A look back at last week’s DOMAINfest conference.
Before heading to DOMAINfest I posed six questions that would be answered by the end of the week. Here are the answers.
1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself?
Just before the conference began, Oversee.net announced that co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow had been promoted to co-CEOs.
I haven’t seen many “co-CEO” type situations end favorably, but they seem to be handling it well so far.
Most people I talked to at the conference were positive about the new leadership. Domeyer will be more visible to domainers since she handles the domain monetization side of the business. Morrow covers the vertical markets properties.
The new leadership gives Oversee a “fresh start” after a rough few years.
2. Will Oversee.net address Moniker?
Yep. KeyDrive, which owns NameDrive and Key-Systems, announced that it acquired both Moniker and SnapNames. That leaves a lot of of questions up in the air, but I think this is a good thing. Oversee had been trying to get rid of these properties for at least a year. It’s good to have them in the hands of a company that wants to invest in them. More on that in a future article.
3. Will the new parties make up for the (lack of) Playboy Mansion?
I think both parties were good. But I’ll let others chime in here.
4. How many people will be there?
About 600 people were expected to attend. More on that in a future article.
5. Can DOMAINfest successfully include topics outside the typical domainer realm?
Confession time – I didn’t really go to any of the sessions. But they were well attended, with 200-400 people in many of the sessions. I’d say it was another step toward bridging the domainer and internet marketing communities. These are two communities that historically haven’t understood much about each other.
6. What big company announcements will be made?
Sedo announced a big deal with GoDaddy, but KeyDrive probably grabbed the most attention with its acquisition.
…
Now, a bigger question: where do Oversee.net and DOMAINfest go from here? They have emerged a smaller, leaner company after the sale of Moniker and SnapNames. Now they have a vertical markets division and DomainSponsor. They’re a smaller part of the domainer lifecycle and have only about 100 employees, down from 200 just a few years ago.
Is DomainSponsor alone enough to justify holding a large conference each year? Will it team up with KeyDrive for future domain auctions at its conferences?
Will the conference eventually morph to a point where it no longer makes sense to put “domain” in the title?
Coming soon: Domain/Affiliate/LeadGen/SEOfest, presented by Oversee.net.
Ron says
Even not a word about DomainParking.com?
I was excited to see their new appraisal tool.