| By
Ron Jackson
More
than 100 domain owners converged on the Marina del Rey Marriott
in Los Angeles September 20-22 for DomainFest LA 2006,
an event hosted by L.A. based domain monetization giant DomainSponsor.com.
Co-sponsors, Afternic.com, Afilias, .Mobi, Name.com,
Low.com and Revenue.net also helped pick up the tab so
attendees could enjoy the week at no cost (aside from accommodations
and travel expenses).
The
idea for the event originated with Los Angeles domain investor Adil
Shakour. The long-time DomainSponsor client said he got the
company to get behind the project and make it a reality.
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Marina
del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles
Site of DomainFest LA 2006 |
|
View
of Marina del Rey from top of Marriott
(this and all following photos courtesy of MyrtleBeachInc.com) |
The
three day event revolved around informative seminars with well-known
industry leaders and networking
sessions that allowed attendees to make new connections and develop
new business. Of course, the opportunity to simply hang out with
like minded people in a beautiful setting and have a great time was
also a huge attraction.
Professional
videographers (and domain developers) Warren Walker and
Marcia Lynn Walker of MyrtleBeachInc.com
were among those on hand and they were kind enough to
share their photos from the event with us. You can also see
their video coverage of DomainFest LA at
DirectNavigationMarket.com. |
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The
DomainFest got underway Wednesday evening (Sept. 20) with a cocktail
reception and dinner at the nearby Harbor House Restaurant. Canada's
Shaun Pilford worked up an appetite by driving 1,400 miles to
get to the event! Other faces in the crowd included domain attorney John
Berryhill and wife MJ, iREIT President Marc Ostrofsky,
Afternic President Roger
Collins and CentralNic's Joe Alagna.
Thursday
was the first full day of business with DomainSponsor's Director of
Business Development, Ron Sheridan, delivering the welcome
address. |
Dinner
buffet at the Harbor House Restaurant |
|
Tina
Dam
Director of IDN Program at ICANN |
Tina Dam, the Director of ICANN's IDN
Program, then conducted the kickoff seminar on International
Domain Names (ICANN's offices are located in Marina del Rey,
just down the street from the DomainFest hotel). Ms. Dam presented an update on progress being made toward making the Internet
accessible to global users in their own language and local script.
Various technical issues are steadily being sorted out as IDNs
continue to make headway on the web.
CPA
Selwyn Gerber of Gerber & Company followed with a session called
"Tax Planning For a Grand Exit" that
offered advice on minimizing the tax bite when selling your
domains. After a lunch buffet in the Marriott's Pacific
Ballroom, there was a one-hour networking mixer before the
afternoon business sessions.
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Noted
domain and patent attorney John Berryhill presented
the first of four post-lunch seminars and drew a large crowd
for his talk about "Domain Name Trademark
Concerns". Dr. Berryhill discussed what domain
owners can do to make sure they do not infringe on
registered trademarks. Next
up was Pinky Brand, the Director of New Market
Development for the .mobi
registry. Brand's program "Are You Ready for
.Mobi?" was especially timely as it came just a
few days before the Sept. 26 .mobi land rush.
|
John
Berryhill's session on
"Domain Name Trademark Concerns" |
Brand
presented an excellent primer on the new TLD for those interested in
investing in and developing sites optimized for the world's 2.5
billion mobile devices.
|
Afternic President Roger Collins
|
Afternic.com
President Roger Collins followed with an interesting hour
devoted to "Domain Aftermarket Trends".
Collins reminded domain owners that selling at the right
price is just as important to sound profit strategies as PPC
monetization is. Drawing upon sales data from his company's
records (Afternic has 2 million sale listings on their
site), Collins was able to illustrate the impressive returns
that can be realized by acquiring, monetizing and selling
domains.
Oversee.net's
Vice President of Corporate Development, Steve Hisey,
closed the day with a seminar titled "Selling a
Portfolio" that provided helpful advice on how
to value and sell a portfolio of domains. Attendees then got
a one-hour break before enjoying a gala cocktail and dinner
reception in the top floor Bayview room that was sponsored
by DomainSponsor. That event entertained everyone right up
to the midnight hour. |
The
closing day Friday (Sept. 22) was also packed with activity that
started with a one-hour social gathering at 8:30am. That was
followed by a wide-ranging panel discussion, "Deep Domain
Industry Insight" that featured Dr. Berryhill, IP attorney Bret
Fausett of LexText.com
and Jothan Frakes of DomainSponsor. Some of the topics
covered were ICANN (and how registrants can have more of a voice in
ICANN affairs), current TLD contracts under review by ICANN and how
passage of those contracts could affect domain owners, and how the
process of rolling out new TLDs works. 
(Left
to right) John Berryhill, Bret Fausett and Jothan Frakes
conducting "Deep
Domain Industry Insight" panel Friday (Sept. 22) After
a brunch buffet and a 90-minute session set aside to allow attendees
to go online as part of the global One
Web Day celebrated Sept. 22, Revenue.net's
Raj Chauhan kicked the afternoon schedule off with "Domains
- A Marketer's Perspective". Mr Chauhan talked about
how domain owners could benefit from the ad dollars flowing to the
internet from agencies that are starting to understand the value of
domain traffic. In addition to tips on how to deliver what current
advertisers are looking for, Chauhan discussed measures the industry
could take to attract even larger, brand conscious
advertisers.
That
closed the business portion of DomainFest LA but there was
still a lot of fun left on the agenda. DomainSponsor
conducted a gift drawing and presented closing remarks before
instructing everyone to regroup at 3pm at the nearby FantaSea
Yacht Club for a four-hour harbor cruise around Marina
del Rey.
A
beautiful yacht was commissioned for that grand finale
to the DomainFest that included drinks, appetizers, a poker
tournament and a lot of great conversation among friends
both old and new. Additional photos from this memorable
event are in the photo gallery below. |
Domainfest
LA attendees aboard
yacht for closing day cruise |
DomainFest LA
Photo Gallery (courtesy of MyrtleBeachInc.com)
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|
Adil
Shakour, the domain owner who
came up with the idea for DomainFest LA |
Joe
Alagna of CentralNIC and
Marcia Lynn Walker of MyrtleBeachInc.com |
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|
John
and M.J. Berryhill |
(Left
to right) Donna Mahony, Sally Letzer
and James Mahony |
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|
The
lunch buffets always drew a crowd. |
Roger
Collins of Afternic (far left)
with a group of new and old friends. |
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Pinky
Brand presents the case for .mobi |
DomainSponsor's
Ron Sheridan preparing
to announce winners of prize drawings |
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Sevan and Susan
from DomainSponsor share a laugh. |
Ron
James of NamePros.com (right) can't bear
to look as Roger Collins rakes in another
pot during harbor cruise poker game. |
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Thanks
to the entire DomainSponsor team for being such gracious and
generous hosts. |
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