Survey asks domainers to pick the best domain conference.
TRAFFIC, Domain Roundtable, DomainFEST, GeoDomain…which is best? That’s just one of the new questions on this year’s Domain Name Wire survey. (If you haven’t participated yet, click here.)
Here’s a quick run down of the various domain conferences:
TRAFFIC – It’s actually spelled T.R.A.F.F.I.C., but that’s one pain to type out. Seriously though, TRAFFIC can be credited with kicking off a wave of competing domain conferences. For the first time, TRAFFIC brought together people who chatted for hours on message boards and brought them face-to-face in a “real world” setting. The latest conference just concluded in Las Vegas; the next one will be in Orlando May 20-24.
Domain Roundtable – This conference is run by Name Intelligence, the company behind DomainTools. It’s first conference created somewhat of a tiff within the industry, as TRAFFIC scheduled a competing conference during the same time. Domain Roundtable used to attract a diverse crowd that wasn’t just domainers: lots of government officials, ICANN, etc. Vint Cerf even presented. Last year’s conference was more of a domainer-only crowd. The next conference will be in San Francisco April 18-21.
DOMAINFest – Somehow Oversee.net manages to pull this off. The company deserves credit for creating a conference and inviting its competitors to sponsor and present alongside it. The last conference in Hollywood, California attracted about 700 people, which may just be a record for a domain name event. It’s much cheaper to attend than competiting conferences and DomainSponsor customers get rebates. Conferences are held in the U.S. and Europe.
GeoDomain – The GeoDomain conference is organized by Associated Cities, an organization that brings together owners of geographic domains (e.g., atlanta.com, atlantahomes.com). This attracts a very different crowd than the typical domainer. The latest conference was in San Francisco this past November.
Be sure to join the nearly 500 other people who have already participated in the 3rd Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. You can win up to a $100 credit at the domain name registrar of your choice.
Hi Andrew,
The Academy Awards is this Sunday.
Often I hear someone say who they think should win for Best Actor, Best Movie,etc.
When I ask if they saw all 5 movies from a particular nominated category, almost always the person did not.
I often wonder how someone can make a “best of” choice when they haven’t experienced all the choices.
Similarly how can a domainer vote for the best Domain Conference unless he or she has attended each of the conferences?
How many domainers have actually attended all 4 of the different conferences?
The conferences also aren’t stagnant and can change from event to event and year to year.
Even if you attended a particular conference and liked it or did not like it, your opinion could change if you go again.
Therefore how valid will the voting be?
How many domainers are there whose vote
would really mean something because they
have attended all the 4 venues and more
than once?
I don’t mean to rain on your parade,it’s just I wonder what value the results will really have.
Patrick
@ Patrick – that’s a fair criticism, and the survey is certainly not scientific. In some ways, however, if someone attends one particular conference and chooses not to attend another it is likely because of the content/quality.
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.
I’ve attended (and spoken) at all of these except for Domain Roundtable. Here’s my take:
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.
Hi Andrew,
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
That’s a good idea, Patrick. When it comes to other things on the survey they’re easy to try out, but conferences aren’t easy to “try out”.
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.
Andrew: Yes, because Michael and I own Geodomains, the GeoDomain Expo is essential. And I still think the Expo is best for networking with people who firmly believe in developing and shy away from parking. However, many people don’t realize that GeoDomains are actually the smaller part of our portfolio (we also own Cost.com, Whisky.com, Daycare.com, etc).
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.
Andrew,
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…
I appreciate people (well, David) sharing their opinions about the various conferences. I haven’t been to any and so didn’t vote in that question.
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.