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These
local and regional events are serving as an
increasingly important grass roots gateway
to the domain industry that will make it an even
stronger business in the years ahead. A prime
example of the kind of event I'm talking about was
the first Rocky
Mountain Domain Conference (RMDC) held
in Denver, Colorado Saturday, February 26,
2011 (with a second optional ski/snowboarding day
at a nearby resort on Sunday). Local domain
investor Michael |
| Law
staged this meeting and sent us some photos and
highlights that will give you an idea of what to
expect should have an opportunity to attend a
similar gathering in your own locale. This
information could also serve as a handbook for
anyone thinking about staging a local or regional
event in their own community. |
NameBee.com
and Boxcar.com
signed on as sponsors to help defray the costs for the
event with Name.com
providing additional support, as well as a keynote speaker
in Name.com Founder and CEO Bill Mushkin. 33 people
registered for the event, including several local domain
investors who were attending their first conference.
They were all treated
to nice rucksack gift bags and pint glasses provided by
Name.com, as well as free flash drives provided by Mimi
Rupp of the Kenyon and Kenyon law firm.
Part
of the crowd at the 1st Rocky Mountain Domain
Conference in Denver Feb. 26, 2011
Unseasonably warm (for
Denver in February) 50-degree weather and sunny skies
greeted attendees on conference day when they gathered at
the show venue - a beautiful Victorian mansion that also
serves as home to the Russian Consulate of Denver.
One of the conference speakers, Rick Waters, CEO
of Webcast1,
said, "This unique setting gave this regional domain
conference a special character and the warmth of the
building put attendees and speakers at ease."
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Bill
Mushkin
Founder & CEO, Name.com |
Bill
Mushkin kicked things off with his keynote talk
titled "Facebook's Daughter."
Rick Waters, who flew in from Del Ray Beach,
Florida, followed by sharing his insight on
the state of the domain industry and delivering a
presentation titled "7 Steps of Premium
Domain Development". Abdu Tarabichi,
CEO of Domains
Guru, Inc. in Charlotte, North
Carolina, was up next. Abdu discussed domain
buying and selling strategies that have made him a
successful domain broker and reseller.
Conference
organizer Michael Law spoke next, giving a short
presentation on types of domains to invest in and
his strategy for making end user sales. The
morning session closed with each attendee asked to
introduce themselves and their company and to give
a brief summary of their experience with domains.
The one-hour
lunch break also served as a productive informal
networking session that gave attendees and
speakers a chance to get better acquainted. After
lunch, Michael Law was joined by Braden Pollock
of Legal
Brand Marketing, LLC for a question
and answer session during which Pollock detailed
how he utilizes domain names to create leads for
his |
| comprehensive
DUI network. Pollock also provided some insight
into why parking revenues are declining and how
domain development can help domainers achieve
higher revenues. |
Three
of RMDC's speakers (L to R): Rick Waters (Webcast
1),
Mimi Rupp (Kenyon and Kenyon) and Braden Pollock
(Legal Brand Marketing LLC).
Adam Torkildson,
VP of operations at Utah-based CustomerHook.com
followed with a talk about the importance of branding,
data capture and the website infrastructure needed to
achieve better SEO results. Adam's presentation was
followed by a panel discussion featuring Jay Barr,
President of JHB International and Buttons.com,
Braden Pollock and Rick Waters, with Michael Law serving
as moderator.
(L
to R): Jay Barr (Buttons.com), Rick Waters
and Braden Pollock during their session.
In this session Jay, Rick
and Braden discussed further opportunities Jay could
explore to expand his e-commerce operation at Buttons.com,
a site that is already one of the largest button and
textile wholesalers in the world. Rick Waters covered the
importance and advantage that businesses using blogs
have and Braden talked about his new position as Chair and
equity holder of Epik.com.
Before the next business session, a door prize was raffled
off with Hal Meyer of Hog Advertising LLC
(who came all the way from Idaho for the show)
winning an 8GB iPod Nano that had been furnished by
Name.com. That set the stage for the next speaker - Mimi
Rupp, a trademark/new media attorney from Kenyon
and Kenyon LLP in New York. Mimi has
successfully litigated many high profile domain dispute
cases for domainers including Mrs. Jello, LLC, Domain
Spa and Future Media Architects. Mimi covered
"Best Practices for UDRP-Proofing Your Most
Valuable Domains".
| Annalisa
Roger, founder of DotGreen
Community Inc. in San Francisco was up
next. Annalisa shared the knowledge she gained
from working so closely with ICANN over the
last few years in anticipation of submitting an
application for a new .green TLD. Ms.
Roger provided her estimate a the timeline for new
gTLD approval and implementation while sharing
many other interesting gTLD facts and charts.
A second keynote
speaker, Jason Boshoff, CEO of Florida's
Domain
Holdings LLC, closed out the
conference business schedule with an informative
high energy speech on premium domain development
strategy. Boshoff also shared Domain Holdings'
optimistic view of the value of domain names and
evolution of the domain space.
The busy schedule
resulted in the conference concluding a half hour
late but noone seemed to mind as the attendees and
speakers continued networking until the lights
were dimmed and they were instructed to head
to the evening cocktail reception at Randolph's
inside the Warwick Hotel where free
drinks were provided by RMDC. Networking,
conversation and good times went on at Randolph's
for three |
Annalisa
Roger
DotGreen Community Inc. |
| hours
when the last dozen people still standing
(including most of the speakers) decided to have a
late dinner together at Las Delicias Mexican
Restaurant. It would be close to 11pm before
everyone reluctantly went home or back to their
hotel rooms. |
The following day
(Sunday, Feb. 27), Michael Law, Mimi Rupp, Annalisa Roger
and Rick Waters headed up to the Copper Mountain Resort
in Summit County for a day of skiing and
snowboarding. Roger, Rupp and Waters all skied while Law
was the lone snowboarder in the group. For Annalisa Roger
and Rick Waters this was the first time skiing in the
mountains of Colorado. The group benefited from about 10
inches of new snow that had fallen over the previous 72
hours. The group had a nice lunch at a mid mountain
restaurant called the T-Rex Grill and after a day
of skiing and snowboarding, enjoyed happy hour food and
drinks at Jack's.
Rick
Waters (standing), Mimi Rupp (left) and Annalisa
Roger
enjoying RMDC's optional day at Copper Mountain Resort
Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011
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Law
told us, "All in all I was so happy with the
way RMDC turned out. I couldn't have asked for
a better weekend. Attendees I spoke with had
so many positive remarks and praise about RMDC and
many were asking if I had plans to continue the
conference next year. I couldn't have made this
possible without support from the domain
community, help with catering/organizing from my
wonderful girlfriend Ana Rosales and the
great speakers that traveled from every corner of
the U.S. that really provided top notch
information for attendees of RMDC."
While Law's
conference will likely be an annual event, other
groups around the U.S. are holding meetings as
often as once a month. Groups are active in Southern
California, South
Florida and Portland,
Oregon to name just a few places. This
is a very positive trend that we see getting only
bigger in the months and years ahead. |
RMDC
Organizer Michael Law |
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