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By
Ron Jackson
The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2007 conference held at the
spectacular Westin Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, Florida
October 9-13 was the ninth outing for show founders Rick Schwartz
and Howard Neu but they are still batting 1.000
when it comes to delivering informative, entertaining, energizing
and enriching events. I believe that each of the 500 people who made
the trip to South Florida from their homes around the globe would
agree that those carefully chosen adjectives fit this show like a
glove.
As always, this edition of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. got underway with an
electrifying evening cocktail party that, speaking personally,
single handedly made this the most energizing T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference
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T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founders Rick Schwartz (left)
and Howard Neu at a party during T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
East 2007 in Hollywood, Florida |
I've ever
attended. Allow me to explain why I say that. The past few months
have been the busiest time of my life. In addition to the daily work
of producing DN Journal I have been criss-crossing the country
covering conferences, researching cover stories, visiting my mother
in the Midwest and moving my daughter back into her college dorm in
the Northeast. In the midst of all of that traveling my wife and I
also bought a new home and had to try to move on the few days I was
in town (with us both being packrats this was an ordeal you can't
even imagine!).
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|
| When it came time to leave again
for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East I was perilously close to complete
burn out. I went to the show thinking it was coming at the
worst possible time but by the end of that first evening I
realized that the timing could not have been better.
Being in the middle of a |
|
Animated
cocktail party conversations got
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East off
to a rousing start |
crowd composed of what I believe to be the
smartest entrepreneurs in the world produced a miracle cure.
Though I was exhausted when I arrived in Hollywood earlier
in the day, the conversations I had that evening recharged
my batteries so completely that I was only able to sleep a
couple of hours that night.
I woke up at 2am thinking about the things I had heard,
the fascinating new people I had met and how fortunate I was
to be there to experience it. I never got back to sleep that
night but it didn't matter - I couldn't wait to get going
the next morning and as I write this, a week after the
conference ended, the charge |
| I got from being there still has
me feeling like I could run circles around the Energizer
bunny. While this is a personal anecdote I know I am not the
Lone Ranger as I have heard from other attendees with
similar stories to tell. If you were there you know what I
mean. If you haven't been to a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show yet I'm
not sure words can explain it (though in this article I'll
certainly give it my best shot!). |
Wednesday morning (Oct. 10) it was time to get down to business
(which I did right after calling my daughter and wishing her a happy
21st birthday - where did the years go!). Following a breakfast
buffet sponsored by Klickerz.com, Schwartz and Neu welcomed
the crowd and introduced Moniker CEO Monte Cahn who
detailed how to take part in the live domain auction that would be
staged Friday.
Internet
Commerce Association Executive Director Michael
Collins and the organization's Legal Counsel and Washington
D.C. lobbyist Phil Corwin then took turns at the podium
to talk about the one-year old trade group's efforts to bring domain
owners together to protect their rights and assets from attacks that
are steadily intensifying. Covetous parties that missed the domain
boat are looking for any opening they can find (including getting
laws and UDRP procedures changed) in an attempt to grab
valuable domains without paying owners what their assets are
worth.
| Corwin summed the ICA's mission
up by saying "The ICA is about preserving long term
value of domains for you and not for people who want
to steal domains from you." Though virtually |
| every other industry has a strong trade group Corwin
said "There has not been a tradition of working
together in this industry to collectively defend your
interests." An unfortunate result of that apathy was Verisign's
ability to ramrod a huge rate increase for .com domain
names through ICANN despite almost unanimous
opposition from the Internet community. Referring to that,
Corwin wryly commented "I'm sure you all got your thank
you note from Verisign for that $1 billion
transfer of wealth."
It does appear that the ICA's message is starting to sink
in. |
ICA
Legal Counsel Phil Corwin (left) and Executive
Director Michael Collins at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East |
| The organization received several
new commitments of financial support at the conference
(including $25,000 from T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s lead sponsor
TrafficZ.com)
that will help it continue to represent the industry's
interests before Congress, ICANN and in the court of public
opinion.
The ICA is striving to get everyone in the
industry involved. To keep ideas fresh and develop the
broadest possible base, expansion of the Board of Directors
is planned and new board members will replace some of those
who founded the group at this same conference a year ago
(the six original founders donated $50,000 each to get the
organization off the ground). In addition every member
of the non-profit organization is eligible to serve as an
officer, including President. There are many membership
levels (starting at $295) that make it
possible for everyone to get involved. As I have stated in
the past I think a strong trade group is a must if
this industry is to maintain the prosperity it has earned
through the capital put at risk by domain investors who had
the vision to recognize how valuable these assets would one
day become. |
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| Next on the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. agenda
was a wide-ranging nine-man panel discussion about The
Domain Industry: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
Those on the dais included |
|
Matt
Bentley
Sedo's Chief Strategy Officer |
(alphabetically by last name) Matt Bentley
(CSO, Sedo.com), Jonathan Boswell (CEO, LeaseThis.com),
Adam Dicker (Owner of DNForum.com), Ammar
Kubba (COO, TrafficZ.com), Leland Hardy
(Owner of NewYork.com), Ron Jackson
(Editor/Publisher, DNJournal.com), Peter Lamson
(Senior VP, NameMedia) and Dan Warner (COO, Fabulolus.com).
As you would expect with that line-up, there were so many
interesting views expressed that it would require a separate
article to do them justice. Many different topics were
touched on but one common theme among the participants was a
belief that the rapid growth the domain industry is enjoying
today will continue for several years to come. The
accelerating migration of advertising dollars away from
traditional media outlets to the web appears to be an unstoppable
wave that should lift owners of quality domain names to
levels that few could have imagined when the first
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference was held just three years ago this
month. |
|
After a lunch break (hosted by Casale
Media) the afternoon session got underway with a panel
discussion that explored the topic of whether of not domain
owners are too dependent on pay per click (PPC)
parking pages for monetizing their assets. This panel
featured brothers Michael Castello and David
Castello of Castello Cities Internet Network, Inc. (Michael
and David were featured in our December 2006 Cover
Story), Michael Gilmour (WhizzbangsBlog.com),
Dr. Christopher Hartnett (Founder of USA Global
Link), Ari Bayme (Managing Director of Modern
Capital), Stuart Wood (Wifi.com) and Jonathan
Boswell (Lease This.com).
| The Castello brothers
operate very profitable geo domain sites including PalmSprings.com
and Nashville.com and are currently building
out Cost.com as a major shopping portal in
partnership with TrafficZ's Ammar Kubba and Kevin
Vo (the latter two gentlemen are featured in our
current
Cover Story). With PalmSprings.com
generating over $1 million a year from its
home page alone, the Castellos are the poster boys
for the rewards that can be reaped from good
development work (and a talented sales force). With
most domain owners holding large |
| portfolios they understand the
necessity to park names but they encourage owners to
move forward with development of their top assets,
partnering with others if necessary, to unlock their
full potential.
Michael Gilmour has always been a fan of the PPC
approach, in part because it is much less labor
intensive than development and thus offers an
excellent means of monetization for those who hold
hundreds or thousands of domain names. However, the
Australian domain investor also wants to see some big
changes made in the way PPC companies currently
operate. He is particularly irked by the current
lack of transparency with PPC companies and has
been on a crusade to get companies to open their
books to trusted independent auditors so domain
owners will know they are getting a fair shake when
PPC revenues are divided between the companies and
their clients. Gilmour has written extensively
about |
Michael
Gilmour |
| this issue and other PPC
matters in his well-researched WhizzbangsBlog
that I would encourage you to visit. You will find
some of the most insightful information on the
parking business available anywhere on the web. |
In the final seminar Wednesday,
The Castello brothers returned to team up with Freddy
Schiwek (EVP, EuroDNS.com), Liesbeth Mack-DeBoer
(VP, Sedo.com), Jothan Frakes (DomainSponsor.com)
and Adam Dicker (DNForum.com) for a session on
Local Search and the role .com and ccTLDs
play in that booming space. Frakes has long been a champion
of ccTLDs and at this session he noted "people who are
looking for an opportunity to get into domains like that of
.com in the 1990s should realize that is not likely to be
repeated. However, there are rich opportunities in ccTLDs.
Many are relaxing their Nexus requirements, making them
easier to acquire, sales are growing and we're going to see
a big expansion of locally oriented domains." Frakes
also said IDNs (International Domain Names) will play a
growing role as search goes local - noting the current
widespread adoption of Japanese IDNs as just one
example. |
(Left
to right): David Castello, Michael Castello and Jothan
Frakes
Adam Dicker concurred with
Frakes on both the ccTLD and IDN fronts noting that he has purchased
thousands of domains in each category. In fact on the same day this
panel session was held, Dicker said he registered the last 4,200
three-letter .ca (Canadian country code) domains still
available while listening to another seminar. Dicker, who is from
Canada, said a lot of good generic domains are dropping in ccTLDs
like .ca and represent a great acquisition opportunity. He also
advised looking for .com domains that begin with a local name and
end with a keyword that represents a popular product or service -
for example TorontoFlorists.
(Left
to right): Freddy Schiwek, Liesbeth Mack-DeBoer
and Adam Dicker
As a Sedo executive Ms. Mack-DeBoer
has a birds eye of the ccTLD market as her company dominates
aftermarket sales in the country code category. She said that Great
Britain's .co.uk in particular is a rising star and is now used
by nearly 64% of the population in the UK. She noted that the other
leading ccTLD extensions in terms of sales at Sedo are .de
(Germany), .at (Austria), .ch (Switzerland), .be
(Belgium), .us (United States) and .es (Spain).
Schiwek of EuroDNS.com said
he thinks European country code domains are undervalued and
represent a great investment opportunity. He noted that the European
editions of popular search engines give heavy weighting to the local
extension - for example someone searching in France will
usually see sites that use that nation's .fr country code
listed first.
| Next on the Wednesday schedule
was a speed networking session designed to hook
attendees up with the largest number of people possible in
the shortest period of time. These sessions, which have been
staged in a variety of formats to keep things fresh, have
always been |
| one of the most popular show features. At
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East last year, when you had just two
minutes to spend with each person before moving on to
the next, I made a new business contact in one of those
120-second time frames that has generated more revenue in
the past 12 months than what it has cost me to attend all
of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences I have been to since they
began in 2004 (including airfares and hotel bills). That
relationship is ongoing and will likely continue to pay
dividends for years to come. People often ask if it is worth
the expense to go to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. I have yet to hear
anyone who has actually been to a conference say
no. |
Speed
Networking
(photo from Barbara Neu) |
After speed networking it was
time to change gears from business to social (though at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. more business is done at the social events than in
the business sessions). The evening got underway with another
jam-packed cocktail party - with this one having a huge star
attraction - billionaire Forbes Magazine publisher and
former U.S. Presidential candidate Steve Forbes.
Forbes, who was on hand to deliver the keynote address later that
evening, had arrived at the hotel just minutes before the cocktail
party started. He was under no obligation to attend that function
but he immediately headed for the party where he quickly became the
center of attention.
| Forbes obviously enjoyed mingling
and meeting new people as he posed for countless photographs
with show attendees, gladly joined them in conversation and
displayed an exceptionally engaging sense of humor. One
thought that struck me after spending some time |
|
(Left
to right): Howard Neu, Steve Forbes, Richard
Meyer
and Rick Schwartz at Wednesday cocktail hour |
with Forbes and hearing him
speak was how sad it is that Americans choose their
presidents based on how they come across in 30-second TV
commercials in campaign years. When Forbes ran in 2000,
there was no way a 30-second spot could convey his innate
intelligence, the thought that went into his policy
proposals (most notably overhauling the inscrutable U.S.
income tax system with a flat tax) and his true personality.
All of that is lost in a system where being photogenic and
adept at delivering short soundbites determines who runs the
country (OK, I'm putting away the soapbox now!).
|
After the cocktail party attendees enjoyed a sumptuous dinner
then listened to Forbes' keynote speech. Forbes put the
world-changing nature of domains and the Internet into perspective
by citing historical examples of how other disruptive technologies
had turned the business world on its ear, improved life for everyday
citizens and built fortunes for the visionary entrepreneurs that saw
such changes coming and acted to take advantage of those paradigm
shifts.
| Unlike most of his traditional media counterparts, Forbes recognized how powerful the web would become years ago and invested tremendous resources in
Forbes.com while refusing (unlike the
Wall Street Journal) to charge people for access to the site. He said he also recognized that |
| print and the Internet were different mediums so the content on Forbes.com is almost completely different from what is in the printed magazine. Both entities are highly profitable and have helped his company escape the attrition that has hit other traditional media companies.
Forbes expressed admiration for domain
investor/entrepreneurs and that in itself was probably more
important than any other single thing he said in his speech.
Those who missed the Internet/domain boat and remain bitter
about their lack of foresight now stop at nothing to
cast the entire industry in the most negative light
possible. It is their hope that people will believe their
misrepresentations (and outright lies) so that laws and
dispute resolution policies can be changed in a way that
will allow them to grab the assets they previously did not
want - but now cherish - without having to pay for them. It
has to be a blow to that camp to see one of the most |
Steve
Forbes
delivering keynote address |
| mainstream of
successful mainstream businessmen - and a respected
political figure - stand up and give entrepreneurs in our
space the credit and respect they deserve. Politicians are
extremely careful about the company they are seen in.
Forbes' mere presence at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. spoke volumes
and should pay public relations dividends for months and
years to come. |
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| After the keynote
dinner, attendees were off to the official T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Party, a cruise on the Intracoastal Waterway
hosted by TrafficZ. A large yacht - the Caprice
- was commissioned for the event and was conveniently docked
right across the street from the Westin Diplomat. |
|
The
Caprice took showgoers on TrafficZ's
Midnight Cruise |
By the time the ship shoved off at 10:30pm it was
a full boat decked out with good food, great company, an
open bar and a craftsman who hand rolled cigars for those
who cared to indulge.
The party went on into the wee hours of the morning,
delivering a fitting conclusion to the first full day at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East (and also assuring plenty of available
seats at breakfast the next morning as those who partied a
bit too hard gave their snooze buttons a good workout
Thursday!) |
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|
Some
guys have all the luck! Sevan Derderian of TrafficZ (the
tall guy at the back with the understandably big grin) fills fellow
cruisemates in on the benefits of parking with his company
(Photo courtesy of Barbara Neu)
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