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Opening
Night Photos and Highlights From the 2010 Domainer Mardi
Gras Conference in New Orleans The
2010 Domainer Mardi Gras Conference
got underway last night with a welcoming cocktail party
at the show venue - the New Orleans Marriott, a
hotel that is perfectly located on the western
edge of the French Quarter within a couple of
blocks of both Bourbon Street and one of the main
Mardi Gras parade routes, St. Charles Avenue. 
Scene
from the Domainer Mardi Gras welcoming cocktail
party
at the New Orleans Marriott Thursday night (Feb.
11) With
severe winter weather disrupting travel plans to
New Orleans from several other parts of the country,
some people who had planned to attend were forced to
cancel. Others, in a testament to how much they wanted
to be here, managed to complete the trip despite a
number of obstacles thrown in their way. When DomainNameWire's
Andrew Allemann had his connecting flight from Austin
to Dallas cancelled he grabbed a rental car and
drove eight hours, most of it in a steady rain,
to reach the Big Easy last night (Andrew and I will join
forces for a Reporter Roundtable session
this afternoon). Brothers
Michael and David Castello, who will also be
speaking later today, finally arrived after a snowstorm
in New York City had left them temporarily
stranded following their talk at the Borrell
Associates Local Online Advertising conference there
on Tuesday. 
Sean
Stafford (Comwired.com) and Michael Castello
(CCIN.com)
enjoy the opening night cocktail party at Domainer
Mardi Gras. Despite
people's travel travails, there was a good crowd on
hand last night and more will be coming in today.
With a cold rain falling outside, a bus was brought in
after the cocktail party to transport attendees to the
opening night's main event, a traditional New Orleans
Crawfish Boil held at a tri-level rowhouse located a
few blocks west on Camp Street. Guests sat down
for the feast under tents in the courtyard or in one of
several dining rooms set up indoors. 
Guests
plow through mounds of crawfish at the Crawfish Boil
Thursday night. I
spent a good part of the Crawfish Boil watching in
amazement as Scott Ross (Promediary.com) consumed
a prodigious number of mudbugs. Scott decided to
treat his son Evan to a taste of domain life by
bringing him along on a 14-hour road trip from
their Miami area home. Scott obviously worked up
an appetite along the way. No one keeps track of who
eats how much, but if there is a crawfish eating contest
in the future, I'll take Scott and give up the points
(or in this case the pounds - of crawfish). Having
watched him in action I would say he would be about a
14-pound favorite over just about anyone. 
Scott
Ross (left) and son Evan at Thursday night's Crawfish
boil. Scott hovers
over the remains of one platter while preparing to raid
the tray for a refill. The
first full day of business at Domainer Mardi Gras
gets underway this morning with a 10:30am session called
Show Me the Money! that will focus on new
domain monetization models. After a lunch break the Reporter
Roundtable will be held followed by a panel
offering website building tips then one that will
discuss ICANN's plans to roll out an unlimited
number of new gTLDs. That will end the business day at
5pm. At 6
o'clock, Parked.com's private balcony will open
on Bourbon Street, giving guests a birds eye view
of the Mardi Gras revelry on the street below.
The balcony will be open until 3am which could
make for light attendance at breakfast tomorrow morning.
I'll have photos and highlights from all of today's (and
tonight's) activitities for you in a post Saturday. |
