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You can
read those daily recaps at these links: Pre-Show
Photos & Highlights from T.R.A.F.F.I.C West in Las
Vegas Day
1 Photos & Highlights from the 2014 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West Conference in Las Vegas Day
2 Photos & Highlights from the 2014 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West Conference in Las Vegas Curtain
Comes Down on T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014: Photos &
Highlights from the Last Two Days in Las Vegas While
I was able to cover all of the event bases, at least
lightly, in those posts, the high volume of sessions
and social activities did not leave enough time to
comment a lot on a couple of key sessions or to
tell you about one of the brightest highlights
for me - meeting so many interesting people
for the first time. So, those are the points I
will focus on in this final look back at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014.
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Neil
Sackmary - GetItFido.com |
It is very rare for
me to attend a conference where I don't meet at
least one person that makes the entire
trip worth the time and expense to go. At
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West I met many times more
that fit that description (and you never know
when others you touched base with for the first
time, however briefly, will end up being people
that you later develop invaluable relationships
with). That underscores how important and
irreplaceable face to face contact is,
even though we are in a business that is based
on products and services that exist only in the
virtual world.
I'll start with
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s new lead sponsor, Neil
Sackmary of GetItFido.com.
Neil was on stage for a couple of presentations
during the conference in which he detailed the domain
monetization platform he developed for his
own company and is now opening to other domain
investors. Sackmary's tools incorporate PPC,
directing ad sales, sub-domain sales, automated
storefronts, eBay tools, traffic splitting and
other features. Those were interesting but the
things I really took to heart came in one to one
conversations where he talked about what has
made him a successful entrepreneur (he
runs both online and brick & mortar jewelry
and coin businesses that are very
profitable.) |
Neil pays attention to
the little things. He noticed people walking up to the
door at neighboring businesses at opening time only to
be greeted by a locked door as owners routinely showed
up late (or occasionally not all). His shop always
opens on time and he does everything he can to
match his reliability with a price that keeps people
coming back. Sackmary works hard and with a passion
- something he also has for his friends in the Las
Vegas based rock band Otherwise (their albums
are available on the seminal rock label Century
Media), who Neil arranged to have play live at the
official T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Party. I've always believed
you need to be passionate about what you do as that
passion shines through to others and, more importantly,
gives you the greatest luxury in life - working at
something you really love to do. Neil has that and
it was good to be reminded of how important an asset
that is.
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Meeting and
spending a good bit of time talking with
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. keynote speaker Howard
Lefkowitz was also a huge positive
for me. The brilliant serial entrepreneur has
done just about everything and met just about
everybody in the business world (as I told him,
he really should write a book or two, or
three - I would buy them all.)
In
addition to being the former President
& CEO of Vegas.com,
Howard has worked personally with people like Ted
Turner and leaders of giant corporations
like Costco. He has a rich background in
all forms of media including network TV
and the Internet so, as you would expect, his
keynote covered a lot of ground and gave the
audience a lot to think about with respect
to how domains fit into the new media world.
His insight was truly worth the price of
admission.
Among
the many topics Lefkowitz commented on I |
Howard
Lekowitz |
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thought
one of the most interesting was his belief that
industry giant Google is vulnerable
and could fall to a more nimble competitor.
Google is so strong the notion sounds
preposterous but Lefkowitz pointed out the long
trail of bodies left when previous Internet
giants lost their way and their lunch along the
way - remember how important Excite, Alta
Vista and Lycos used to be? All
taken down by a new wave of search engines,
Google, Yahoo! and Bing (with Google now
dominating that trio and making life somewhat
miserable for domain investors with their virtual
monopoly over PPC payouts). |
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Lefkowitz,
who has been right about many things over the
years, thinks Google's run could well run out,
calling them "a one-trick pony -
search" - with everything else they do just
bolted on. He predicted that as soon as the end
of next year a new disruptive search entrant could
make life miserable for Google - leaving some
wondering if he might be involved in |
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such
a newcomer himself (something he declined to
comment on). Leftkowitz noted that industry
behemoths often make the mistake of believing
their own press and added that no innovation
came from big companies. |
Lefkowitz
also commented on new gTLDs which, as you would
expect, were widely discussed at the conference. He
thinks some of them have potential - and, not
surprisingly, he likes .Vegas. However,
Lekowitz also said ".Com is not going away.
It took years for people to go to new TV
channels (when cable came in) and it will take years
for new gTLDs as well...some will rise to the top and
some won't."
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Speaking
of .Vegas, I got a familiar warm feeling
when meeting the new registry's President &
CEO Jim Trevino. I say familiar because
it is a little hard to describe, but it reminded
me of the feeling I had when I met Michael
& David Castello for the first time back
in 2006 - a feeling that we would be friends for
a long time even though we had just met. 8 years
later we remain friends and I expect we always
will be - and it has nothing to do with
business - we have never done any business
together - it is just a great personal
relationship based on a lot of common interests
and beliefs that become apparent before you have
even talked about them to any great
degree.
Jim
and I only chatted for a few minutes and through
an email exchange after the show, but we plan to
get together along with our wives when I am back
in Las Vegas next January for Namescon and
I am looking forward to getting to know this
fascinating entrepreneur better.
This
is the special thing about our |
Ron
Jackson & Jim Trevino (.Vegas) |
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business
and about conferences - so many great relationships,
both business and personal - that stand the
test of time come out of these invaluable
opportunities to meet face to face.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West delivered those
opportunities in spades even though the overall
attendance was low by T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s
standards. Though it was not the case when the
Bellagio was originally booked, a new show and a
schedule change wound up making T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
the third consecutive conference to be
held in the same region over a span of
just five months (following NamesCon in
January and Domainfest in late March-early
April). While that impacted attendance it did
not affect the quality of the attendees,
sending many home with the feeling that it was one
of their most productive shows to
date. It reminds of the 2008
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference at Disney
World in Orlando that people still
talk about as one of their favorites even though
the attendance at that event was well below the
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. average. |
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West 2014 had the same kind of positive vibe, made
even more so after meeting people like .CLUB's
personable Chairman and CEO Colin Campbell, Luis
Petzhold who hails from Portugal, my long
time firend Ilze Kaulins-Plaskacz's son Gerrit
Plaskacz who is just entering the business, Neil
Resnick from MediaOptions.com and his wife
Laura, DomainNameSales.com broker Mohammed Khan,
Francine & Tom Feisel from iDomain.com
in Houston and many others (believe me, i could
go on and on). 
Tom
& Francine Feisel of iDomain.com at their first
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference Years
ago all of the old friends I enjoyed seeing in
Las Vegas again were people I was meeting for the
first time at another show (some of those going all
the way back to the first conference of them all - T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
2004 - where I first met T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founders Rick Schwartz & Howard Neu,
Howard's wife Barbara and Roy Messer
(all of whom were also at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014). I
can't imagine not having all of the great domain
people I've met along the way in my life now. If
you want to start building some new relationships of
your own - relationships that can both advance your
business and enrich your personal life - the perfect
opportunity is just four months away.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s 10th
anniversary show is coming up October
30-November 2, 2014 at the Fontainebleau Hotel
on Miami Beach, a landmark event that is
expected to have both quantity and
quality. That's as good a win-win situation as you
will ever find and I hope I will have an opportunity
to meet you there! |
