviewed star brokers Jen Sale
(Evergreen.com Co-Founder) and Andrew
Rosener (MediaOptions.com
Founder).
Above:
In the final business session of the
afternoon a domain broker's panel
discussion centered on Mastering
Aftermarket Appraisals. It
featured (L to R) George Hong
(Guta.com), David Clements (Brannans.com),
Brian Kleiner (Afternic) and Andrew
Rosener (MediaOptions.com).
Below:
That set the stage for two
special events in the Keynote
Hall, the first being the annual Escrow.com
Masters of Domains Awards in
which the company recognized the
world's top brokers in terms of
total dollar volume transactions on
the Escrow.com platform. Escrow.com
General Manager Jackson Elsegood
announced the winners, many of whom
were in attendance at NamesCon
Global 2018.
Above:
This year's #1 broker was Raymond
Liu of 62.com. Raymond could not
be here so last year's winner, George
Hong, accepted the award for him
from Escrow.com Senior
Account Manager Brian Tharp.
Below:
For the second year in a row, Andrew
Rosener of MediaOptions.com was
the #2 broker in the world on the
Escrow.com platform.
Above:
#3 broker Mohammed Hashim Al-Asadi
(CEO of TopNames, Ltd.) was not in
attendance but #4 Joe Uddeme
(NameExperts.com) was there to pick
up his award from Brian Tharp. Ali
Zandinejad of Starfire
Holdings completed the first
five.
Awards
also went to #6 Özcan Marcus
Kocak (CEO of DotWhat), #7
Jen Sale (Evergreen.com), #8 James
Booth (BQDN.com), #9 Nat Cohen
(Telepathy Inc) and #10 Ryan
McKegney (DomainAgents.com).
Above
and Below: The day's grand finale
was the NamesCon's Live Domain
Auction staged again by NameJet.com
and RightOfTheDot.com. It
drew a standing room only crowd that
watched world champion auctioneer Wayne
Wheat call the action. The
auction wound up producing over $1.5
million in sales led by
Great.com at $900,000. Lucky.com
had a bid of over $1 million but did
not reach reserve. The next highest
sale was PayPerClick.com at $100,000.
TheDomains.com has a listing
of all of the auction results here.
Above:
After dark fell the first big event
of the evening was the annual
Internet Commerce Association Member's
Dinner held in the Crossroads
Restaurant in the House of
Blues at Mandalay Bay. On
hand to welcome over 100 attendees
were ICA Legal Counsel Zak
Muscovitch and Executive
Director Kamila Sekiewicz.
Below:
ICA members enjoyed a fabulous
dinner spread at their annual event
Tuesday night.
Above:
Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com),
a long time ICA supporter, helped
drive record ticket sales for the
ICA Dinner by merging a dinner he
hosted over the past four years at
NamesCon with this years ICA event.
Kamila had him join her on stage to
be recognized.
Below:
After the ICA Dinner it was on to
the MGM Grand where MMX.co
hosted their NamesCon Party open to
all conference attendees at the Ling
Ling Lounge inside the world
famous Hakkasan Night Club.
Above:
Toby Hall, CEO of party host Minds
+ Machines (MMX), is third from
the left with three of his guests (L
to R): Ron Jackson, Gregg
McNair, (Toby) and Howard Neu.
Toby and his team made sure everyone
had an unforgettable evening at the
world class venue.
Below:
NamesCon/Cloudfest President
Soeren von Varchmin (right) was
also on the scene. He visited with MERGE!
Conference Co-Founder Ray Neu
at the Ling Ling Lounge.
Since Soeren's company bought
NamesCon from Richard Lau
last year we have been impressed by
how he has expanded the NamesCon
presence around the world while also
putting out the welcome mat
for leaders from other
important domain industry
conferences (for example, NamesCon
will partner with the NameSummit
show in New York City next
August to present a Global
Pitchfest competition). Soeren has
been all about growing the domain
business worldwide for everyone
and knows the best way to do that is
to do it together.
In
my final post from Las Vegas I'll
have Wednesday's closing day photos
and highlights - so keep an eye on
this spot for that!
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(Posted
January 31, 2018) |
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