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I
had the pleasure of participating in
two sessions via Skype, first
interviewing keynote speaker Michael
Castello of CCIN.com
then, after an in person keynote
from Deepak Daftari,
returning to interview another
long-time friend and industry
leader, DNForum.com
owner Adam Dicker.
A
view of the conference hall and
crowd during Michael
Castello's keynote speech
at the first DomainX Conference
in Hyderabad, India Sunday
(Sept. 7, 2014).
Since
I couldn't be there in person (due
to widely publicized problems with
the Indian visa system that also
kept the other U.S. based speakers
from coming) I can't give you a
first hand account of how the day
went, but the initial feedback has
been very good. The first
review from an attendee that I have
seen online was published by K.V.A.Sridhar
here.
I
thought that one of Mr. Sridhar's
most interesting observations was
this - "Attendees on my table
are not domainers, in fact I am the only
one on my table who owns domains
for flipping. Others own one domain
at most for their business purpose.
But the beauty is that, by
the end of conference, every
single one of them is planning to
buys domains for domaining."
That
- and the personal relationships
that are built at a conference like
this - is how an industry grows.
The arrival of domain
investor-centric conferences in
the rapid growing and
increasingly important Indian
market this year is a very positive
development for the global domain
industry and we are looking forward
to watching and participating in the
expansion as it unfolds. We expect
to receive additional photos and highlights
from DomainX and will bring you
those when they become available.
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Dolly
Parton
Dolly
image from Bigstock |
On
another growth front, new
gTLDs continue to roll out
with those who understand the
need for marketing scoring
some interesting coups. The
new .country extension
(operated by Minds +
Machines and marketed in
association with Uniregistry)
appears to have hit a home run
by landing the perfect celebrity
partner in country
music legend Dolly Parton.
As
part of the .country
pioneer program, Dolly has
registered queenof.country,
dolly.country, and dollyparton.country
among others. In agreeing
to be a .country pioneer,
Dolly will assist in the
launch of .country by using
her new domain names and by
providing her name, image and
other assistance.
Members
of the .country pioneer
program receive their choice
of domain names ahead of
general release in exchange
for their help in marketing
the new top-level domain.
The program provides domain
names to musicians,
businesses, and organizations
before the release of .country
domain names to the general
public on September 15,
2014. |
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Congratulations
are also in order for domain
industry veteran Kellie
Peterson who has been
promoted from Chief Strategy
Officer to President at
DNC Holdings, Inc., the
parent company of popular
registrar DirectNic.com.
In her new role, Peterson will
add responsibilities for all
registrar services,
aftermarket, monetization and
publishing units as well as
lead the company in new
business opportunities.
DNC
Holdings owner Butch Decossas said, "Kellie brings a wealth of strategic, financial, and business
development expertise,
specifically from the domain
registration industry. With
her business acumen and
personality, she will be a
huge asset to our company and
our corporate strategic
direction and goals.”
Peterson
said, “Since the change in
ownership there’s been a
tremendous amount of
reinvestment in not only the
Directnic brand, but the
technology and products that
we offer. This is just the
starting point and I’m
looking forward to steering
Directnic and the rest of our
business interests into the
next phase.” |
Kellie
Peterson
President, DNC Holdings |
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In
a related note, Directnic.com
announced they have started
accepting digital or
“crypto” currency. The
company believes they are the
first accredited registrar to
accept Bitcoin alternatives, Litecoin
and Dogecoin.
In addition to Bitcoin,
Directnic.com can now accept
Litecoin and Dogecoin through
their partnership with the
processing platform company GoCoin.
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