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Metnick recalled how he
built an Excel file listing the owner and contact information for
every major .com city domain then set about contacting every one
of them to see if they would be interested in forming an
association. Most ignored his inquiries, but a handful saw the value
in what he proposed and enthusiastically joined with him to get
Associated Citied off the ground. Hoagland recalled sitting with
Metnick in a New Orleans bar and sketching out plans for the group
on a napkin.
| At lunch Saturday, Internet
Commerce Association Legal Counsel Phil Corwin
delivered a compelling speech, covering a wide range of
issues facing the domain community as well as geodomain
owners specifically. Corwin keeps an eye on all proposed
legislation in Congress as well as policy changes being
considered by ICANN
that could have an adverse effect on domain owners.
Corwin said a lot legislation is being trotted out
in Washington aimed at separating domain owners from
their assets and much of it would have become law if the
industry did not have its own voice on Capitol Hill - this
year's Snowe bill, being a prime example. Likewise it
is critical to be involved in the ICANN process and the ICA
recently joined ICANN's Business Constituency (as
have the Castello Brothers) to make sure domain owners have
a voice in domain name system governance issues.
The key issue facing the ICA is garnering enough
financial support to continue its mission and broaden the
scope of what the association can do to defend domain
owners. If everyone in the industry joined at the minimum
level domain owners would have a much better chance of
fending off attacks that are sure to accelerate in the
months and years ahead. |
Phil
Corwin
ICA Legal Counsel |
After lunch I sat on a GeoDomains
in the News panel with David Kesmodel, Andrew
Allemann (DomainNameWire.com), Elliot Silver (ElliotsBlog.com)
and Steven Morales (SimplyGeo.com) that was moderated by
David Castello.
GeoDomains
in the News panel (left to right): Ron Jackson, David
Kesmodel,
Andrew Allemann, Elliot Silver and Steven Morales.
Silver was one of the first bloggers to write
extensively about geodomains as he detailed (and continues to
detail) his experiences in acquiring and developing geo domains like
Lowell.com and Burbank.com (he also bought Seacaucus.com
in Moniker's live auction that followed soon after our panel
session).
Morales went a step further and created a blog that was entirely
about geodomains. His work caught Skip Hoagland's attention and they
formed a partnership that has rolled out several geo related media
sites with more on the way.
| Kesmodel deserves credit for
being one of the first mainstream reporters to break the
domain story to the man on the street through his articles
for the Wall
Street Journal's online edition. Allemann and I write about
the domain industry at large but both find ourselves writing
frequently about the geo space as it continues to rise in
prominence.
Mark
Burgess and Skip Hoagland presided over the GeoDomainer
Town Hall Meeting
At 3 o'clock it was time for a GeoDomainer Town
Hall Meeting presided over by Mark Burgess (SanDiego.com)
and Skip Hoagland (Domain New Media LLC). This
session put the audience right in the middle of the mix. The
open mike format allowed registrants to ask questions of
Burgess and Hoagland or pose questions of their own that
either the moderators or other audience members could
answer. It was a great format for putting problems on the
table and getting solutions from fellow geodomainers who had
faced similar issues and found viable solutions.
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|
Auctioneer
Wayne Wheat |
At 4:30pm Moniker's live geodomain auction took
center stage. Moniker brought in a new auctioneer for this event, Wayne Wheat,
whose high energy style kept things moving at a brisk pace (Wheat
was assisted by a frenetic spotter named Leb who added
further color to the show).
The sale stretched over the next two and half hours
and produced $279,000
in total sales. The top sale was SantaClara.com and a group
of additional Santa Clara related domains that Page Howe
purchased for $82,500. The next best sales were Afghan.com
($30,000) and Asia.org (also $30,000). OysterBay.com
added another $24,500.
The Castello Brothers raised $2,500
for the Internet Commerce Association by donating ChicagoHotelReservations.com
to the sale with the proceeds earmarked for the ICA. You can see the
complete list of auction results here.
|
Jay
Westerdal (Thought Convergence/Name Intelligence) and Ammar
Kubba
(Thought Convergence/TrafficZ) compare notes during the live
domain auction.
The final event of the conference was a big one, the 2008 GeoDomain Awards
Dinner Saturday night. I had the honor of emceeing the event
and handing out the highly deserved honors. Below is a list of the
winners in the ten categories with photos of those who had
representatives at the dinner to accept their awards.
Also note that in addition to the plaques the
winners are pictured with, all will receive beautiful engraved
crystal awards to suitably commemorate their accomplishment. We are
also listing the other nominees in each category. All of the
nominees and winners were selected in voting by their peers
(conducted at the show), a high honor that every nominee can take
pride in.
The envelopes please....
David
and Michael Castello accept the
Best Monetized GeoDomain Award for PalmSprings.com
Brian
Dillon and Jon Lumpkin accept the Most Economic Impact
Award for Richmond.com
Vegas.com
did not have a representative at the Expo - I accepted on their
behalf.
Sean
Miller accepted the Best GeoDomain Technology Award for
NewYorkCity.com
Vegas.com
did not have a representative at the Expo - I accepted on their
behalf.
Hawaii.com
did not have a representative at the Expo - I accepted on their
behalf.
(Left
to Right) Josh Stauffer, Larry Milton and Jeremia Froyland
accepted
the Best U.S. Destination GeoDomain for Branson.com
(Left
to right) Michael Castello, Ramon Lujan and David Castello
accept
the Best International City GeoDomain Award for CCIN's
Acapulco.com
Australia.com
did not have a representative at the Expo - I accepted on their
behalf.
(Left
to right) Patrick Carleton, Michael Castello and David Castello
accept their awards as the first inductees to the GeoDomain
Hall of Fame
After the awards dinner officially brought
down the curtain on the 2008 GeoDomain Expo many of the winners and
nominees scattered around Chicago to celebrate. One large group
including the Castello Brothers, Patrick Carleton and the
Branson.com team (Larry Milton, Jeremia Froyland and Josh Stauffer)
congregated in the lounge at the
Four Seasons Hotel where Skip Hoagland spent the week and
co-hosted this post-awards party.
GeoDomain
Award Winner Larry Milton (at left, from Branson.com)
chats with
Mike Ward (Atlanta.com) at a post awards celebration at
Chicago's Four Seasons Hotel
Elliot
Silver (left, ElliotsBlog.com) and new GeoDomain Hall of
Famer Patrick Carleton
Multiple
GeoDomain Award Winner (with brother David) Michael Castello
and Diana Jackson at the Four Seasons
Diana and I hung in with them as long as we
could but finally had to throw in the towel at 1:30am and barely
woke up in time to catch our Sunday morning flight back to Florida.
I later read on Elliot's Blog that he and Michael Castello were
still up smoking cigars in front of the Four Seasons at 3am. I'm
going to have to talk to Phil Corwin to see if he can get Congress
to pass some legislation requiring that geodomainers go to bed at a
decent hour! Lack of sleep aside, this was a great week in
Chicago and the bright entrepreneurs in the geo space and their
business development focus always make them a pleasure to be
around.
In closing I think three people deserve
special recognition for their exceptionally hard work in the
trenches to make the 2008 GeoDomain Expo successful; Patrick
Carleton, Brad Spirrison (MidwestBusiness.com) and David
Castello put out the fires that inevitably crop up behind the
scenes to make this conference run like a well-oiled machine.
David's many years as a concert promoter on L.A.'s Sunset Strip
served the team well as they managed to draw a crowd despite having
just seven weeks to work with (the short window resulted from the
need to find dates that the co-promoting Kelsey Group could also
work into their schedule).
|
Above:
Brad Spirrison and Patrick Carleton
At
right: David Castello |
|
David said they expect to have six months
to promote the 2009 conference and with that much lead time there's
no telling what they can achieve. Several potential locations are
being bandied about including Dallas
and the southern tourism mecca, Branson, Missouri. A good
location always adds to the package, but with this group it's the
people who really make the difference. So I'll go wherever they
stage it. If I'm lucky it might even be someplace with an 11pm
curfew so I can get some sleep during show week!
*****
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