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an impressive debut at the
same venue last year but this time out it has simply exploded.
Close to 400 people gathered here last year but by the end
of the day Monday more than 600 people had checked
in for the 2008 event that will continue through tomorrow
night.
At a time when we are hearing
so much news about a major slowdown in the general economy
it was very impressive to see that kind of growth at a
function that, even though it provides an
exceptional |
One
of several opening day seminars at
DOMAINfest Global in Hollywood, California |
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value for the money spent,
requires a serious financial commitment (airline flights,
hotel rooms and registration fee) to attend. The most
amazing statistic I heard was that more than half of
the registrants at this conference said this is the first
time they have ever attended a domain show.
Conferences are one of the vital signs of an industry's
health and the evidence here shows the domain business is
still strong and growing at a remarkable clip.
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Adventurer
Brent Bishop
delivering Monday's keynote speech |
In the first major
event of the day, Brent Bishop (who has
climbed Mount Everest twice) ably stepped in
as a last minute replacement for good friend and
fellow adventurer Peter Hillary who had to
bow out to attend the state funeral for his father,
the legendary Sir Edmund Hillary, held
yesterday in New Zealand. Bishop drew some
interesting parallels between climbing mountains and
succeeding with domains. I will have more details on
his talk and all of the seminars and events from
DOMAINfest in our comprehensive conference wrap up
article that will be published late next week. While
the event is underway activity is almost non-stop,
so it's a challenge to break away long enough to
post daily show highlights. You hate to be off the
floor because you don't want to miss anything that
is going on! |
Oversee.net,
who stages DOMAINfest, has put together a very ambitious
agenda that will include a domain Town Hall meeting led by
Frank
Schilling today and a second keynote speech
from Wired Magazine co-founder John
Battelle tomorrow, as well as two days of SnapNames
Live domain auctions (the first scheduled to
start at 4pm Pacific time today).
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I think one of the
smartest innovations DOMAINfest implemented with
this event was making the sponsor exhibit hall the
place to hang out during the week. Without sponsor
support there would be no conferences but sponsors
often find that the location allocated for their
exhibits is "off the beaten track."
DOMAINfest cured that problem by filling the exhibit area with comfortable sofas and chairs and
multiple refreshment stations always stocked with
coffee, |
Attendees
take a break in the sponsor exhibit hall. |
|
soft drinks and snacks.
You also have to walk through the exhibit area to
get into two of the main seminar meeting rooms. As a
result, the area was constantly packed and there was
never a shortage of visitors to individual booths. I
spoke with many happy sponsors who appreciated that
and it will earn DOMAINfest a lot of repeat and new
sponsorship business. |
|
(L
to R) Michael Castello, Ron Jackson,
David Castello and Natalie Lambert
at
last night's DOMAINfest cocktail party |
Opening
day ended with a boisterous cocktail party at the
hotel's Twist Lounge that ran past the
scheduled 9:30pm closing time. This was another
great networking opportunity and attendees were out
in force to take advantage of it, as well as to
enjoy some great food and drink. It was a very
enjoyable warm-up for the main social event tonight
- the DomainSponsor party at the nearby Highlands
Hollywood Night Club that will run until at
least 2am Wednesday. That means there is an 18-hour
day ahead of me and it's starting in a few minutes
so I'll sign off for now. Wish you could all be
here, but for those who can't we will do our best to
document it for you and convey the show experience
as best we can. |
|
(Posted
Jan. 22, 2008) |
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