The 2019 NamesCon Europe conference continued Friday (June 21) at Portugal's historic Pestana Cidadela Cascais hotel in the beautiful waterfront resort town just north of Lisbon (you can see photos and highlights from Thursday's opening day here). The 11th annual event, that concludes with an all day Beach Party Saturday), has attracted 160 industry leaders, service providers and domain investor/developers from throughout Europe, as well as several who made the trip from the U.S. and other points around the globe. 

This show, originally known as  

Domaining Europe, was founded by Dietmar Stefitz, who turned the reins over to NamesCon after co-producing last year's 10th anniversary event with them. Here are some photos and highlights from the second day of the 2019 conference Friday (photos are courtesy of NamesCon Europe except the evening cruise shots at the end that are credited to their contributors):

Above: Day 2 Friday began with what had to be a first for any domain conference - A conversation conducted by NamesCon President and CEO Soeren von Varchmin with Pro Surfers (left to right) Andrew Cotton, João de Macedoa and Alex Unwin, titled At One with the Forces of Nature. Cascais is a center of surfing culture in Portugal and NamesCon always tries to give attendees some of the rich flavor of the unique cities that the show visits. Attendees could take what they learned from the pros Friday and apply their tips in an actual Surf Class that is part of the agenda for Saturday's conference closing Beach Party. 

Above: It was back to domains at 11:50am when Morgan Linton took the stage to provide advice on Using Tools to Better Track Your Domain Sales Funnel. 

Below: Next up, Pavel Ciocan, Head of Development at Internet.bs, drew a crowd to his session on Making Domains Simple Again - a practical demonstration of unique solutions to managing large portfolios of domain names.

Above: In the last session before the afternoon lunch break, another popular Domain Sherpa Review gave attendees insight into the key elements that make specific domain names valuable. This session featured experts (left to right): Tess Diaz (Domain Sherpa), Monte Cahn (RightOfTheDot.com) and broker Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com).

Above: A look at one corner of the Exhibit/Lunch area before attendees started streaming in for the Friday afternoon lunch break. It was also a popular spot for one on one meetings when the rest of the crowd was in the adjacent Session Room listening to speakers.

Below: Top Level Design CEO Ray King (at right) chatting with a friend in the Exhibit area Friday.

Above: Back in the Session Room at 2:30pm, a panel discussion got underway called No Exit: How to Maximize your Portfolio’s Value Without Selling. The panelists examined ways to determine if your domains could be more valuable to you as a source of recurring revenue rather than assets to be be sold off. This discussion featured (left to right): Moderator Braden Pollock, Dave Roberts (ProtectedParking.com), David Warmuz (President and CEO, Trellian/Above.com), James Tuplin (Director of Business Development, Bodis.co) and Yancy Naughton (Founder at HasTraffic.com).

Above & Below: After the afternoon coffee break, the final business session of NamesCon Europe 2019 brought everyone back to the Session Hall to hear about Navigating Appraised Value vs. Market Value of Your Domain. The experts detailed the difference between your appraised value and the actual market value of a domain, helping you sharpen your expectations if you decide to sell. This session featured (left to right above): veteran domain entrepreneur/investor Ammar Kubba, Joe Styler (GoDaddy), Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com), Morgan Linton and moderator Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com). When they were done it was time to toast a job well done and the conclusion of the business portion of this year's show.

Above: NamesCon President Soeren von Varchmin and Founder Dietmar Stefitz took the stage for some closing comments and to break some news. Soeren revealed that locations have already been chosen for the next three editions of NamesCon Europe. The show will go to Budapest in 2020, on to Rome in 2021 and Cologne in 2022. I like those choices and am already making plans for Budapest, with a pre or post show side trip to Prague (a short flight from Budapest, but I will probably take the train as I love rail travel in Europe).

Above: While the business sessions were done the the show was far from over. Now the focus would be entirely on social events starting with an evening sailboat cruise Friday sponsored by Lisbon-based brokerage GGRG.com. This vessel took guests along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline that attracts so many people to this part of Portugal. (Photo courtesy of Mark Ghoriafi).

Below: LegalBrandMarketing.com Founder and NamesCon Europe Moderator Braden Pollock and his wife Lisa Bloom staked out a prime spot to enjoy the Friday evening cruise. (Photo from Braden's Facebook page).

Above: A view of the Cascais shoreline from the GGRG.com saiboat.

Below: .GLOBAL Registry CEO & Founder Rolf Larsen (left) and .GLOBAL Marketing Manager Mark Ghoriafi on deck. Thanks to Mark for these two shots!

With Day 2 in the books there was still one day left to go at NamesCon Europe 2019 - one that would be dedicated to a day-long Beach Party in Cascais Saturday. We will wrap up our conference coverage with some shots from that event in our next Lowdown post.