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The
final day of business
at the 2013 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
East conference Tuesday (Oct. 22) got
underway with a 9am breakfast at the Ritz
Carlton on Fort Lauderdale
Beach that featured some special
guests. Victoria Castello, the
mother of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of
Fame members Michael
Castello and David Castello
was there with her friend John O'Hare
and they stayed for the full day of
conference activity (including the
induction of two new Hall of Fame
members). Also spending the day with her
"domain family" was Carmella Savanello,
the mother of T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s
extraordinary hostess, Barbara Neu.
(L
to R) Ron Jackson (DNJournal), Carmella
Savanello, John O'Hare, Victoria
Castello and
Diana Jackson Tuesday morning (Oct.
22) at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East in Fort
Lauderdale Beach.
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After
breakfast, any T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
attendee that wanted to was invited
to take the stage and give a Two-minute
Elevator Pitch promoting their
business. I followed that with a
report on 3Q-2013 domain sales
that were up dramatically
from both the previous quarter (37.5%
higher dollar volume across all
extensions) and the same quarter a
year ago (up 47%)! I'll have
all of the details on that for you
in a new newsletter
next week.
At
10:30am it was time to hand out the
annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards
recognizing excellence in
various industry categories (as
chosen by domain industry voters). The
2013 winners (shown in photos at
right and below where winners were
on hand to accept) were:
Best
New Monetizing Solution: InternetTraffic.com
Best
Overall Domain Solution: Sedo
"We
Get It" Award:
Amazon
Developer
of the Year:
Michael
Cyger
Best
Domain Blog:
DNJournal.com
(Ron Jackson)
Sponsor
of The Year:
Go
Daddy
Domainer
of the Year:
Frank
Schilling
Bandit
Berkens Goodwill Ambassador
Award:
Gregg
McNair
Domain
Hall of Fame:
(two
new members are voted in each year):
Jeff
Gabriel (The broker in the
record-setting $13 million sale of
Sex.com who is now with
DomainNameSales.com and was
previously with Igloo.com (when the
company was known as DomainAdvisors)
and Sedo.com). Jeff had a good
reason for missing
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East this year - he
was with his wife Melissa who
gave birth to their son Richard
Tuesday
- the same day Jeff was named to the
Hall of Fame. Congrats Jeff &
Melissa!
Igal
Lichtman (the late great domain
investor/developer and entrepreneur
who was profiled in the first ever
DN Journal |
Sedo's
Brad Lemire (center) accepts the
Best Overall Domain Solution
Award from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founders
Howard Neu and Rick
Schwartz.
DomainSherpa.com's
Michael Cyger (right)
accepts the Developer of the Year
Award.
DNJournal.com's
Ron Jackson (2nd from
left)
accepts the Best Domain Blog
Award. |
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Cover Story back in 2003
and was featured again in our February
2012 Cover Story). Mr.
Lichtman passed away in February
2013. |
Sedo's
Negar Hajikhani (4th from left)
accepting the Broker of the Year Award
(the first female to win the honor).
PPX
International Chairman Gregg McNair
(2nd from left) accepts the Bandit
Berkens Goodwill Ambassador Award with
the owner of the beloved late Yorkie
the award is named for, Judi and
Michael Berkens at his side (Bandit
was a frequent visitor to domain
conferences who showed unconditional
love to everyone he encountered). The
annual award recognizes the person who
voters feel has been the industry's best
goodwill ambassador over the past
year.
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Above:
Members of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Domain Hall of Fame that were in
attendance at this year's show took
the stage for the induction of
two new members that were named
Tuesday - Jeff Gabriel and
the late Igal Lichtman. Two
of Igal's close friends, Hall of
Fame member Adam Dicker and
leading industry attorney Ari
Goldberger (2nd and 3rd from
left, respectively) accepted Mr.
Lichtman's Award and will present it
to his widow, Michal Lichtman.
The
other current Hall of Fame members
in attendance were Ron Jackson
(far left in the photo above) and,
to the right of Mr. Goldberger,
Howard Neu, Rick Schwartz,
Michael Berkens, Monte Cahn and
Chad Folkening.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
also commissioned noted Florida
sculptor Bradley
Arthur to create a
unique metal menorah that was also
presented to honor Igal. |
Sculptor
Bradley Arthur
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Tuesday's
first business session was a Domainer
and Broker View of the State of the
Industry that featured John
Ferber (DomainHoldings.com), Lonnie
Borck (B52.com), Bill McClure
(Coffee.org), Gregg Ostrick,
Tessa Holcomb (Igloo.com) and
Ammar Kubba
(ThoughtConvergence,.com).
This
session began with a humorous
twist. Kubba, who has been known
to stay out late on occasion, was missing
when the session began. Some assumed
the pre-noon start of the session
may have come while he was sleeping
in. Five minutes after the
session began Kubba - much to the
audience's delight - was escorted
into the ballroom still wearing a
bathrobe!
It
turns out the whole thing was pre-planned
but no one let moderator Howard
Neu in on the prank, though as
the |
Ammar
Kubba "apologizes" for
being late for a
morning
panel discussion Tuesday as
moderator Howard Neu looks on. |
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picture
above right shows, Howard was as
amused as everyone else. As I
watched this all unfold one scary
thought crossed my mind though -
Ammar might just create a new
fashion trend with this bathrobe
thing. My worst fears would be
realized before the day was over
as you will see later in this
article. |
In
the session that followed, Kubba (still in
his bathrobe) joined Adam Dicker, Rick
Schwartz and Michael Berkens
for The DomainSherpa.com Five Live! program.
The fifth member of the quintet was
interviewer Michael Cyger (DomainSherpa.com)
who had the four veteran domain investors
evaluate and appraise domains submitted by
audience members. It was an extremely
useful educational exercise that
later morphed into a highly entertaining
"registered or unregistered?"
competition in the second part of the
program.
The
latter portion required the panelists to
guess whether or not certain domain names
Cyger came up with were available or
already registered. Perhaps aided by
his distracting attire, Kubba wound up
winning the contest by getting 5 of the 6
domains right.
The
DomainSherpa.com Five Live! session
featured (L to R) Adam Dicker,
Michael Cyger, Ammar Kubba, Rick
Schwartz and Michael Berkens.
Cyger
does the show that was presented at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. every Thursday on
the web at DomainSherpa.com
with the originator of the idea, Page
Howe, as one of the four regular
guests (Ammar Kubba filled in for Page at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.).
The
business day concluded with a
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. staple - the Meeting of
the Chiefs - in which leaders from
nine well-known companies took the stage
to offer their thoughts on current
industry affairs and answer questions from
the audience.
The
Meeting of the Chiefs panel
featured (L to R): Paul Nicks (Go
Daddy), Adam Dicker (DNForum.com), Andee
Hill (Escrow.com), Gregg McNair
(PPX International), Michael Gilmour
(ParkLogic.com), moderator Howard Neu
(standing), Donny Simonton (Voodoo.com),
Victor Pitts (Above.com), Ammar
Kubba (ThoughtConvergence.com -
and back in normal clothing!) and Joe
Higgins (RookMedia.net).
The
business portion of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East
2013 was now done, but there was still a
lot of socializing/networking left
to do! At 8:30pm Tuesday night
guests were welcomed to the traditional Closing
Night Party with dessert, coffee, beer
and wine.
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Above:
Guests begin arriving at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s
Closing Night Party that ran
until 11pm (an hour longer than
scheduled).
At
right: Negar Hajikhani (Sedo)
and Judi Berkens model a
lovely scarf custom made by Barbara
Neu's mother, Carmella.
Below:
Also lighting up the Closing Night
Party were (L to R) Barbara Neu
(T.R.A.F.F.I.C.), Bill McClure (Coffee.org)
and Bill's wife Jammie.
As
full a day and night as Tuesday had
already been, there was still more
to come with Gregg McNair
opening up his suite at the top of
the Ritz Carlton with
everyone welcome. |
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Below:
After the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Closing Night
Party many accepted Gregg McNair's
nightly invitation to drop by his suite
for some late night networking at
his Igloo.com
party. I have it on good authority that
the last man standing finally threw in the
towel after 4am this morning!
Below:
Guests at the McNair/Igloo.com party
included (front row L to R); Tessa
Holcomb (Igloo.com), Alan Hack,
Andee Hill (Escrow.com) and (back
row L to R) Igloo.com's Amanda Waltz
and Holly Griesel.
Below:
Earlier I mentioned that I feared Ammar
Kubba might have started a new
fashion trend by wearing a bathrobe
to a business session earlier Tuesday. My
fears were realized at the McNair/Igloo.com
party Tuesday night where more than a few
guests showed up in bathrobes,
including host Gregg McNair (in the
red bowtie) and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick
Schwartz.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
East 2013 officially closed this
morning (Wednesday, Oct. 23) with the
traditional Farewell Breakfast.
I'll have highlights from that event in
tomorrow's post. Right now, I have to get
back to my online shopping - I'm in the
market for a good looking bathrobe! |
