The 10th anniversary edition of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference got underway tonight with a scintillating opening night outdoor welcoming party at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. This after the day began with another round of pre-show cabana networking with coffee and danish already laid out for early birds at 9am.

Early birds could pick up a a cup of coffee and a danish before visiting the cabanas that circle the central serving station in the middle of T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s  private pool at the Fontainebleau Hotel. 

By mid-day T.R.A.F.F.I.C. guests were arriving from around the world. Left to right above are Scott Smith, Diana Jackson, Barbara Neu, Gregg McNair, Judi Berkens & Michael Berkens.

Below: Industry veteran Mike Robertson (left), who recently moved from Australia to Florida to take a new position with DNC Holdings, visits with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick Schwartz.

Below: Inside one of the poolside cabanas two of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. models paid a visit to (left to right) Mr. Khoa who came from Viet Nam, Richard Price, Eddie Sixto and Logan Flatt.

At 4pm an orientation session for first time T.R.A.F.F.I.C. attendees was held in a Fontainebleau ballroom. A highlight was the first screening of a 20-minute film produced by Danny Pryor that covered the entire 10-year history of the pioneering domain conference. 

A scene from the new T.R.A.F.F.I.C. history film that was screened for the 
first time during a pre-show orientation session this afternoon.

At 5:30pm T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2014 officially got underway with a lavish opening night welcome party held on an outdoor deck overlooking the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. cabana and pool area on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. The party featured a spectacular mix of live music, a seemingly endless buffet of great food and an assortment of delicious drinks.

Above: The dessert table at tonight's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Welcome Party.

Below: Chad Folkening and Michael Castello ready to get the party started.

Below: As night fell guests were busy chatting or dancing the night away. This deck stretched back about 100 yards with private seating areas on both sides, making it impossible to capture the full crowd in one photo. 

Above: Those enjoying T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s opening night party included (L to R) Larry Fischer, Kirsten Szymczyk (GoDaddy), Dante DeAngelis, Tessa Holcomb, Alan Hack and Ron Jackson.

Below: Marty Kaulins and Ilze Kaulins-Plaskacz with long time friend and Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey.

Delray Beach based Domain Holdings was represented by an all-star team in (L to R) Alan Dunn, Tracy Fogarty, Mark Daniels and Joe Udemme.

On Friday the first full business day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East will get underway at 9:45am (you can see the full schedule here). I'll have Friday photos & highlights for you in my next post from Miami Beach.

On a picture perfect day on Florida's Miami Beach the 10th anniversary edition of the pioneering T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference unofficially opened today when early birds enjoyed the first of two days of pre-show cabana networking at the fabulous Fontainebleau Hotel. 

Above: T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s Ray Neu & Barbara Neu ready to welcome conference early birds to pre-show cabana networking at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach this morning.

Below: Jose Vicente Gomar from Miami.land (left) and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu made a bee line for fresh coffee, danish and refreshments when the cabanas opened at 9am.

Above: Having a Fontaineblast today were (left to right) James Wester, Howard Neu, Eddie Sixto, Ron Jackson, Rick Schwartz and Jean-Noel Frydman.

Below: The guys above have to be wondering hw Ray Neu always attracts the pretty girls! Seated left to right (with Ray looking on) are Barbara Sixto, Diana Jackson, Barbara Neu and Carmella Savonello.

A second day of cabana networking gets underway Thursday morning (Oct. 30) at 9am and will run all day as T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2014 guests continue arriving from around the world. The conference officially begins with the traditional Welcome Cocktail Party at 5:30pm Thursday - a major league blowout that will be held on a gorgeous outdoor deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the east and T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s private cabana and pool effort to the west.

Above: (left to right): Marty Kaulins, Gerrit Huisman and Eddie Sixto at today's opening round of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. pre-show cabana networking at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach.

Below: Early birds came from near and far. Left to right are Truc Tran (Norway), Deepak Daftari (India), Tracy Fogarty (Domaing Holdings, Florida) and Jason Schaeffer (New Jersey, ESQwire.com).

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference will continue through Sunday morning (you can see the full schedule here), when attendees will head home after the traditional Farewell Breakfast. Between now and then things will be rocking around the clock at the Fontainebleau. As we progress through the week I'll have daily photos & highlights in this column for you.

For those still on their way to Miami Beach, among the friends waiting to see you are (L to R) Negar Hajikhani (Sedo), Sevan Derderian (Uniregistry), Tessa Holcomb (Igloo.com) and Deepak Daftari. 

We're just about done clearing the decks here before heading across Florida to Miami Beach to get settled in for this week's 10th anniversary edition of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference that gets underway with pre-show cabana networking Wednesday morning at the fabulous Fontainebleau Hotel.

This evening show co-founder Howard Neu told me, "The cabanas at the Oasis Pool  will be the scene of some heavy wheeling and dealing for the 

next few days. The mojitos will be flowing and there will be more food and feasts than ever before." 

While T.R.A.F.F.I.C. has a busy social calendar of their own in place (highlighted by a huge Masquerade Dinner and Ball at the Fontainebleau Halloween night) Howard noted the show's  location also leaves the door open for lots of free lance partying. " The night life on South Beach has been heralded around the world," Neu noted, adding "the world famous night club, CLUB LIV,  is right there in the Fontainebleau where the stars have come out to play and dance the night away. We have also arranged special rates at the Fontainebleau Spa for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. attendees"

If you live in South Florida and can't make the whole show, there is another enticement - a lower priced day pass that will allow your to bring your spouse or significant other to the big Masquerade Ball and Dinner. You can get yours by calling Howard at 954-662-1816. I'm looking forward to seeing you in person in Miami Beach this week!

Emall.ca Inc. (who owns what many consider to be the best portfolio of premier .CA Canadian ccTLD domains) has teamed up with GoDaddy.com to launch a new website dedicated to selling high-quality .CA domain names at DomainExchange.ca. The new site, the product of a joint marketing agreement between the two companies, features hundreds of Emall's premium domains, as well as selected names owned by others. Loans.CA, Dating.CA and Jets.CA are among the domains being offered and are representative of the high end names DomainExchange.ca plans to concentrate on.

The DomainExchange.ca partnership includes an outbound marketing initiative to help boost sales. A toll free number is available for customers in Canada and the United States who are interested in purchasing .CA domain names. The toll free number is: 1-844-419-5994 and the direct number is: 514-419-5994. 

T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s 10th Anniversary conference opens one week from today when the first of two days of pre-show Cabana Networking will get underway at the historic Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach (a new venue for T.R.A.F.F.I.C.). The popular poolside cabana networking days began at the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference held at the Loews Hotel on Miami's South Beach and proved to be an immediate hit. 

You would be hard pressed to find a more casual and comfortable setting for low key (but highly productive) networking than that provided in T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s cabana setting on the sun-drenched shores of South Florida.

Some of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. guests who enjoyed the show's cabana networking 
for the first time at the 2010 conference held at the Loews Hotel on Miami's South Beach. 

At next week's show at the Fontainebleau, cabana networking will be open all day Wednesday and Thursday (October 29-30) with the conference officially opening Thursday evening at the traditional opening night Welcome Party (hosted year by Verisign). 

Speaking of Verisign (who administers the .com and .net extensions), they have begun releasing a series of short, humorous videos as part of a new online campaign aimed at getting entrepreneurs to think about registering a .com or .net domain name as soon as the next time a big idea arrives. In the first video Verisign gets across the idea that rather than flirting with, dancing around, or ignoring their idea, people should act and secure their domain name today.

You can see additional videos from the campaign here: http://www.domainspoweredbyverisign.com/internetofficial/ 

AusRegistry, the Melbourne based organization that provides the technology that powers Australia's popular .AU ccTLD (in all of its flavors, .com.au, net.au, etc.) has just issued the first of what will be a quarterly series of reports providing the latest information on how the extension is performing. 

The report – titled “Behind the Dot, The State of the .au Domain” – offers statistical insights that have never before been released to the public. The highlights are also available in infographic form (.pdf file). Each installment in the series will present updated data on .au DNS query traffic, IPv6 adoption rates, .au monthly create and renewal totals, and various other statistical trends across the namespace. .au Domain Administration (auDA) will also make a contribution to each report on the governance of the .au namespace. Here are some of the highlights quoted from the first report:

.au domains under management

The report found there are currently 2.9 million .au domain names in total, with a growth rate of 6% over the past 12 months.  

.au consistently places in the top 10 of all country codes (out of a respectable 283); no small feat considering a population size of only 23 million.  

IPv6 and DNS queries  

IPv6 requests are also increasing at a steady rate. This quarter over 10% of clients are using IPv6 to query AusRegistry’s systems. This number highlights an overall trend toward IPv6 adoption, however the actual number of end users are less once infrastructure services are accounted for.  

au domains by State   In the .au domain name State of Origin, New South Wales is the victor with just under 1 million registrations, followed by Victoria (785,993) and Queensland (567,803). These results correlate with the population sizes of the states and explain why Tasmania (30,870) and the Northern Territory (12,032) recorded the least registrations.   Length of domain names
When it comes to domain names, size matters.   Our analysis of .au domains by character length revealed names in 10-13 character field the most common.

Interestingly, 38,432 .au domain names are 28 characters or more long, with four domain names recording the maximum length allowable at 63 characters.  

The report follows the publication of a yearly survey into consumer attitudes of the .au namespace, and a 2011 Deloitte Access Economics study into the economic contribution of the namespace to the Australian economy.

We have barely a week left  before heading out for the 10th anniversary edition of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. The landmark T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference gets underway at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach with two days of pre-show networking starting Wednesday, October 29. The main event begins with the opening night Welcome Party Thursday evening (October 30) with the show running through Sunday morning, November 2.

Over the weekend T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founders Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu announced that industry giant Verisign will be the Premier Sponsor for this 

landmark event. As part of their lead role Verisign, who administers the .com and .net extensions, will host the always electrifying opening night cocktail party October 30 that will be held at the LaCote Restaurant overlooking Miami Beach.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. also announced the winners of an essay contest they ran on the topic "How attending T.R.A.F.F.I.C. has helped to change my life." The top prize - a free ticket to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. (worth $1500), a free night in the hotel and a a private limo to pick the winner up at the airport - went to veteran domain investor Alan Hack. You can read Alan's winning essay here. Howard Fellman and Steven Kaziyev also picked up prizes for their submissions.

The expanding NamesCon conference in Las Vegas will have more than additional floor space and a bigger crowd when the show returns to the Tropicana Hotel for its second run January 11-14, 2015. Today show organizers announced they are also adding a live domain auction that will be conducted by RightOfTheDot, LLC (ROTD) under a multi-year, exclusive partnership with NamesCon. The auction will include a mix of premium .com domain names and select premium names from new gTLDs with a range of price reserves.  

NamesCon Co-Founder and Executive Producer Richard Lau said, "“We were initially reluctant to offer a domain auction, but the 15 years of domain auction experience, strength, reputation, and relationships that ROTD presented convinced us that their auction will contribute to the distinct and diverse activities and sessions that NamesCon is known and respected for.”

Jothan Frakes, Co-Founder and Content Producer of NamesCon, concurred saying "Michael Berkens and Monte Cahn of Right of the Dot have demonstrated to me on numerous occasions that they are invested in their relationships with the new and established registries in ways that extend beyond the sale. Right of the Dot has the important pre and post-sale follow-up and quality assurance to ensure things operate smoothly. This was a crucial consideration in the auction vendor process.”

Monte Cahn RightOfTheDot Director & President	RightOfTheDot Director and President Monte Cahn said, "We are excited to work with NamesCon in establishing premium domain prices and sales for new and existing Top Level Domains. We have worked with more than 20 new registries over several years in premium name strategies and sales which increased the value of their registry, the end user / buyer experience, and this really raises overall domain values for the industry." Cahn added, "Our experience in conducting many successful domain auctions is unmatched in the industry and we are honored to have been selected by NamesCon to conduct the live and online auction at their events.” The Live and Online Domain Auction will take place be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2015. There will be both pre-bidding on names listed in the auction as well as an extended auction after the event that will run for several weeks.
Registries and premium domain owners interested in submitting domains for consideration should send an email to [email protected].

Natalie Lambert
Director of Business Development
Uniregistry

Just last week we told you about Frank Schilling's Uniregistry adding two long time industry standouts, Vern Jurovich and Michael Ward, to the company's management team. Now we have learned that another all-star, Natalie Lambert, is joining the team, with the former Castello Cities Internet Network Vice President of City Development signing on as Director of Business Development, based in Uniregistry's Newport Beach, California office. Natalie will use her extensive sales and branding experience to grow Uniregistry's corporate channel.

Ms. Lambert spent over seven years with CCIN where she is credited with helping develop and monetize some of the most recognized geodomain brands on the web, including CCIN gem   PalmSprings.com. She is believed to have signed more new clients than anyone in the geodomain industry to date. Natalie has also been a featured panelist at major geodomain conferences where she shared the proven sales and marketing tactics that made her a top revenue generator.

Natalie Lambert at the 2008 GeoDomain Expo in Chicago with (left to right): Castello Cities Internet Network (CCIN) Founder Michael Castello, T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s Ray Neu and CCIN's David Castello.

After her tenure at CCIN Natalie took a brief break from the domain business to her own jewelry company, Natalie Lambert Designs, which specializes in one-of-a-kind patented designs using a precious stone, Watermelon Tourmaline. Natalie was recently featured at New York Fashion Week and Neiman Marcus. 

Still, as most of you know, this is a hard business to stay away from so she is delighted to be back on the field with Uniregistry. As always, Natalie will hit the ground running by representing Uniregistry at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s upcoming 10th anniversary conference (October 30-November 2 at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach). 

Though this was a relatively slow week, in terms of quantity, for new gTLD launches, there was no shortage of new gTLD news. For starters, one of the most highly anticipated new geo domain extensions, .NYC, entered general availability (GA) Wednesday (Oct. 8). As of this morning over 30,000 .NYC domains have been registered according to NTLDStats.com. 

48 hours into GA that puts .NYC among the top 20 new gTLDs (#16 in the NTLDStats rankings to be exact). Some expected bigger numbers but considering that only those located in New York City are allowed to register .NYC domains and the relatively high cost compared to 

traditional TLDs ($24.99 at Go Daddy this morning) the numbers look to be roughly in line with the last big city geo TLD launch - .London - which stands at just over 45,000 registrations today, a month after that TLD launched.

Go Daddy is giving .NYC a high profile push, both online and off, an example of the latter being this barge on the Hudson River Wednesday morning with a huge Go Daddy banner announcing the .NYC launch (along with other prominent ads around the Big Apple).

Another new gTLD with good prospects, .tech, is in the news and that extension hasn't even launched yet. Radix Registry has purchased rights to operate .tech from dot Tech LLC, who had originally won an auction for those rights.

Radix already holds .press, .host, .website and .space, so the acquisition of .tech brings their portfolio up to five new TLDs. They expect to launch .tech in the first quarter of 2015. Radix CEO Bhavin Turakhia said, "This new extension will represent the ever growing community of users who truly understand the power of the internet, and appreciate the value of a powerful identity online. As a techy at heart, this is an extension that I can personally relate and connect with the most.”

In addition to working with their registrar partners, the company plans to enthusiastically market .tech directly to its target users via advertising, direct marketing campaigns and events that attract the tech enthusiasts and start up communities like SXSW and TechCrunch's Disrupt.

The .co.com extension will be the first to benefit from the ability to list and sell their inventory using the SedoMLS distribution channel. Ken Hansen, CEO at .co.com, said "Participating in SedoMLS’ extensive distribution network will provide critical exposure for .co.com premium domains on major registrar sites, and will surely generate an uplift in transactions.”

(Posted October 10, 2014) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2014/dailyposts/20141010.htm

With Frank Schilling as its founder Uniregistry.com already had the industry equivalent of Elvis at the helm. Still, the Grand Cayman based registrar/new TLD registry operator has gotten even stronger with two more domain world rock stars added to the 

management team over the past 24 hours (I wanted to call Uniregistry's new duo  U2 but apparently that name has already been taken by some band in Ireland).

If you have spent any time in this business at all, you already know the names - Vern Jurovich and Michael Ward - two universally respected industry veterans, each of whom brings a wealth of experience to their new positions at Uniregistry. Jurovich comes on board as Chief Operating Officer while Ward assumes the role of Director of Registrar Operations. 

New COO Vern Jurovich (left) and Director of Registrar Operations Michael Ward 
make a strong Uniregistry.com management team even stronger.

This is actually Jurovich's second go round with Schilling since the legendary domain investor began his big move into providing services to other domain owners with InternetTraffic.com and its successor, DomaiNameSales - the latter now a major power in both the aftermarket and PPC parking. With that company well established, Jurovich left to tend to his own business interests in Vancouver, Canada (including VancouverRealEstate.com) before returning to the fold with Frank this week.

Uniregistry Founder Frank Schilling

Schilling was understandably excited to have Vern back on board, saying, "I'm just delighted to welcome Vern back to our thriving team. Our greatest contributors never truly leave Uniregistry. We're a family, on a mission together and it shows in the spark, commitment and vibrancy of the great people who help move our ship forward. Vern's oversight will help shape our platform and guide other members of the team as we expand our operations and grow internationally." Landing Ward was also a coup for Uniregistry. Michael, who was most recently COO at major registrar DirectNic, has held management positions at PIR (operator of the .ORG registry), PPC provider Parked.com and he was also Executive Director of the Domainer Mardi Gras domain conference held in New Orleans.

At Uniregistry Ward will be responsible for registrar growth, marketing, and product support for the benefit of all registries and customers served by the Uniregistry platform. Schilling said, "Hiring Michael to oversee the growth of our registrar is like Bruce Wayne hiring Alfred to keep the bat cave in working order! We can all sleep better knowing a man of Michael's caliber and devotion is there to keep our critical infrastructure improving and growing."