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Above
& below: The day began with one
of the highlights of the entire
conference, a keynote speech from
India's acclaimed young billionaire
entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia.
The Co-Founder of Directi is
know for many other business
successes including Radix Registry
and Flock. NamesCon titled
Bhavin's talk Insights &
Inspiration with Bhavia Turakhia and
that is exactly what he delivered to
a very appreciative audience in the
Keynote Hall.
Above:
At 11am GoDaddy Aftermarket VP
Paul Nicks provided his annual Domain
Trends and Insights in the
Keynote Hall with a
treasure trove of information on
domain sales trends based on
GoDaddy's massive database of
completed sales. It is always one of
the best hours at NamesCon and
fortunately Paul was kind enough to
post his entire presentation online.
You will want to check that out
here: www.X.co/namescon19
. Below:
In another interesting session that
ran at the same time on the
RegistryOffice stage, Domain
Sales Optimization Strategies
were discussed by an all-star panel
that included (left to right): Dave
Evanson (Sedo), George Hong
(Guta.com), Braden Pollock (moderator),
Todd Cantwell (Afternic/GoDaddy),
Yancy Naughton (HasTrafiic.com)
and Simon Saleem.
Above:
After the lunch break, in another
highlight of the conference,
domain broker Kate Buckley
(BuckleyMedia.com) delivered an
extraordinarily informative and
entertaining keynote address called Storytelling
Sales: How to Spin a Yard and Land a
Whale. Kate has landed many
whales in sales terms. We told her
life story in a DNJournal
Cover Story last
year. Below:
Also at 1pm, on the RegistryOffice
stage, the topic was Domain
Connect - an Open Standard for
Configuring DNS. It featured
(left to right): Christopher
Ambler (GoDaddy), Lisa Box
(WP Engine), moderator Jothan
Frakes (The DNA) and Timothy
Heeney (Microsoft).
Carvertiser
Founder Mac Nagaswami (above)
and NamesCon Founder/interviewer Richard
Lau (below), took the stage at
2pm for a Fireside Chat
titled Betting on a Busboy:
Domain + Idea to $5 Million Annual
Revenue. Mac's fascinating
book-worthy story of what he went
through to land his must-have domain
- Carvertiser.com - and, once he got it for a few
thousand dollars, building it into a
multi-million dollar business, was
one of the best I've ever heard. Kudos
to both him and Richard for one of
the best hours at NamesCon Global
2019.
Above:
Also at 2pm, on the RegistryOffice
stage, moderator Dr. Paul
Mockapetris (DNS/SMPT), center,
welcomed Elliot Noss (Tucows),
at left, and Toby Hall (CEO,
MMX) to the dais to talk about the Trendline
On the Global Importance of DNS and
Domains.
Next
up on the RegistryOffice stage at
3pm was a domain
appraisal session that attracyed a
wall to wall crowd. Titled What Is My
Domain Worth? it featured, left
to right, Mark Thomas (VIPBrokerage),
Dave Evanson (Sedo), moderator
Braden Pollock, Joe Styler (GoDaddy)
and Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com).
Above:
Monday was also brought us the
domain industry equivalent of the
Oscars with some major awards handed
out. First, Escrow.com handed
out their annual Masters of
Domains Awards. These are given
to each of the top ten domain
brokers/sellers in terms of total
dollar volume transacted on the
Escrow.com platform. The #1
seller in 2018 was Andrew
Rosener from MediaOptions.com.
At the time the awards were handed
out Andrew was on the RegistryOffice
stage participating in the What Is
My Domain Worth? session that you
saw above this picture showing
MediaOptions Business Development
Coordinator Tess Diaz
accepting the award on Andrew's
behalf from Escrow.com General
Manager Jackson Elsegood.
Information on the entire
top ten is available here. In
a related note, Escrow.com released
a fascinating report today called Alternative
Investing - A Comparison Between
Traditional Instruments and Web
Domains. This is a must read
for anyone who wants to make the
case for domains as a proven
investment class asset that has
outperformed more familiar assets
over a long period of time. You can
get a free copy of the report by
just going to the Escrow.com
home page and entering
your email address in the
"latest domain market
report" box. While at NamesCon,
I talked with Escrow.com
President Matt Barrie about the
findings in this report and several
other key industry topics and will
soon be publishing his insightful
comments in a separate article.
Above:
Back on the Awards front, right
after the Escrow.com awards were
handed out, the Internet
Commerce Association (ICA)
presented their prestigious annual Lonnie
Borck Memorial Award for "extraordinary
efforts in championing the rights of
domain registrants." I
don't think there is anyone in the
industry that will be surprised to
hear the award went to attorney John
Berryhill - one of the first
attorneys to specialize in domain
related legal issues and -
approaching 20 years later - still
one of the world's most consistently
successful at defending his client's
rights. John is at center above with
friend and fellow pioneering domain
attorney Ari Goldberger (left)
who introduced John with a touching tribute,
and Lonnie Borcks's brother-in-law Jonathan,
who flew to Las Vegas to participate
in honoring the memory of the
beloved domain investor Lonnie Borck.
Above
& below: Monday's final order of
business was the annual NamesCon
Live Domain Auction conducted by
NameJet
and RightOfTheDot.com.
Once again, Wayne Wheat (the
best auctioneer I've ever seen in
any field) conducted the sale and
wound up calling an event that
produced over 90 sales
totaling in excess of $2.3
million. The top sales were OL.com
($900,000), Leads.com
($435,000), DomainNames.com
($370,000), DJs.com
($170,000) and Stop.com
$110,000. The sale is not over
yet either. The extended online
auction will continue through February
13, 2019 at NameJet.com.
Above
& below: With the business day
done, evening social events moved to
the forefront including the Internet
Commerce Association's
Annual Dinner that was held at
the Las Vegas House of Blues.
Well over 100 ICA members turned out
for the event (their biggest turnout
to date). The ICA is the non-profit
trade association dedicated to
protecting the rights of domain
registrants.
Above:
Among the familiar faces in the
crowd at the ICA Annual Dinner
were noted domain attorneys
Howard Neu (left) and Gerald
Levine. Below:
The dinner's Man of the Hour,
as the newly minted Lonnie Borck
Memorial Award Winner, was
John Berryhill. With dinner
hosts Braden Pollock and ICA
Executive Director Kamila
Sekiewicz looking on, John used
the occasion to pay back Ari
Goldberger for the glowing
introduction Ari gave him earlier in
the day when John received the
award.
As
many of you know, Berryhill's legal
skills are exceeded only by his
lethal sense of humor -
demonstrated once again when John
told the true story of having
a heart attack last summer
while biking - an incident that he
was very lucky to survive. As John
told it, while in the ambulance
being rushed to the hospital he
pondered the distinct possibility
that his time on earth was coming to
an end. He said he also wondered how
we would all remember him and
perhaps whether a John Berryhill
Memorial Award might even be
created. Taking it a step further,
John wondered who might win such an
award and came to the conclusion
that it might well go to his rival, Ari
Goldberger. John declared that
terrifying possibility gave him an
overwhelming will to live and he
credited that for his
survival - drawing a huge laugh from
the audience, including Ari who
appreciates a great joke even if it
is at his expense! In
my next post from Las Vegas I will
wrap up our NamesCon Global 2019
coverage with all of the Tuesday
(January 29) photos and highlights,
along with the lone Wednesday event
(an 11am-1pm Expert Roundtables
Brunch). I'm looking forward to
that, especially after seeing Monday
prove yet again that there is
never a dull moment in this
business!
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