Events

Print this post

Post a comment

DomainFest Recap

After a week of resting up, we finally have some time to sit down for a bit and write about the great time we had at DomainFest Global 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

DNZoom had a booth manned by Dan, Jude, and I, and we met a ton of great people. Because of all the new people using DNZoom from the exposure we received at Domain Fest, we are now approaching the 1.3 million mark for domains inside DNZoom!

On the first night I was invited out to a small gathering of domainers in Santa Monica where I met a lot of the people I had been corresponding with on the forums. I had a blast getting to match faces to names and enjoying the sounds of the ocean that we lack here in Kentucky. A huge thanks go out to everyone who organized the party!

The next day the show commenced, giving us the chance to meet with industry experts, newbies, and everyone else in between. This conference was really good at bringing together a large mix of people from different facets of our industry.

I had the great pleasure of sitting on a panel with domain experts (and my personal friends) Adam Strong, Michael Gilmour, and Jothan Frakes. I must admit, I know these guys are sharp, but every time I get around them, it blows me away how much they know about their own niches of the industry. Although sometimes opinions are dissenting, each has their own reason with good examples about why they think the way they do, backed with real life experiences about their thoughts. Of course, that is what panels are all about. If everyone had the same opinion, there would be no reason to attend. It is an honor just to be able to sit side beside these guys.

The Domainers Choice Awards, put on by Donna Mahony and Barry Letzer, was a REALLY great addition to the conference. All of the nominees were acknowledged, and then the awards were distributed. I was really happy to see my good friend, Eben Smith, win the “Industry Customer Service Rep” award. Speaking of which, I did not win in the “Domainers Rising Star” category, but I was happy to be able to lose to such a distinguished set of people as the Castello Brothers. Just being in the same category as them, and Elliot Silver, in my opinion, is an accomplishment in itself.

As always I was able to meet up with our other friends, Jen Sale and “Fabulous” Mike Robertson, from the Fabulous.com team. They were promoting their new domain registration special: domain registration at cost! This new promotion is going to save a lot of customers (myself included) a good bit of money.

While we were there, DomainSponsor.com announced a “Domain Dollars” program, where a kickback of 2% percent of parking money earned is given to the customer to offset costs at Moniker.com or SnapNames.com.

And of course, we can’t forget the Snapnames.com auction! The total sales were around 4 million (I don’t think there is an official tally at this time), and really well organized. Some of the biggest sales during the auction were porn.net for $400K and photograph.com for $195K.

As a whole, the conference was a huge success. It is definitely one of the better ones I have attended and I enjoyed myself immensely.

So now the stage is set, Dan and I are on our way to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. next week and looking forward to seeing all of our friends and clients once more. If you are heading out as well, email or call me or Dan before hand so we can make some plans to meet up.

See you in Vegas!!!!

Sean Stafford