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After a very
busy opening day and night, the 2023 NamesCon
Global conference resumed Thursday
morning, June 1 for day two of the four-day event
that continued at the Omni Hotel in downtown Austin,
Texas through Saturday, June 3. (If you missed
them, Day 1 photos and highlights are available here.
Day 3 and Day 4 photos and highlights can be
found here).
Show organizers have already announced that NamesCon
Global will return to the same Austin venue next
year, running June 5-8, 2024. Now, let's
continue with our comprehensive NamesCon Global 2023
review.
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Day Two
(Thursday, June 1) - Above.com Keynote
Hall
Day two of NamesCon
Global 2023 opened at 10am on Thursday, June 2 with
NamesCon//Cloudfest CEO Christian Jaeger outlining what
attendees could look forward to in the day and night
ahead.
Below: A few minutes
later GoDaddy Senior Director of Domains Alan Shiflett
kicked off the slate of business sessions in the Keynote Hall
with advice on Mastering Inbound Inquiries: Insights from Analyzing Millions of Domain Leads.
Alan shared his insight on inbound domain inquiries gained from analyzing millions of leads received by GoDaddy over the years. By leveraging data-driven strategies and best practices he detailed how you can improve your ability to effectively respond to and convert inbound inquiries into
sales with your response time, communication style and pricing strategies.
Above: After
Alan's talk, a personal conference highlight for me was having the opportunity to interview
seven of the industry's most successful sales and acquisitions experts in a
Domain Brokers Roundtable in the Keynote Hall. Left to right
on stage are Rehan Ahmad (AccuMedia), Larry Fischer
(GetYouuDomain.com), Nathan Parker (Senior
Domain Broker at Above.com), Ron Jackson
(DNJournal.com), Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com),
David Warmuz (CEO at Above.com), Monte
Cahn (President at RightOfTheDot.com) and Deepak
Daftari (CEO at eSiksha.com). In this informative and entertaining session, attendees learned how domain values are determined and
the processes the best brokers use to buy and sell domains.
Getting direct advice from an array of brokers of this
caliber is a gift that will keep on giving for those wise
enough to put their suggestions into practice.
Above: The morning
sessions continued with Steven Tey (Founder at One Word
Domains) speaking to the timely topic of AI-Driven Brandable Domain Name Generation with DomainsGPT.
Steven detailed how DomainsGPT is changing how brandable domain names are created
through the expanding power of artificial intelligence. He explained why this innovative approach to building an online identity can be transformative for you and your
customers once you look past the hype and apply AI’s powerful
tools to your own domaining business.
Below: In the final
morning session the topic was Turning Traffic into Profit: Monetizing Your Domain Name Portfolio
with the how-to information coming from four of the industry's
best in this field. Left to right are Michael Riedl (CEO
at CentralNic), David Warmuz (CEO at
Trellian/Above.com), Dr. Gregg McNair
(Group Chairman at Premium Traffic Limited Group) and Christian
Voss (CMO at Sedo). The panelists delivered actionable advice on turning domain name traffic into profits with attendees learning how to identify and acquire domains that can generate revenue with traffic generated through search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing and developing landing pages.
Above: The Thursday
(June 1) lunch break was a special one because it marked the
post-Covid return of Women of the Web (previously known
as Women in Domaining). This great event came
back bigger and better than ever under the energetic guidance
of Susan Lawrence (OpenSRS/Enom, Key Account Manager, North America),
at left above, and Lisa Box (Identity Digital, SVP, Strategic Alliances and Business Development)
who were instrumental in producing the original editions
of this celebration of the talented women in our industry.
Above & below:
The WOW meeting, held in a large, open gathering space
on the 16th floor of the Omni, included a buffet, drinks
and a variety of special services and activities geared toward
professional women. The photo below shows what WOW is really
all about though - making new contacts and supporting each
other as you blaze your trail through the business world.
Above: In another
newsworthy event during the lunch break, Escrow.com
invited reporters to their booth in the Exhibition Hall for
the announcement of their Masters of Domains Awards for
the prior year (2022) that go to the top ten domain
brokers on the Escrow.com platform, based on the total dollar
volume they transacted through that popular venue. Or course,
domain sales are transacted through a number of popular
aftermarket venues and financial services, but Escrow.com has
had a large share of the escrow market over the past two
decades, giving their awards added luster. For the fifth
consecutive year, MediaOptions Founder Andrew
Rosener took the #1 Award. Here is the complete
top ten.
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Andrew Rosener - Founder
& CEO of DomainX, LLC
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Keith Richter - Co-Founder of
Lumis Group
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Louis Pickthall –
Co-Founder & VP of BrandForce.com
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Bill Sweetman - President of
Name Ninja
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Joe Uddeme - Principal of
Name Experts LLC
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Jeffrey Gabriel - Co-Founder
of Saw.com Incorporated
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Jack Kalfayan - CEO of
ApexMoon.com
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Ryan McKegney - CEO of
DomainAgents
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James Booth - Founder &
CEO, DomainBooth.com
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Mark Daniel - Managing
Director of Domain Holdings Group
Several of the
winners were at NamesCon and four are in the photo above
Left to right are Manuel Rábade (Escrow.com), winner Ryan
McKegney, winner Bill Sweetman, Mauli
Fry (Escrow.com), winner Mark Daniel, Marko
Zitko (Escrow.com) and winner Joe Uddeme.
A fifth winner, Jeffrey Gabriel, was at the presentation but
had to leave for a meeting before the photo was taken.
Above: After
lunch the focus shifted entirely to the NamesCon RightOfThe
Dot Domain & Digital Asset Auction. The hour long Red
Zone: Pre-Auction Warmup session set the stage for the
big sale as panelists voiced their opinions about the various
names that would be put up for bid starting at 3pm. The experts included (left to right): Steven Tey
(One Word Domains), Deepak Ramani (BrandX), Dennis
Tinerino (Domain Smoke), Braden Pollock
(Legal Brand Marketing), Ammar Kubba (afterTHOUGHT)
and Larry Fischer (GetYourDomain.com).
Below: Every year
many cite the warm-up session as one of their favorites as
there is a lot to learn from how the experts analyze a variety
of names - plus it tends to be an entertaining, casual affair
with the information often interlaced with humorous commentary
(possibly because the auction's free bar at the back of
the room is already open)!
Above & below:
Once the auction got underway with World Champion auctioneer Wayne
Wheat calling the action (assisted by Lebbeus Kemp
at left and ROTD President Monte Cahn at right),
the bidding was hot and heavy with total sales coming in at more
than $2.2 million, the highest total in several
years.
Above: RightOfTheDot
President Monte Cahn had good reason to smile after the
company's latest NamesCon Global live domain auction
that was led by a $1.4 million sale of Holiday.com.
Additional top sales included Programming.com at $385,000,
Sandra.com at $70,000, Megan.com
at $67,500 and Caveat.com at $50,000.
Day
Two (Thursday, June 1) - GoDaddy Breakout Stage
With the afternoon
Thursday devoted to the live domain auction, activity on the Breakout
Stage was limited to two morning sessions. In the first of
those (below) Louis Pickthall, Co-Founder and Vice
President at BrandForce.com, who was interviewed by
Soeren von Varchmin, told attendees How to Give
Domain Buyers What They Really Want. Louis is a
personable, young Frank Schilling protégé who has had a
meteoric rise since he left Uniregistry and co-founded
his own brokerage dedicated solely to top tier domains. As one
of the top brokers in the world last year he racked up over
$60 million in sales, so the audience, as you would expect,
paid careful attention to the information he shared about what
has worked for him.
Above: In the final
Breakout Stage session Thursday (June 1) a panel of experts
discussed nTLDs as Cultural Drivers: The Art of Identity in the Hip Hop Era.
The session featured (left to right) Jeff Sass (.ART
Domains), Arjene Watson (Managing Director at
Dot Hip Hop), Thomas Barrett (President at
Encirca and AltRoots), Matt Overman (CRO at
Identity Digital) and Jeff Neuman (Founder &
CEO at JJN Solutions). With the music and fashion worlds
celebrating hip hop’s 50th anniversary, the panelists explored
the latest trends in end-user nTLD uptake that are helping to
shape modern culture.
ConneXion
Party - Thursday night June 1 - at the Summit Rooftop Bar in
Austin
With the day's
business done, attendees from both NamesCon Global and Cloudfest
USA united for CPanel's big ConneXion Party at
Austin's Summit Rooftop Bar. They got a pleasant
surprise when The Spazmatics (Google them) appeared on stage
delivered an electrifying, crowd pleasing 80s music revival
that ran late into the night.
Above: The ConneXion party crowd getting into The
Spazmatics!
Below: The band was equally adept and delivering music
and unforgettable selfies!
Above: Domain
investors spotted in the crowd at the ConneXion Party
(left to right): Braden Pollock, with three of
our fellow Florida residents, Mark Daniel, the one and
only Mike Mann and Curt Silbert. Thanks to
Braden for the photo!
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It
was a late right for many but bright and early the next morning
it was time to rise and shine for NamesCon
Global Day 3 (Friday, June 2) - the final
business day, followed by the show closing Fun Day
(Saturday, June 3). Click here for photos and
highlights from both!
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