There are only two big domainer conferences this year, but domainers still find opportunities to get together.
Two years ago you could have gone to a domain name conference every other month.
This year there are just two big domain conferences: DOMAINfest (which already took place) and the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale.
Here at HostingCon I’ve had conversations with several people about this sudden lack of opportunities to get together.
But is that really the case?
One person pointed out that there are a lot more domainers attending ICANN meetings. My initial thought is this is because domainers are applying for new top level domains. But that same person pointed out something else: ICANN meetings are free.
It’s a good point. ICANN meetings are not only free, but more money goes into producing them than any domainer conference. (Thanks to domain investors’ fees paid to ICANN, of course.)
It doesn’t hurt that ICANN meetings are often held in some pretty cool locales.
Still, ICANN meetings are not domainer meetings. Domainers are outnumbered by policy wonks, attorneys, bureaucrats and Donut-eaters.
There are also events like HostingCon which attract many businesses in the domain investing industry (although not many individual domainers).
Next year TRAFFIC will add a second show in Las Vegas. I think this will bring us up to a reasonable number of domainer conferences spread throughout the year (assuming DOMAINfest goes through with its show again).
What do you think?
We, DomainBoardroom, found that lots of members wanted to get together but many didn’t want to do the conference routine again so we did our own! It was mostly (but not strictly limited to) members. It was paid for by sponsors and some members contributed but it was free and fun…and in the midst of fun stuff, some business even happened. We’re already making plans for 2013.
I am breaking the wallet for Traffic this year to see what is going on. I know from talking to a lot of domainers they would rather buy a domain for a few thousand than spend the money on a convention. When you throw in flight + hotel + event cost = a good chuck of cash.
I was thinking that when domain/domainer conference will be held in mainland China or HongKong, anybody will do something for this? – IISP.HK
There are many opportunities to get together. In Australia there are formal/informal meetings – most of which are not advertised or promoted via domaining blogs.
For domainers that live outside the USA – attending a US conference is a significant opportunity cost. Given that many domainers dont do this full-time, its understandable that they choose to attend other events.
@ Andrew A
“assuming DOMAINfest goes through with its show again”
Oversee said they would prolly make decision by August or so on a DomainFest 2013 … Stay Tuned !
Wonder if they’ve considered selling the show & brand too ???