My superficial impression of TRAFFIC is that there is a high cheese factor (dance teams? models?) that might appeal to some people seeking entertainment at these events but it doesn’t seem very professional. I’m all for socializing but having entertainment featuring female dancers seems more like a tractor pull than a business conference. JMHO.

I like Patrick’s idea to change the question from “best” to “favorite” ; but largely for the reason that we’d have to try to define (and all agree on the definition) of just what “best” means when it comes to domain conferences … which could to be as tough as trying to define what constitutes a “premium” domain…

But I also believe that TRAFFIC and DomainFest are essential (again, I’ve never been to Domain Roundtable so I can’t comment). We’ve never walked away from one of these events feeling our time could have been better spent elsewhere. On the contrary, we’ve forged many extraordinary friendships and business deals.

The truth be told is that we didn’t attend any of these events until TRAFFIC in October 2006 because we thought they’d be a waste of time. How wrong we were.

For David, GeoDomain was best, but he’s also a GeoDomain guy (in a big way).

I can’t change it for this year, but will consider it next year.

Reflecting on what I wrote, your comments in return and David Castello’s reviews above, I wonder if the survey shouldn’t be changed to:
“Which Major Domain Conference is Your Favorite?”.

There are lots of reasons why someone would not attend a particular conference beyond the content and quality including admission cost, travel cost and distance, who is attending, who is running the event and so on.

Someone might think a conference might lack quality or desired content but they can not know for sure unless they attend otherwise it’s just conjecture or biased opinions.

Now I might be biased in favor of or against a particular conference which may reflect in my attending it or avoiding it and that’s okay and perfectly legitimate.

My bias may make me favor one venue over another.

However, I think no critic should review a movie or Broadway show that they haven’t
seen.

What do you think?

Favorite or Best?

Patrick

TRAFFIC: The Granddaddy of them all and (except perhaps the Geodomain Expo) attracts the highest percentage of high dollar players. In addition, Rick and Howard run an extremely tight ship. However, they produce a rigorous schedule three of TRAFFICs a year and I believe it would be best if they did two (East and West).

DomainFest: Less expensive than TRAFFIC and draws huge numbers (I couldn’t believe the size of the crowd when I walked into the Hollywood Renaissance Grand Ballroom). Provides a healthy balance to TRAFFIC and the Domainers Choice Awards are a nice touch. If TRAFFIC is the Oscars then DomainFest is the Emmys.

GeoDomain Expo: Significant because it caters to a high-end niche market whose attendees are more focused on development and advertising monetization than any other. The Expo is in a class of its own and difficult to compare to the others.

The question is not mandatory so people who have not been to a conference don’t have to answer.

We’ll see how this question ends up this year and decide if it should be included next year.