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On
Tuesday
I
began
running a series of highlights from DN
Journal's first 10 years - an
anniversary we will officially reach on
January 1, 2013. As I noted then, the first T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference in October
2004 at Delray Beach, Florida
gave domain investors a central place to
gather and compare notes. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. moved
the ball a lot further down the field in
January 2006 when it took the domain story
into the heart of the Silicon Valley with
a conference
in Santa Clara, California.
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A
scene from the 2006 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon
Valley conference in Santa Clara, California. This
show established the domain business and a
desirable sector for internet investment
and triggered a major influx of capital
from venture companies and private investors. It
also became possible to finance domain
purchases in the same way you could get a
mortgage to buy a house. DomainCapital.com
founder Rob Alfano, whose company
pioneered domain financing, had a high profile
at this show (and his company continues to
finance domains today).
DomainCapital.com
Founder Rob Alfano at the 2006
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon Valley
conference. All
of the major tech companies, including Google,
Yahoo and Microsoft had
representatives at the show looking into what
this domain explosion was all
about. Google even hosted an official evening
party for show registrants at their global home
base in nearby Mountain View. Domains had
become serious business. Three
months later, in April 2006, another conference
that had been started the previous year by Name
Intelligence founder Jay Westerdal, Domain
Roundtable, set up shop near Microsoft's
front door, with a show in the Seattle suburb
of Bellevue, Washington. One of the
fathers of the Internet itself, Vint
Cerf, showed up to speak at this
one, further cementing the domain industry's
reputation as a corner of the Internet where big
things were happening.
Internet
pioneer Vint Cerf (right), with 2006
Domain Roundtable producer
Jothan Frakes, speaking to conference
attendees in Bellevue, Washinton. The
captains of the domain industry were in Seattle
too with many of those recognized as Name
Intelligence Award winners in their
respective categories (DN Journal picked up its
first of three consecutive NI Awards for Best
Industry Coverage at this event).
Name
Intelligence Award Winners (left to right): Michael
Collins (Afternic),
Eric Harrington (Moniker), Bill Mushkin
(Name.com), Show Producer Jothan Frakes
of
Name Intelligence, Paul Stahura (Enom),
Clint Page (Dotster) and Tim Ruiz
(GoDaddy).
The
boom was officially underway and it would
continue to expand as the year went on (to be
continued).
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Owen
Frager |
One
other note today, while we are talking about industry
leaders, I wanted to point out that the 2012
edition of Owen Frager's annual series of
profiles called Domaining's
Most Fascinating People is currently
being published with four of the five profiles
already up and the final installment due Christmas
Day.
You
can now read all about Escrow.com's inimitable Andee
Hill, the late great Dan
Brown (better known as Danno), ICA
Legal Counsel and fierce defender of domain
investor's rights Phil
Corwin and T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder, noted domain attorney and all around
renaissance man Howard
Neu. On December 25th, Owen plans to
publish this year's grand finale, a profile of
ShopCity Founder Colin Pape who took
on Google and not only lived to tell
about but actually soared to new heights.
The
recogniton for these five people is well
deserved. Give yourself an early Christmas
present and check Owen's series out. |
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