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Above:
The final day of NamesCon
2017 began with a pair of
9am business sessions in
adjacent rooms. In this one, Braden
Pollock from LegalBrandMarketing.com
(who also moderated or served
as the interviewer in six
conference sessions during the
week) conduced at Lead
Generation Roundtable.
Braden in an expert in the
lead gen field with special
expertise in the legal sector.
Below:
At the same time Hiram Ip
from NameForest.com was
next door detailing best
practices for Leasing Domain
Names.
Above:
At 9:30am Akram Atallah (at
right), President of ICANN's
Global Domains Division, was
interviewed by Christian
Dawson, Executive Director
of i2Coalition. They discussed
the latest developments within
the evolving DNS industry.
Below:
In an aptly named Inventors
of the Internet session in
the Keynote Hall at 10am, one
of the true inventors of the
domain name system, Paul
Mockapetris (Threatstop,
Inc.) held the audience in
thrall with his account of how
domain names were originally
created. I have heard Paul
speak before and one thing he
said the first time I heard
him has always stuck with me.
When he and his colleagues
were trying to decide what
extensions to use for domain
names, .com was a late
suggestion. Others, thought to
be better choices, had already
been selected and some didn't
want to add .com as a kind of
catch-all extension. In the
end, Mockapetris said they
agreed to add it when most
said, "it won't matter
anyhow because no one will ever
use it!"
Above:
Activity continued to ramp up
at 11am when five different
sessions were held on
various stages in the
Conference Center. This one
was of the most significant
additions to the NamesCon
agenda, an India
Masterclass set up
along the same lines as the
China Masterclasses that
have been a major
attraction for NameaCon
attendees who wanted to learn
more about the world's
fastest growing markets.
Left to right are moderator
Braden Pollock, Paul
Singh (Platform.in), Deepak
Daftari (DD WebVision
Pvt. Ltd.), Shiva
Kandula (Digits United
Limited) and Karn Jajoo
(Radix Registry).
Below:
At the same time A Look
Forward at New TLDs
was offered by expert
panelists on another stage.
The featured speakers were
(left to right) Steve
Heflin (Afilias), Toby
Hall (MMX.co), Jeff
Sass (.CLUB) and Anthony
Beltran
(101Domain.com).
Other
sessions at 11am explored Practical
Strategies for Disciplined
Growth presented by Bennett
Collen (Cognate), MX
Monetization with Tom
Bartel (Threatwave) and Behind
the Scenes at Uniregistry.
Above:
The next round of sessions,
three in all, started at 12
Noon with this Dispatches
from NamesCon 2017 discussion
featuring four
writers/bloggers who cover the
domain industry. Left to right
are moderator Braden
Pollock, Angela St.
Julien (Brand.bar), Ron
Jackson (DNJournal.com), Andrew
Allemann (DomainNameWire.com)
and Shane Cultra (DSAD.com).
Below:
At the same time a session on
Domain Monetization: Managing
a Portfolio for Profit was
being held on another stage.
The panelists there were (left
to right) Michael Gilmour
(ParkLogic), Christa Taylor
(doTBA Inc.), Marlon
Phillips (Protected
Parking), David Warmuz
(Above.com) and Yancy
Naughton (HasTraffic).
In
another noon session on the
Uniregistry Breakout Stage, VP
of Product & Registrar
Operations, John Smrekar,
hosted Making the Uniregistry
Market. As you will
see below, John was also
featured on the Executive
Roundtable that closed the
show.
Above:
Throughout the day people got
together in the lounges in the
Exhibit Hall
to network with fellow
attendees. Making new
contacts and catching up with
old friends is the primary
reason most people attend
conferences. This group
included (left to right) industry
veterans Jose Vicente Gomar,
Deepak Daftari, Bennie
Sparkman, Frank
Michlick and Abner
Duarte.
Above:
The sponsor booths in the
Exhibit Hall are also a
big attraction, giving attendees a chance to meet top
level executives from the
industry's leading companies,
an opportunity you are
unlikely to have in any other environment.
Here a visitor to the Sedo
booth gets her questions
answered directly by CEO Tobias
Flaitz and CMO Christian
Voss (at left).
Below:
The Above.com booth
nearby was also staffed by
members of their leadership
team including, left to right,
Aaron Kvitek, Liz
Corona, Nancy Bianchi
and Co-Founder/President David
Warmuz.
Above:
One of Wednesday's can't miss
events was A Fireside
Chat with Elliott Noss
(right) who was interviewed by
NamesCon Co-Founder Richard
Lau. Noss, the President
and CEO of Tucows Inc.
made big news right before the
show when Tucows acquired
another major registrar, eNom,
from Rightside,
cementing Tucows' position as
the world's second biggest
registrar. Noss, who knows the
industry inside out, is also
one of its most interesting
speakers.
Below:
This was the final NamesCon
(at least in terms of running
the show) for Richard Lau.
The conference was recently
sold to World Hosting Days
and their team, led by Soeren
von Varchmin, will take
full control next year. Lau
and Co-Founder Jothan
Frakes have done a
remarkable job, starting
NamesCon from scratch in 2014
and, in just four shows,
building it into the world's
biggest domain
investor/developer centric
conference. Richard also has a
fascinating life story that we
detailed in our December 2015 Cover
Story.
Above:
The final session of NamesCon
2017 was an
Executive Roundtable: Industry
Trends Forecast for 2017.
It was moderated by Jothan
Frakes (whose story we
also told in a July 2014 Cover
Story). Jothan at
far left, is followed in order
by John Smrekar
(Uniregistry), Sandeep
Ramchandani (Radix), Paul
Nicks (GoDaddy), John
Kane (Afilias) and Jeff
Eckhaus (Rightside).
So another outstanding NamesCon
conference is in the
books, one with countless
highlights, the most important
always being the personal
connections made and
strengthened. In addition to
being industry colleagues and
pioneers, people like (left to
right above) Michael Berkens,
Rob Grant and Ammar
Kubba became valued
friends many years ago and
that bond only gets stronger
with each passing year,
regardless of how garish their
wardrobes may become (Grant -
of all people - says Berkens
is starting to push the
boundaries here...and
before Kubba gets too smug let
me remind everyone that he
once showed up for an early
morning panel discussion dressed
in a bath robe after a
late night out. In his defense
it was a proper white
bath robe, nothing too
outlandish)!
Before signing off I have an
update for you on the WaterNight
gala Tuesday
night that raised
funds for the WaterSchool.
Nine generous (and fearless)
people agreed to have their
heads shaved in exchange for
donations to WaterSchool
(below
Internet
Commerce Association
Executive Director Daniel
Law is saying goodbye to
his tresses at the hands of
Public Traffic Limited
Chairman Gregg McNair
who started this hair
razing tradition years
ago, raising hundreds of
thousands of dollars along
the way). Richard Lau
informed me today that
attendees pulled out their
credit cards and collectively
donated nearly $90,000 on
the spot Tuesday night!
That's amazing and a
tremendous testament to the
people in our industry. I can
think of no better way to say
goodbye to NamesCon 2017 -
already looking forward to
seeing you again next year!
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