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NamesCon after
co-producing last year's 10th
anniversary event with them. Here
are some photos and highlights from
the opening day the big event (all
[photos are courtesy of NamesCon
Europe):
Above
& below: Opening Day
Thursday
began at 10am when NamesCon
Europe welcomed guests from
around the world to Cascais.
On stage to kick things off (left to
right) were NamesCon President &
CEO Soeren von Varchmin,
conference Founder Deitmar
Stefitz, show moderator Braden
Pollock and Monte Cahn
(President of RightOfTheDot.com
who teamed up with NameJet
to conduct the NamesCon
Europe Live and Online Domain
Auction that would be
the day's final event).
Above:
In the first business session at
10:30am, Karn Jajoo, Senior
Manager at Radix,
delivered a presentation titled Five
Years and Counting. The
title refers to two things - the new
gTLD registry operator's first TLD
entered sunrise five years ago this
month and Karn joined the company at
the same time in June 2014. Jajoo spoke
about things he has learned along
the way, including the peaks and
valleys in a half decade spent
navigating this ever changing but
always fascinating business. Below:
Giuseppe Graziano, CEO and
Founder at brokerage GGRG.com.
was next up at 11am. Giuseppe talked
about Liquid Domains;
Understanding Supply and Demand of
an $8 Billion Market.
Graziano defines liquid domains as
very short .com domains (typically
made up of no more than four letters
or numbers) that are always in
demand. GGRG issues a free
quarterly report on the
latest activity in that segment of
the aftermarket.
Above:
At 11:20am, a wider view of the
domain brokerage business was
provided in a session titled On the Basis of Trust: What to Look For in a Domain Broker.
It featured (left to right) Andrew
Rosener (MediaOptions.com), Alan
Shiflett (GoDaddy), Michael
Gargiulo (VPN.com), Dave
Evanson (Sedo), Monte Cahn
(RightOfTheDot.com) and moderator
Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing).
All of these experts have booked
multiple high end domain sales. Just
this
week, Shiflett's
company, GoDaddy, had a hand in the
biggest cash domain sale ever
reported, Voice.com at $30
million, and Evanson closed the
biggest non .com sale of the year -
Casinos.org at $400,000 -
for Sedo.
Above:
The afternoon sessions began with a
highly anticipated Conversation with a Domain Investing Titan:
Frank Schilling, in which Soeren
von Varchmin interviewed
Schilling, the legendary domain
investor who went on to become
Founder and CEO of Uniregistry.
Schilling was the subject of two
DNJournal Cover Story profiles, the
first in December
2007 and another in November
2012. Below:
During his session, Schilling
fielded questions from the audience.
VPN.com's Michael Gargiulo
was among those who took the
opportunity to get expert advice and
opinions from Frank.
Above:
After a lunch break, it was back to
the Main Hall for a panel discussion
on Dark Horses & Long Shot Opportunities: Where to Invest in Today’s nTLD Market
that brought Jeff Sass
(.CLUB), Kathy Nielsen (Neustar),
Rolf Larsen (.GLOBAL) and
Toby Hall (MMX) to the stage. In
this shot Larsen (at left) and Hall
share a laugh with moderator
Braden Pollock (right).
Above:
While the business sessions are
always a source of useful
information, most attendees say networking
is the #1 reason they go to
conferences. NamesCon Europe
makes sure there is plenty of time
for that, including coffee breaks
at mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
During the break just before the
final business session of the day, Internet
Commerce Association
Executive Director Kamila
Sekiewicz (center) catches up with
friends in the courtyard. Below:
At the same time, conference Founder
Dietmar Stefitz (at right), was
clearly fascinated by something .CLUB
Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass
was showing him on a mobile device.
Above:
At 3:30pm, in a case of extraordinarily
fortunate timing, NamesCon
Europe was able to bring three GoDaddy
executives to the stage for a
session called Ask Me Anything
About GoDaddy’s Aftermarket or
Afternic. They were (left to
right) Paul Nicks (VP &
GM of the GoDaddy Aftermarket), Alan
Shiflett (Senior Manager) and
Joe Styler (Senior Manager,
Aftermarket Community). While this
session was already on the agenda,
it took on added importance when,
earlier this week, it was announced
that GoDaddy's Domain Broker
Service was able to help close
the biggest all cash domain sale
ever publicly reported - Voice.com
at $30 million (you can see
our list of the all
time Top 20 reported sales here).
So, that was a topic the audience
obviously wanted to hear more about.
Nicks was happy to address the sale
and Morgan
Linton captured a
five-minute video clip of Paul's
comments you can watch here.
Above
and below: The opening day at
NamesCon Europe 2019 closed with
the Live and Online Domain
Auction staged by
RightOfTheDot.com and NameJet, with
veteran auctioneer Wayne Wheat
(above) orchestrating the live sale,
as he has done at almost every major
live domain auction in recent years
- a good thing because nobody does it
better. In the shot below Ammar
Kubba falls under Wayne's spell
and places a bid as Dr. Gregg
McNair looks on. While the live
portion of the auction is over (we
haven't yet received a list of
results), the extended
online auction continues
through July 2, 2019 with
nearly 500 premium domain names
still available.
Above
& below: After the Live Auction
ended a Post Auction Reception
was held that stretched well into
the evening. In the top shot we
spotted Sean Stafford (ThreatWave.com)
at left and Trellian/Above.com
President David Warmuz at
right. Next to David is Tess Diaz
from MediaOptions.com/DomainSherpa.com.
Below we have a great photo of Helga
Neumer (left), the Senior
Marketing Manager at NamesCon who
plays a key role in producing all
of the NamesCon events around
the world, and the equally vivacious
Dr. Hani Armstrong, the
Marketing Director at Barefruit.
Above:
So, Day 1 at NamesCon Europe 2019
is now in the books. In one of
the day's many memorable moments,
organizers rounded up a sizeable
group of guests for this class
photo in the courtyard (for a
larger version of the image, click
the photo or this
link). Tomorrow we
expect to have the photos and
highlights from day and night 2 activities
(Friday, June 21). So check back in
with us for that!
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