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Ilze
Kaulins-Plaskacz
moderated two sessions
Tuesday
morning at THE Domain
Conference in Fort
Lauderdale. |
Above:
In the opening session at
9am .CLUB CEO Colin
Campbell gave an
extraordinary talk on Paradigm
Shifts in business
and how one can become
wealthy by taking advantage
of those. Colin's story is a
remarkable one. He started
out as a farmer in Canada
but went on to become a tech
business whiz who has made millions
of dollars in various
enterprises. He is also
forthright about losing
millions in one, but what he
learned from that failure
helped him rise from the
ashes and soar to new
heights.
At
left:
Ilze Kaulins-Plaskacz,
a very successful Canada-based
domain investor, made her
debut as a conference moderator
in the panel discussion that
followed Colin and she
proved to be a natural
at it. Ilze joined David
Warmuz (Above.com/Trellian),
at left below, and Michael
Gilmour (ParkLogic.com)
for a deep dive into Domain
Monetization and Domain
Tools. |
Above:
Fellow Australians David Warmuz
(Above.com/Trellian) and Michael
Gilmour (ParkLogic.com) gave
attendees an inside look at the current
state of Domain Monetization
and Domain Tools.
Below:
After a session that gave attendees
a chance to deliver two-minute
elevator pitches,
101Domain.com's Joe Alagna
took the stage to explain his Ten
Percent Rule for Domain Names in
Advertising. Joe says,
"If you allocate 10% of
your advertising budget towards
memorable and/or traffic-producing
domain names, you will achieve 10
times the results for your
advertising."
The
Tuesday luncheon was the busiest
part of the day as it included my
annual State of The Industry report
on the latest domain sales trends, a
Fireside Chat that I conducted with Keynote
Speaker Lori Anne Wardi and the
presentation of TDC's 2016 Domain
Industry Awards.
Above:
DNJournal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson giving his annual State
of The Industry update at THE
Domain Conference Tuesday
(September 13, 2016).
Below:
Ron then welcomed Keynote Speaker
Lori Anne Wardi to the stage for
a Fireside Chat in which the Neustar
Vice President detailed her
remarkable rise in the domain
industry. Lori Anne co-founded
.CO Internet with Juan Diego
Calle and helped build the
administrator of the .CO
domain extension from a startup into
a highly successful enterprise that
commanded $109 million in a
sale to Neustar (who wise kept Lori
Anne on their team as a Neustar
executive).
The
luncheon closed with the
announcement of this year's Domain
Industry Award winners, selected
in balloting open to all domain
industry participants. The
envelopes please!
Above:
TDC Co-Founders Howard &
Barbara Neu presented the Developer
of the Year Award to Michael
Cyger of DomainSherpa.com
and DNAcademy.com. The next
award, Blogger of the Year
went to Elliot Silver of DomainInvesting.com.
Though Elliot was at the conference
he was not at the luncheon to pick
up the award, taking that time to
visit an ill fried instead - just
the kind of thing people who know
Elliot would expect him to do.
Below:
The Registry of the Year Award
went to .CLUB. CEO Colin
Campbell led his team on stage
to accept the honor. CMO Jeff
Sass, who had been at the
conference, was missing only because
he had had to fly off to Germany
to represent .CLUB at the massive DMEXCO
event in Cologne.
Above:
The Registrar of the Year
Award went to GoDaddy.com and
Aftermarket Product Manager Joe
Styler was there to accept the
honor. GoDaddy also played a role in
Michael Berkens winning the Investor
of the Year Award. Michael, who
could not be at the conference, sold
his portfolio to GoDaddy earlier
this year for an estimated $30-$35
million.
Below:
It was a very good day for Sedo
as they took home two big awards.
Their Senior Broker Dave Evanson,
at left below, won the prestigious Broker
of the Year Award and Sedo
also won the Company of the Year Award,
accepted by Business Development VP
Brad Lemire at right below.
Above:
DNJournal.com Editor & Publisher
Ron Jackson, seen here with
his wife Diana, received the Goodwill
Ambassador of the Year Award -
an honor that originated at the
pioneering T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Conference in memory of Michael
& Judi Berkens' beloved dog,
Bandit Berkens. If you were
among the hundreds of conference
attendees who met Bandit over the
years, you know why a goodwill award
was established to honor him and
there is no award I would rather
have (as a side note Diana and I are
dog lovers who, like Michael and
Judi, had a Yorkie who passed and
now have another).
Below:
The final presentation went to two
new members elected to the Domain
Industry Hall of Fame - Garry
Chernoff and Nat Cohen (Telepathy.com).
Nat is seen here with his award,
surrounded by six colleagues who
were elected in previous years. Left
to right are Monte Cahn, Dr.
Christopher Hartnett, Nat,
Ron Jackson, Michael Cyger,
Howard Neu and Chad
Folkening. Garry could not be at
the conference but, like Nat, the
honor for him was long overdue. In
addition to being among the most
successful, both men are among the
nicest people in this business and
neither seeks the spotlight. As a
result newcomers may not know as
much about Garry as they should.
Suffice it to say that Frank
Schilling cites Garry as his
mentor and that should tell you all
you need to know. Nat and Garry are
among the few true pioneers
of this entire industry.
Above:
Though the awards had all been
handed out the most emotional
moment of the day (and
maybe of conference history) was yet
to happen. Before concluding the
luncheon Howard Neu called
his wife and partner Barbara to
the stage and - with tears in his
eyes - declared this conference
never would have existed without
Barbara and her constant
support. His heartfelt thank you
brought everyone in the room to
their feet for a standing ovation,
compelling Barbara to pull out her
iPhone to record a moment she (and
the rest of us who saw it) will
never forget (we told Barbara's life
story in the current DNJournal
Cover Story).
Below:
Here is what Barbara saw from the
stage - one of her actual iPhone
photos.
Below:
The GMO Registry, operators
of new gTLD .Shop, sponsored
the luncheon where we also had an
opportunity to hear CEO Hiroya
Tsukahara speak. Hiroya also
held court at the TLD's booth in the
Exhibit Hall where we snapped this
shot on our way back to the
conference room for the Tuesday
afternoon sessions.
Above:
At another booth we caught up with
Jodi Chamberlain and Joe
Casale at the <header_tag>
table. <header_tag> is an innovative
new website advertising platform
that you can learn more about at headertag.com.
Below:
The afternoon business session began
with a panel discussion - Brokers:
Do We Really Need Them? that
featured (left to right) moderator Braden
Pollock, Larry Fischer (GerYourDomain.com)
- Dave Evanson (Sedo),
George Hong (Guta.com) and
Tessa Holcomb (Igloo.com). In
short, the answer to the session
title is Yes! - we do need
them!
Above:
Guta.com's George Hong stayed
over for the next session - American
Market vs. China Market: What Dies
the Future Hold in Store?.
He was joined by two other widely
known experts on both markets - at
left, Michele Van Tilborg
(.CLUB) and Pinky Brand
(Focus Nua Ltd).
Below:
Next up attendees got an ICANN
Update from (left to right)
ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin,
Rolf Larsen (Founder &
CEO, .Global) and Angie Graves
(WEB Group Inc.) After this,
in the final business session of the
show, Chris DeRose gave a
talk on Digital Assets
like bitcoins.
Above:
In a final pass through the Exhibit
Hall I stopped by the .GDN
Registry booth to meet
executives from the Dubai based
new gTLD registry, (left to right)
Head of Registry Muhammad Kausar
Saleem, Hassan Piracha
and Anthony Burton. .GDN is a
generic extension that stands for
Global Domain Name.
Below:
With the conference's Farewell
Breakfast still to come
Wednesday morning, many attendees
spent Tuesday evening doing some
informal networking at the Hyatt
Regency's Pier 66 lobby bar and
lounge. We would spend some time
there too, but first we had a very
special event to attend at 7pm - TDC
Co-Founder Ray Dillman Neu's
graduation from the Broward
College Police Academy and
appointment as an officer with the Broward
County Sheriff's Department.
Witnessing that with the Neu family,
including Howard, Barbara and Ray's
grandmother Carmella was a
truly unforgettable occasion. Over
the past 12 years Diana and I have
watched Ray grow from an 18-year-old
college basketball player (who
helped out alongside them at all of
the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences) to
the universally admired man
he is today. Ray, who was already
envisioning a law enforcement career
when we met him as a teenager,
will be a great asset to his department
and the Broward County community
where the Neus live.
Tomorrow
I will have one final post from THE
Domain Conference 2016 for you -
Photos & Highlights from the
well-attended Farewell Breakfast
Wednesday morning at the top
of the Pier 66 Hotel!
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