Resort). Yesterday's schedule was highlighted by a keynote address from ICANN President and CEO Dr. Paul Twomey, who is a native of Brisbane (a city located a little north of the Gold Coast. Brisbane is also home to Fabulous.com who is staging this first ever overseas T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show). 

As he always does, the personable and well spoken Dr. Twomey gave an interesting and wide-ranging talk about what ICANN is working on and how professional domainers can get involved in the organization's policy making procedure. He also fielded questions from the audience in a Q and A session after his talk. I will save the details for our comprehensive show review article that will be posted late next week after I return

ICANN President and CEO Dr. Paul Twomey 
delivering his keynote address at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 
Down Under Tuesday (Nov. 17).

to the U.S. My goal with these daily Lowdown posts is to give you a flavor of what is happening overall at the show each day. Dr. Twomey's lunch time talk was sandwiched between a pair of morning seminars on Domain Strategy and Industry Development and another twin bill in the afternoon focused on Law & Regulation and Australian Domains. 

auDA CEO Chris Disspain	All four educational sessions were very well done and the finale on Australian domains was especially interesting to me. I am a firm believer in the value of major country code domains and since Australia relaxed some of its stringent rules on ownership and sale of .au domains, that ccTLD is enjoying spectacular growth averaging 25% annually.  A four-man panel including the CEO of the .au governing body (auDA), Chris Disspain, presented an in-depth overview of where .au has been, where it is now and where it is headed in the future. Those of us visiting from the States learned a great deal about .au from both the panel and
Aussie domainers who filled us in on some of the unique issues that accompany investment in .au domains. I'll have more details and photos from all four of the Tuesday sessions in our show wrap up article.

Yesterday's schedule was supposed to culminate with an Australian BBQ Beach Party but the constant rain forced that event inside. Fabulous pulled off a great save and made the change of venue work, bringing in exotic animals and fire dancers that kept the crowd entertained. Before I left home my wife asked me to bring back just one thing - a koala bear! I'm sure that would create some issues going through customs, but I did get her some nice pictures of the koala bear that was brought to the party last night. Though the koala is certainly one of the most lovable creations on earth, I'm afraid we won't be able to add one to Diana's already overflowing menagerie of pets. 

Parked.com CEO Sig Solares pets a koala bear - one of several native Australian animals  that were guests and big attention getters at Tuesday night's dinner party.

With respect to the rain, it has seldom let up since it started Monday and is forecast to continue through Thursday. With some luck it will break Friday for the show's post conference activity
day. I feel for the show organizers who were looking forward to a week of great weather (something that is usually a sure thing on the Gold Coast at this time of year) but it is obviously out of their hands and it has been good for this region that has been going through a severe drought.  The rain has also failed to dampen spirits among show goers. They are thoroughly enjoying the chance to meet so many like minded people from around the world. The majority of attendees are from Australia and there is no way you can hang around a group of fun loving Australians without having a great time! Their unique sense of humor and hospitality makes you feel right at home. While nice weather is obviously  a good thing, the #1 reason you go to shows is to meet with fellow domain investors - everything else is a distant second, so no worries here mate (hope I said that right - still getting the hang of the lingo).	One of the fire dancers that heated things  up at last night's dinner party.
(Posted Nov. 18, 2008)