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Kevin
Wood (standing at left) tells a panel of
investors why they should back
his plans for Companion.com. The panel
included (left to right): Roy Messer,
Gregg McNair, Michael Mann, Adam
Dicker and Dr. Chris Hartnett.
Marcovici
and Wood both got some tips on their ventures
but neither secured an investment at this stage
of their projects.
In the
next session, Stuart Lawley, Chairman and
CEO of ICM
Registry (operator of the new .xxx
extension) discussed the TLD with the biggest
early investor in .xxx domains, Frank
Schilling. Among other things, they
revealed that Frank paid $1.65 million
for a prime portfolio of .xxx domains.
Frank
Schilling (left) and Stuart Lawley
fill attendees in on the new .xxx
extension.
The
business day Monday closed with the most well
attended Speed Networking session I've
seen in years. Those who took part were able to
spend 10 minutes each with a half dozen
different people from fields the attendees
specified in advance that they want to make
contacts in.
The
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Speed Networking Session Monday
(Oct. 17) drew a packed house.
Once
they were done with business for the day, guests
got dressed up for the official T.R.A.F.F.I.C
Party sponsored by the ICM Registry. They
were bussed to the W Hotel for an event
that started at 8pm and was still going strong
when we left shortly before midnight.
Guests
in one of the two club rooms set up for the ICM
Registry's Official T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Party
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I liked the
way the ICM Registry set up the party
areas. There was a front room with a
buffet, bar and dance floor that gave the
space a nice modern night club vibe. Then
for those who like a quieter environment
to talk (and domainers love to
talk) they set up a second room adjacent
to the first with comfortable tables,
lounge chairs and sofas, its own bar and a
coffee station.
It made for a
great place to hang out and chat while
also being able to easily go back and
forth between the two rooms whenever you
felt like a change of atmosphere. It was
very well done and I didn't see anyone who
wasn't having a great time.
Though many
had a late night out there was a larger
than usual crowd on hand back at the Ritz
ballroom Tuesday morning for the start of
the final business day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
2011.
I kicked
things off with an update on third quarter
domain sales which showed a nice |
As
the club filled up, seating became scarce,
so Scott
Richter (TheParkingPlace.com),
gallantly offered to
share his chair. Who said chivalry was
dead!? |
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improvement
over the same quarter a year ago (the
stats I shared will all be published in
our next newsletter
that will be out in a week or so. A series
of two-minute elevator pitches followed,
giving attendees a chance to promote their
own companies or events (one big project
being worked on by Gregg McNair and
Bob Olea was especially interesting
- I'll tell you more about that in our
full conference review article that will
be out in a few days.
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Then
it was time to hand out the
annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards.
The winners, in the order they were
presented were: Best New Monetizing
Solution - InternetTraffic.com,
Best Overall Domain Solution - Sedo.com,
The "We Get It" Award - Citrix,
Developer of the Year - Rob Grant,
Best Domain Blog - Mike Berkens for
TheDomains.com, Sponsor of the
Year - InternetTraffic.com,
Domainer of the Year - Frank
Schilling, and this year's two
new inductees in the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Domain Hall of Fame were Adam
Dicker (DNForum.com) and
Howard Neu (Co-Founder,
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.) The winners were all
selected in voting by the peers. Our
congratulations to each one. |
Adam
Dicker (left) and Howard Neu were
voted into the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Domain Hall of Fame Tuesday
(Oct. 18). |
The mornng
closed with one of the show's best
sessions titled The Hard Work of
Developing a Business Out of a Domain Name.
It featured a half dozen guys who have
done exactly that and generously provided
the details on how they did it.
The
Tuesday panel on how to develop a
domain into a business featured (left
to right):
Warren Royal (Bobbleheads.com), Ari
Goldberger (EsqWIRE.com), Sean
Sullivan
(Tier 1 Development), Richard Swerdlow
(Condos.com and Houses.com),
plus Joe Melville and Greg
Balestrieri (both from Candy.com).
Next
up ICM Registry Chairman and CEO Stuart
Lawley returned for a solo session in
which he talked about why he invested more
than $20 million and many years of
his life to get the .xxx extension
approved by ICANN.
After
a short break, The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. live
domain auction got underway at 2pm and
was still going on at the time I wrote
this. It will be followed by a final
business session: Meeting of the Chiefs,
that will feature eight company leaders
who will comment on a variety of industry
issues.
Another
party is coming up tonight then the show
will officially close with a Farewell
Breakfast tomorrow morning (Wednesday,
Oct. 19). I'll have highlights from the
auction as well as the final business and
social sessions in tomorrow's post (we
will be making the return trip to our home
base in Tampa after breakfast, so I
will most likely be doing that post
Wednesday evening when we are back there
after a very rewarding week on Fort
Lauderdale Beach). |
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