The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando officially ended this morning with a farewell breakfast and a meeting of the show's advisory board. The last full business day Friday (May 

23) began with an SEO Expert's panel. I'll have details on that session and all of the other seminars and events in our comprehensive conference review article that will be published on our home page no later than May 31. 

At Friday's noon luncheon I gave an update on the latest information we have on aftermarket domain sales trends. Despite a continuing downturn in the general economy, the domain aftermarket continues to grow, though results from the first six weeks of 2Q-2008 indicate that the rate of growth is slowing. Over that time frame $11.1 million worth of completed sales were reported to us. In the same period in 2Q-2007, $10.9 million in sales had been reported (these results do not include sales from Moniker's live domain auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East yesterday. Those still have to go through the payment and domain transfer process).

The entire afternoon was devoted to the live 

Ron Jackson updating attendees on 2008 
domain sales trends at Friday luncheon.

auction that produced a little over $2.5 million in sales. The highest bids went to a half-dozen domains that each attracted six-figure prices; GasPrices.com ($225,000), InsuranceRates.com ($225,000), Rainbow.com ($170,000), Athlete.com ($122,00), OW.com ($120,000) and Ringtones.org ($120,000). Michael Berkens posted the complete list of results on his blog at TheDomains.com. 

Scene from Moniker's live domain auction May 23 at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2008 in Orlando.

After the auction, registrants enjoyed a dinner featuring buffet stations representing each of Disney's four theme parks and several prize drawings. After dinner, a large group of attendees headed for the Magic Kingdom to take advantage of a late 11pm-2am park opening for Disney hotel guests only.

Dr. Chris Hartnett gets into the spirit of things after the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the wee hours of this morning at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Behind him, left to right, are Gregg McNair, Barbara Neu and Rob Grant. The rapidly departing woman in the blue blouse is an innocent bystander wondering who the crazy guy with the sword is and how quickly she can escape!

We shot more than 1,400 photos during the week and the best of those will be included in our upcoming conference wrap up article. Our daily Lowdown posts from Orlando this week have been just a sampling of show events so you won't want to miss our definitive show review when it is released late next week.
(Posted May 24, 2008)