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Above
& below: At the NamesCon
Global 2019 opening session
Sunday morning at 10, NamesCon
CEO Soeren von Varchmin (at left
below) welcomed the crowd and
introduced show moderators Bill
Sweetman (Name Ninja) and Braden
Pollock (Legal Brand Marketing)
as well as Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com),
who will be a featured speaker this
week (all are seen, left to right,
after
Soeren). The quartet gave attendees
the news on NamesCon planned move to
Austin and filled them in on what to
expect over the 2019 show's
three-day run that will end
Wednesday (January 30).
Sunday
was a very busy day with 17
business sessions scheduled at
30-minute intervals in a twin-track
format that ran throughout the
day. Those got started at 11am with
ICANN's Christopher Mondini (above)
kicking off the half hour in the Keynote
Hall with commentary on ICANN's
Anto-Abuse Requirements and Abuse
Audit. Pinky Brand (RegistryOffice),
below, then took the stage for the
balance of the session to talk about
Building a Safer Internet &
Fighting Abuse.
Above:
While Mondini and Brand held court
in the Keynote Hall, Michael
Cyger (DNAcademy) drew a big
crowd of his own to the RegistryOffice
Breakout Stage. Michael's
covered Domain Investing 101 (domain
types and characteristics, as well
as valuations) in this session and
returned at 1PM for an advanced Domain
Investing 201 talk built around Turning
Your Domain Hobby Into a Profitable
Business.
Above:
In the 11:30am session in the
Keynote Hall Sunday, Dynadot
Product Manager Luke Burgess
presented a talk titled Domaining
Evolved: An Insider's Guide to
Dynadot's Best Tools - giving
attendees a close up look at the features
that have made the registrar is a
very popular one among domain
investors. Below:
At the same time on the
RegistryOffice Breakout Stage
Alex Melen (SmartSites.com)
discussed The 3 B's of
Developing Domains: Buy, Build,
Benefit.
Above:
During the noon lunch break we went
to an InterNetX/Sedo press
luncheon where they gave us a
preview of a very promising new
domain management platform they are
rolling out at AutoDNS.com.
Features are still being added and
this is a development that deserves
a story of its own that we will be
putting together in the near future.
Standing (left to right) are Sedo
CMO Chistopher Voss, InterNetX
Team Leader Marketing Michael
Piotrowski and InterNetX Head
of Domain Services Marco Hoffman
(who was joined by fellow presenter Marco
Revesz, whom you will hear more
about shortly).
Above:
After lunch, Internet
Commerce Association General
Counsel Zak Muscovitch conducted
a Fireside Chat with WIPO and the
ICA in the Keynote Hall that
featured Brian Beckham
(right), Head of the Internet
Dispute Resolution Section at
the World Intellectual Property
Association (WIPO), the arbitrator
in many UDRP cases. At
the same time, as I noted above,
Michael Cyger was conduction his
Domain Investing 201 session on the
RegistryOffice stage.
Above:
At 1:30pm, Drew Walsh (Moving
Sites LLC), took the stage in the
Keynote Hall with advice on how to Turn
Your Premium Domain Into a Recurring
Revenue Business. Meanwhile, on
the nearby RegistryOffice Stage, Matt
Holmes (below) from Handshakin.com
took a different
track with How to Use Your Domain
to Meet Your Idol.
Above:
At 2pm Matt Holmes turned the
RegistryOffice Stage over to NameJet
GM Jonathan Tenenbaum (left)
and Monte Cahn (RightOfTheDot.com)
who will be running Monday's LIve
Domain Auction at NamesCon.
Monte told me this auction has the best
catatlog the two companies have
ever put together for a NamesCon
event. It could generate millions of
dollars in sales. Below:
Meanwhile back in the Keynote Hall, MMX
CEO Toby Hall covered The
Intersection Between ICANN TLDs and
Blockchain.
Above:
While there is always something
interesting being discussed on the
NamesCon stages, a lot of attendees
love spending time in the
hallways where you never know
who you will run into. Among the
many long time friends I bumped into
was ParkingCrew's
Jim Grace (right), who
introduced me to the company's
CEO Markus Ostertag (left).
We set an appointment on the spot to
get together for coffee later this
week so I can find out about the
latest developments at the popular
domain monetization service.
Above:
When I returned to the Keynote Hall
at 2:30pm Sunday, Matthew Gould
(Unstoppable Domains Inc.) was
covering Domain Names on the
Blockchain. Below:
At the same time, industry veteran Jothan
Frakes, representing the Domain
Name Association,
presented The DNA of theDNA: A
Positive Voice for Our Evolving
Industry.
Above:
I mentioned that InterNetX/Sedo gave
us a preview of the new AutoDNS.com
domain platform at a noon press
luncheon. At 3pm in the Keynote Hall
Marco Revecz (InterNetX
Teamleader Serves Sales &
Automation), at left, and Marco
Hoffman (Head
of Domain Services), gave all
NamesCon attendees the scoop of
what they have in the works. Below:
At the same time on the
RegistryOffice stage, ICA General
Counsel Zak Muscovitch, who
was asking the questions in a 1pm
session, had the tables turned and
was answering them when moderator Bill
Sweetman (left) joined Zak for a
session on Common Legal Mistakes
Domainers Make.
Above:
At 3:30pm, Siteplug.com CEO Lavin
Punjabi presented Secrets to
Triple Your TM Typo Earnings in
the Keynote Hall. Siteplug handles
domains that trademark owners are
willing to buy traffic from rather
than pursue ownership of those
domains through UDRP proceedings. Below:
Meanwhile back at the RegistryOffice
Stage, Mark Kychma (DNPric.es
and Registra.rs) provided advice on Domain
Name Cash Flows: Leasing, Financing
and Structuring.
Above
& below: at 4pm, in the final
business session of the day, Haseeb
Tariq (a long time marketing
leader who has worked with Guess.com
and Fox TV), had the entire
NamesCon audience to himself for a
full hour in which he offered
valuable advice in a session titled Learn
How to Price and Sell Your Portfolio.
Above
& Below: With the opening day of
business now done, everyone's
attention turned to the evening's
social activities - starting with
the annual Women in Domaining
event in the Havana Room at
the Tropicana Hotel. Once
again WID has a great turn out of
professional women from throughout
the domain industry.
Above
& below: More scenes from the
annual Woman in Domaining
meet-up,
a two-hour gathering that is always
a premier event at NamesCon.
Above
& below: At 8pm, .GLOBAL
registry CEO & Founder Rolf
Larsen and Jeanette Söderlund
(VP Marketing and Channel Relations)
welcomed guests to NamesCon
Global 2019' Opening Night Party,
also held in the Havana Room at the
Tropicana Hotel.
Above:
NamesCON CEO Rolf Larsen with
one NamesCon Global 2019's most
celebrated keynote speakers,
billionaire Directi Co-Founder
Bhavin Turakhia (right), at the
opening night party Sunday night. Below:
If you are at NamesCon this year you
have no doubt seen veteran domain
attorney Ari Goldberger with
a large film crew interviewing
people throughout the day. They were
also at the opening night party
Sunday night where Ari is seen
interviewing Pinky Brand. It
is all part of a new domain
show Ari is launching called Domain
Freaks (by and about people
that REALLY love domains)! As it
happens I will be part of the
production and will be telling you
more about the show in the near
future.
Above:
The networking was still going
strong when we finally made our
way out of the opening night party
so we could start working on this
post. It was the end of a very
interesting and productive day at
NamesCon Global 2019 with more to
come Monday through Wednesday. I'll
have the Monday photos and highlights
for you in my next post from Las
Vegas!
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