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The
Domainer
Mardi Gras conference made its debut
last
night at the stylish Westin Canal Place Hotel
on the southwestern edge of the French Quarter in
New Orleans. The opening evening was devoted
entirely to social events starting with a 5pm cocktail
hour at the Westin.
Scene
from the Domainer Mardi Gras welcoming cocktail
party in New Orleans Thursday.
Attendees
were warned to dress down for the cocktail hour
because immediately after buses would be taking them to
a traditional New Orleans crawfish boil - a
unique dining experience that invariably leads to having
your clothing spattered with juices from the local
delicacy.
With
the help of Crawfish.com, 600 pounds of crawfish
was served at last night's boil.
Soiled
shirts are inevitable because eating crawfish requires
that you twist the head off of the hapless crustacean
(while their beady eyes are staring at you) in order to
get to the juices and meat inside. Fortunately, for the squeamish
among us, fried chicken was also available in an
adjacent room (I prefer not having my food look at me
when I am trying to eat it!)
The
crawfish boil was a blast though - one of the many
unique local traditions that make New Orleans one of the
world's most fascinating cities. Of course another is
the world famous Mardi Gras celebration that is
in full swing here. Attendees got to see their first
parades last night by walking just a block over from the
crawfish boil to one of the key parade routes along St.
Charles Avenue.
Mardi
Gras celebrants (including many domainers) beg for
beads
during a parade on St. Charles Avenue last night. The
massive crowds in town for Mardi Gras contributed to a
lot of late arrivals for the conference. Attendance was
lighter than usual at the cocktail party but by the time
the crawfish boil was in full swing the crowd had
quadrupled. All hands should be on deck for the first
full day of business today. The
highlight of the morning session will be the 11am
keynote address from Louisiana State
Representative Tim Burns who will talk about
economic and political forces that will impact the
domain space in 2009. After a luncheon (where Andrew
Allemann and I will be speaking) there will be three
afternoon seminars followed by a Bourbon Street
Balcony Party scheduled to run from 5pm until 3am
Saturday morning. In New Orleans they start their
parties early and end them late!
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This conference,
being presented by Modern
Domainer Magazine, is probably
devoting more time to social events than any
that have gone before it. There is a lot of wisdom
in that approach. Experienced show goers know that
the best long term business relationships are
cemented during the social events where people get
to know each other personally. The friendships
that develop often end up transcending business
and that is the best "return on
investment" you'll ever get.
I will have photos
and highlights from today's events for you in this
column tomorrow morning. Now it's time to get the
the new day underway. |
Looking
down from our 24th floor room at the
Westin Canal Place, a riverboat
steams
toward its dock on the Mississippi River. |
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(Posted
Feb.
20, 2009) |
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