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The
time has finally come. After a pandemic
induced two-and-a-half year wait, domain and
digital asset investors, developers and service
providers from all over the world will
finally get to meet face to face again this week
at the 2022 NamesCon
Global Conference in Austin, Texas.
The big show will run Wednesday (August 31)
through Saturday (September 3) at the downtown Omni
Hotel. A
jam-packed two-track
agenda filled with business sessions
and social events will begin playing out at 10AM
(U.S. Central Time) Wednesday when |
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Soeren
von Varchmin, Chairmain of the NamesCon Advisory
Board, will host the Welcoming Session. The first
day of business will continue until 6pm
when The Opening Night Reception Party will
be held at the Omni. After that ends at 9pm, those
still not ready to call it a night can reconvene
offsite at 9:45pm for a Frank Schilling
Tribute Party, open to all NamesCon attendees,
that Gregg McNair is hosting at Eberly
in Austin.
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I will be
hosting two opening day sessions in the
Bodis Keynote Hall Wednesday. The first
one at 11:05am is a Fireside Chart
with domain investors/artist Christian
Calvin that I previewed in a Lowdown
post last month. Over
the past few months Christian has created a
special NFT series just for NamesCon
that will be up for grabs during this
year’s live
domain and digital asset auction
that will be held Thursday afternoon. We
will give you a behind the scenes look at
Christian's NFT creation process so you can
see what aesthetic, platform, and messaging
choices go into creating an NFT that’s
built to last.
I'll return at 4:30pm
for what promises to be a great session with
Trellian
Co-Founder David Warmuz. Trellian is
celebrating their 25th
Anniversary this year and David
will be sharing some amazing stories from
his quarter of a century in this business. We
will discuss how the arrival of PPC
revenue |
Christian
Calvin |
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sparked
an explosion in domain sales that has
grown into today’s booming domain
investment industry. David and his late
brother and company co-founder, Ren,
bought an astounding of domains in
those early years before establishing
Trellian's still flourishing domain
monetization platform Above.com.
David will tell attendees about what
led to that purchasing binge, as well as the
incredible story of his 22-year pursuit
of the domain he wanted most and finally got
- Trillion.com (yes, that would have
been the company's name instead of Trellian
if it had not proven to be such an elusive
catch)!
In
the early years of Trellian, Founders Ren
and David Warmuz introduce trade show
attendees to the Submit Wolf search
engine submission software that was one of Trellian's
biggest hits. |
One
other thing about this long-awaited edition of
NamesCon. I will be covering it in a different
way than I have past conferences. Normally, I
would post a full recap of the previous day's events
each morning during the show. To do that I
had to spend many hours off the show floor,
writing and editing photos for the next daily
report. One thing the pandemic and the recent
unexpected passing of Shaun
Pilfold has finally taught me is that we
never know when or even if we will see some
of our friends and colleagues again.
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So,
after missing everyone for over two and half
years, my priority for this conference will
be to spend as much time as possible on the
floor talking to people. I will still be
popping into every single session to
get photos and notes to share with you.
However, instead of posting a full daily
recap, I will post
some daily highlights but save the
bulk of the coverage for a complete
conference wrap-up Cover Story that I
will write when I'm back from Austin. That
way you will still see everything you have
become accustomed to seeing and I
will have some invaluable extra time to
catch up with friends and colleagues while
we all in one place at the same
time - something I think some of
us have been guilty of taking for
granted, but likely will not any
longer. |
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At
the last NamesCon Global conference
in January
2020, before the pandemic hit, are
(left to right) attorneys Howard
Neu and Karen Bernstein,
DNJournal's Ron Jackson and
Soeren von Varchmin, Chairman of
the NamesCon Advisory Board. |
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My next
post will be from NamesCon. Hope to see you
there but if you can't make it, keep an eye on
this space for some daily highlights after the
show begins. Now it's almost time for the curtain to
go up!
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