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.Nxt conference is .gone

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New top level domain name conference scheduled for next week is cancelled.

A conference can survive one cancellation if there are extenuating circumstances.

That may have been the case with the .Nxt conference previously scheduled for June in London. ICANN had postponed the release of the list of new top level domain name applications, which was a big milestone scheduled for ahead of the conference.

But a conference will not survive a second cancellation, especially the week before the event.

Unfortunately, that’s what just happened with the largest independent conference about new top level domain names, .Nxt.

Conference organizer Kieren McCarthy cites low attendance and sponsorship for the cancellation. He blames this on ongoing uncertainty about the new top level domain process. Fewer than 100 people had registered for the event.

There are a couple other reasons I can think of for this low support. Location (London instead of San Francisco) may have been an issue. I also suspect that there was less value for previous event sponsors. New TLD consultants and registry service providers already have their clients; sponsoring this event wouldn’t be as fruitful.

Interview: Kieren McCarthy on .Nxt conference

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Kieren McCarthy discusses the upcoming .Nxt conference.

The .Nxt conference on new top level domain names is August 29-31 in London. I reached out to show organizer Kieren McCarthy for details.

1. You postponed the London conference to August. Why?

Quite simply, the ICANN TAS software “glitch”. The conference was planned with a seven-week lead time between the applicant information being published and opening the doors. We figured that would give everyone enough time to analyze what was there and then come to the conference to talk about this new industry.

In the end it took ICANN six weeks to sort out the TAS problem, which would have left just one week to analyze it – impossible with nearly 2,000 applications. We took the decision to postpone the conference one month out when it became clear that no one knew when the information would finally be published.

2. Where most of the original attendees supportive of the change?

With the exception of one person who for some reason didn’t get an advance email warning of the postponement and so was understandably annoyed that he’d read about it elsewhere first, everyone was very supportive and understood why we were doing it.

We inconvenienced a few people who had already made plans to travel to London so I contacted them personally and apologized and they were very fair-minded about it. Everyone in this industry has had their plans disrupted at least once by ICANN delays so I think they got it and realized it wasn’t our fault.

3. You have several different tracts, including a policy tract. With the applicant guidebook mostly locked down, what sort of policy issues should applicants be concerned about?

So there are two types of policy going on. One is about the new gTLD process – and there still are quite a few things unfinished and open to influence: the URS, Trademark Clearinghouse, GAC Early Warning, auctions, and a few minor issues.

The second is the broader issue of Internet policy – the rules and regulations that will impact new registry owners. If it hasn’t dawned on new gTLD applicants yet that they will be running a piece of the DNS and they need to keep track of the bigger picture, it will soon. That means both within ICANN and in other bodies like the ITU, UN, OECD. Plus of course legislative efforts, particularly the US government and the EU.

So we have sessions introducing these issues to people as well as the lead industry figures and voices. In the bigger scheme of things, the Internet’s governance is still in flux and that has enormous implications for people that plan to be the owners of top-level domains.

4. For new TLD applicants, what’s the TOP reason they should attend?

To make their new registry a success. There is a lot uncertainty about what this new market and new industry is going to look like, as well as what will work, and not work.

We specifically set up the .Nxt conference to bring all the players in this new industry together to talk business and to figure out what people can work on collectively and where they can compete with one another. Plus of course to talk about the future and the extraordinary possibilities that new gTLDs open up.

If an organization is spending $250,000+ this year alone, I think they’d be crazy not to spend $1,000 more to protect that investment by learning from the best in the industry.

.Nxt conference rescheduled for August

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London top level domain conference moved due to program delays.

dot-nxtKieren McCarthy’s .Nxt conference about new top level domain names has been rescheduled for August 29-31.

The event was originally scheduled for last week, but became of a victim of ICANN’s delayed announcement of new top level domain applicants.

Canceling or moving the dates of a conference can be a death knell, but given the circumstances this was probably a smart move by McCarthy.

Now that the list of applicants (and their contact information) is out there, it will certainly be easier to market the conference.

The event may also offer another opportunity for applicants of competing strings to get together and hash out deals to avoid costly auctions.

Early bird passes, available until July 3, are £399.00.

.Nxt conference heads to London next month

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.Nxt moves across the pond.

The third .Nxt conference covering issues related to new top level domains takes place June 20-22 at Victoria Park Plaza in London.

I caught up with show founder Kieren McCarthy yesterday to discuss his latest show.

After holding two conferences in San Francisco, McCarthy said a number of interested attendees asked him to hold a show in Europe. With ICANN holding a meeting in Prague starting June 24, McCarthy felt that a stop of in London made sense. (It doesn’t hurt that McCarthy is from London.)

Like those applying for new TLDs, ICANN’s TAS snafu and subsequent timeline delay is forcing .Nxt to constantly shake up its programming. It had hoped to have a list of all new TLD applicants by now. But that list is at least a couple weeks away from being published. It’s possible it won’t even be out by the time .Nxt takes place.

“ICANN’s issue has made life a little bit more difficult,” explained McCarthy. “But that’s ICANN. We should have known better.”

The conference includes tracks about new gTLDs themselves as well as about internet governance.

“All of these companies that are about to become registries, whether they know it or not, need to become aware of the internet governance world,” said McCarthy. He said that decisions being made by people and groups they don’t know yet will have a huge impact on their businesses.

“People just seem to think the internet will go along as it has always gone along,” he said.

McCarthy thinks the session “SOPA and What it Means for the Future of Internet Policy” will be particularly interesting. A session on “Why We Love (and Hate) the Multi-stakeholder Model” should also attract some spirited discussion.

A session about .brand should be well attended if, as many consultants predict, 60% or so of applications are from brands.

McCarthy also says he has a great keynote lined up that will hopefully be revealed in the next week.

McCarthy expects 175-200 people to attend. He was expecting more until the ICANN timeline got pushed back, but pitches five reasons people should attend.

3-day passes are £599.00 through June 12.