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Renaissance
Hotel - Hollywood
Site for DOMAINfest Global 2008 |
Though the site will be the same - the show
will not. Oversee wasn't content to stand pat even though
their first outing was so warmly received. With the
phenomenal growth of the domain industry, competition has
also grown in the conference space. With so many options to
choose from now, show promoters have to keep coming up with
fresh concepts to give attendees a reason to come back to
their event.
For starters, DOMAINfest Global will feature two
keynote speakers - famed adventurer Peter
Hillary, who will talk Monday afternoon (Jan.
21) and best-selling author and Wired Magazine
co-founder John
Batelle, who will take the podium Wednesday
morning (Jan. 23). In still another headline event, wildly
successful domain investor Frank
Schilling (who was the subject of our Dec.
2007 Cover Story) will host a Domain Town
Hall meeting Tuesday morning (Jan. 22). |
In another new twist, DOMAINfest Global will enter the live
domain auction derby with a pair of three-hour events
running Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons (Jan. 22-23) from 4-7pm
Pacific time each day. That major addition to the show was made
possible by Oversee's purchase of pioneering auction house SnapNames.com
last year. The conference will mark the debut of SnapNames Live
and the auctions will be further enhanced by know-how acquired in another
major purchase earlier this month when Oversee added
live auction pioneer Moniker.com
to their stable of corporate assets.
| You can participate in the live auctions even
if you are unable to attend the conference. Details on how
to register to bid are available here.
A few of the gems scheduled to go on the block are soapoperas.com, bookmarks.com,
dude.com, ar.com and iq.net.
You can download the entire preliminary catalog for
the live auctions here. |
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Also new to the agenda will be the
presentation of the first annual Domainers
Choice Awards at a closing night dinner
(Wednesday, Jan. 23). The awards
program was actually developed |
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Donna
Mahony (left) and Sally Letzer
Domainers
Choice Awards |
independently by Donna Mahony and Sally
Letzer to give everyone in the industry an equal
opportunity to
vote for those they felt represented excellence in individual and corporate achievement.
Balloting was conducted over several weeks on the DCA
website with voting open to all. DOMAINfest Global offered
to host presentation of the awards, giving them an
appropriate Hollywood backdrop. As it happens, the
Renaissance Hotel sits immediately adjacent to the Kodak
Theater where the movie world's biggest event - the Oscars
- are staged each year. |
DOMAINfest will again feature the limited
dual-track format they used last year. In addition to the main
conference track, special sessions for DomainSponsor.com
clients will run concurrently at selected times during the show.
DomainSponsor of course is the domain parking giant that is also
owned by Oversee.net.
A wide variety of topics will be covered in the
conference seminars. With tax time now upon us, one of the
most timely sessions (on Tuesday, Jan. 22) will feature CPA Sandy
Brooks who literally wrote the book (the Domain
Tax Guide) on how domain owners can best comply with
current tax laws. We asked Sandy to share with you some of the
information she will be passing on to showgoers later this
month.
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"As after-market domain sales
activity continues to increase, so does the need for sound
legal, financial and tax planning for domainers,"
Brooks said. "What was once considered a hobby or a
high-risk investment is now a respected business model and
domain conferences, such as DOMAINfest Global and T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
are opening up the field to a lot of domain investors."
"Whether you’ve accumulated
thousands of domain names as one of the lucky early stage
domainers, or if you’ve only just |
| begun in this expanding industry, now is the
time to tend to your business.
How you structure your company and how you report
your domain purchases and sales can have a significant
impact on your bottom line. The following are three things
you can do NOW to save you money and resources later: |
- Choose
your advisors carefully.
Chances are that you may already have an accountant
and/or an attorney with whom you are comfortable.
These professionals may not be experts in domaining, but
they should take the time to become educated in your industry.
A good professional can be hard to find, so there is no
need to can your trusted advisor for someone who knows more
about domaining. Help your advisor by setting up a meeting to
explain your business. Bring
industry documents, printouts or your laptop as visual aids to
help him or her gain an understanding of what you do.
If you are new to the entrepreneurship or do not yet have
advisors, now would be the time to narrow your search to
professionals that have advised domainers or Internet marketers.
Ask around for referrals from those with a similar
business model to yours.
- Become
your own tax and business expert.
If you are like most entrepreneurs, you are an
information hound. You
are fast becoming an expert on domain marketing and many other
facets of the trade. Just
because taxes are boring doesn’t mean that you can ignore this
part of your business. Your
taxes and your finances are ultimately your responsibility.
The domaining industry is unique, and you should take the
time to become educated about the financial side of domaining. Go to domain conferences, making sure to attend the tax,
finance and legal workshops.
Talk to other domainers, especially those who are
successful. Read up
on the business aspects of domaining, taking care that your
information is coming from reliable sources.
- Be prepared. This advice isn’t only for Boy
Scouts. If you are expecting to sell a domain at an
upcoming auction, ensure that your accounting treatment for the
purchase of the domain was sound. If you want the
favorable capital gains treatment on the profit from the domain
sale, make sure that your records indicate that you have owned
the domain for more than a year."
| I will also have the honor of moderating and
speaking on a panel Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 23) called "Understanding
the Big Picture" that will focus on current online
trends and how they will impact domain name values over
time. I am also looking forward to another legendary DomainSponsor
party. That gala is slated to start Tuesday night, Jan.
22 at 8pm and run into the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
As always, DN Journal will be on
hand for the entire show so we can preserve the event for
posterity in our exclusive conference wrap-up article that will
be published on our home page before the end of the month.
Hope to see many of you there. It is always a great pleasure
to see old friends again as well as to make new ones. That's
what the conference experience is really all about.
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Scene
from DomainSponsor Party at
2007 DOMAINfest Global Conference |
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Update
on the event detailed in the article above: DOMAINfest
has released a new Press
Release with additional information on speakers
and agenda highlights of the upcoming conference. |
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