The Thursday agenda at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando began with a networking session that matched registrants with others who shared a specific interest, such as

development, SEO or monetization. Three seminars followed capped by an afternoon session, "Insider Tips", that featured half a dozen industry experts. Several of those were speaking for the first time at a domain conference so it was especially interesting to hear their proven strategies for success. Lonnie Borck, Page Howe and Dave Evanson were in that group and I also got to hear Sedo's Lissi Mack-de-Boer for the first time. Ofer Ronen of Sendori.com (whose company we plan to profile soon) and I also took part. I'll have more details and photos from all of the seminar sessions in our complete conference review article that will be out by the end of next week.

Lonnie Borck giving a terrific talk 
Thursday afternoon at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East.

After the day's educational program ended attendees were treated to a late afternoon wine and cheese networking party in the sponsor exhibit area. The Parked.com booth was especially popular all week thanks partly to a Segway personal transporter they brought for registrants to ride (almost all doing it for the first time). Parked should have set up an affiliate arrangement with Segway because everyone who rode one, wanted to buy one!

Nat Cohen gets his bearings on a Segway personal transporter under 
the watchful eye of the vehicle's owner, Parked.com CEO Sig Solares.

Parked.com also treated everyone to a big beach party last night. Due to inclement weather that event actually ended up being moved indoors but that certainly didn't dampen anyone's spirits. Two Disney illustrators were brought in to do cartoon caricatures of attendees and people howled with laughter as they watched the artists render cartoon versions of their friends and associates. There was plenty of great food and drink as a tropical band played in the background and it wound being a great evening.

Crowd gathers around as Moniker.com CEO Monte Cahn get the cartoon caricature 
treatment from a talented Disney artist at last night's Parked.com Beach Party.

A closer look at Cahn's cartoon alter-ego taking shape.

The final business day of the conference is currently underway. Due to a full schedule that will take us into the wee hours of the morning and a business meeting that will run right up to checkout time tomorrow, I won't have a chance to recap today's activities (which include Moniker's big live domain auction) until we get back to our home base in Tampa tomorrow evening, so please check back then. Though attendance at this show is lighter than recent T.R.A..F.F.I.C. conferences have been (organizers say just over 360 registered) I don't think I have ever seen registrants enjoying themselves as much as they have this week. 
(Posted May 23, 2008)