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 Elliot
Labreche of Akashic (left) collects the
Judge's Award from Oversee.net
Co-CEO and President Scott Morrow after
Wednesday's Pitchfest Contest.
The
audience also given an opportunity to vote to
for the business plan they liked best. Sometimes they
agree with the judges and sometimes not. This
time not - as John Karavas of Babafoo,
described as a "Linked In" for high
school athletes, won the Pitchfest Audience
Choice Award.
John
Karavas of Babafoo making the Pitchfest
presentation
that won the Audience Award for best online
business idea. The
Wednesday business day closed with a discussion
of Public Policies Impacting Domain Investors.
Internet
Commerce Association Legal Counsel Phil
Corwin gave a comprehensive presentation
outlining legal and policy issues domain
investors need to stay of abreast of in order to
protect their interests. After his talk, Phil
was joined by Sedo General Counsel Jeremiah
Johnston and Oversee.net Senior VP
and Legal Counsel Todd Greene to answer
questions from the audience.
(L
to R) Phil Corwin, Jeremiah
Johnston and Todd Greene answering
audience questions
about legal and public policy issues on
Wednesday (Feb. 1, 2012) at DOMAINfest Global.
Wednesday
night's big social event was a crowd favorite -
a trip to the world reknowned Petersen
Automotive Museum for a Dinner Networking
Party sponsored by the .CO Registry.
DOMAINfest
Global guests ogle some of the dozens of
rare, exotic and famous cars
at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los
Angeles Wednesday night (Feb. 1, 2012). A
highlight of the evening was a preview of
the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad that
will be aired during Sunday's Super Bowl Game
between the New England Patriots and New York
Giants.
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.CO
Registry (.CO Internet S.A.S.) CEO Juan
Diego Calle (at far left)
treats guests to a preview screening of
this year's Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad. |
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In a special
treat for DOMAINfest Global guests, the
star of the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl
commercial, Colombian model Natalia
Velez, showed up in person to meet and
greet attendees and have her picture taken
with everyone who asked. In addition to
obviously being beautiful, Natalia was
very personable and it was clear that she
thoroughly enjoyed interacting with fans.
The 30-second
Super Bowl ad, that cost over $3
million, is expected to be seen by
approximately 120 million views
worldwide. Go Daddy and .CO also ran
a successful ad in last year's Super Bowl
game as part of a .CO marketing effort
that set a new standard for promoting a
new or re-launched TLD. |
Juan
Diego Calle with Natalia Velez,
star of the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad. |
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Gregg
McNair gives Vern Jurovich a
"trim" |
One
other note before we moved on to
Thursday's closing day highlights. As I
mentioned in my
last post from Santa Monica,
three conference attendees,
InternetTraffic.com's Vern Jurovich,
DomainAdvisors.com President Jeff
Gabriel and domain investor Bill
Lozada, generously permitted PPX
International Chairman Gregg McNair,
to shave their heads in exchange for over $30,000
in pledges made to a great charity, The
Water School.
The
deed was done at a late night party
Tuesday night after I had left (expecting
that it wasn't going to happen). I noted
that I had photos coming and now here they
are. At left (in a wonderful shot courtesy
of Dan Adamson), Vern's hair is
transferred to Gregg's hand! |
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Below,
"after" shots of Vern's fellow
"snipees", Jeff and Bill. I
think it's a great look for both guys and
just think of how much money they will
save on hair care products! |
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Jeff
Gabriel sports his new "do' |
Bill
Lozada looking good sans locks |
Moving
on to the closing day (Thursday, Feb. 3)
highlights from DOMAINfest, the day began with a
9:30am session on Domain Valuation Techniques
for Buying and Selling.
The
Domain Valuation panel featured (left to
right) moderator Lisa Box
(Oversee.net),
Paul Nicks (Go Daddy), Liesbeth Mac-de
Boer (Sedo) and Ken Taylor (Marksmen
Inc.).
After
that experienced group provided advice on
setting domain prices, as well as buying and
selling strategies, it was time for one of the
week's main events - a Keynote Fireside Chat
with Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone.
There have been a lot of great keynoters at
DOMAINfest Global over the years and I hesitate
to single one out of the group because so many
were excellent, but I have to say Biz was my
favorite to date.
Stone
served up one hilarious anecdote after another
about growing up and his various business
ventures in a funny, yet informaton-packed and
inspirational interview adroitly conducted by
Oversee leader Scott Morrow. Stone's sense of
humor and wit is just stellar. I'll have
some specifics from the talk in our full show
review article that will be coming out in a week
or so - right now I'm just thankful I recorded
the talk because it is one I will listen to
again. I'm already on Twitter (@dnjournal)
but after hearing Biz I've gone from being a
mere user to a major fan of the man who helped
create it.
Twitter
Co-Founder Biz Stone (left) being
interviewed by
Oversee's Scott Morrow Thursday (Feb. 2,
2012) at DOMAINfest Global.
After
Biz and a lunch break it was time for the final
DOMAINfest panel discussion, one covering SEO
Tips and Best Practices.
The
SEO Tips session featured (left to right)
Bruce Clay, moderator Scott Morrow,
Andy Atkins-Krueger (WebCertain Group)
and Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land).
This
group of well-known experts talked about the
importance of quality content and website
arhitecture and provided advice on the latest
SEO techniques and tools.
The
final business event of DOMAINfest Global, the Moniker
Live Domain Auction, followed at 4:30pm. The
auction wound up producing more than $392,000
in sales led by Empire.com at $135,000.
QE.com added $89,000,
CatFood.com went for $61,000 and Marriages.com
for $36,000. It was originally reported
that QR.com sold for $325,000 but that winning
bid was later rescinded because the buyer
thought they were bidding on a different domain
(12.com).
Auctioneer
extraordinaire Wayne Wheat (at the
podium)
conducting Moniker's Live Domain Aucton
Thursday (Feb. 2).
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After the
auction it was time for a final night of
fun. The ladies got a head start on that
with a 6:30pm Women in Domaining
reception at the Fairmont. Soon after,
motor coaches began ferrying guests across
town to Hollywood's House of Blues
for an evening of networking, good food
and fine performances from Lucent
Dossier, a performance artist group
that combines a dash of Cirque du Soleil
style acrobatics with creatively attired
models and modern dance.
Faces in the
crowd included the nine guys in the photo
below. The line up is kind of a domain
industry version of the 1927 New York
Yankees line up known as Murderer's Row
because of the heavy hitters in every
position. Left
to right they are Ammar Kubba, Page
Howe, Roy Messer, Steven
Kaziyev, Ari Goldberger, Michael
Lindsey, John Yeomans, Andrew
Rosener and Bill Lozada. |
Performance
artist group Lucent Dossier
entertaining
DOMAINfest Global guests at
Hollywood's
House of Blues Thursday night (Feb.
2, 2012). |
The
visit to the House of Blues was a fine way to
cap a wonderful conference week (with fabulous
weather) in Southern California. This morning
people started heading back home after a very
nice farewell breakfast at the Fairmont. Diana
and I had the good fortune of having our flight
home cancelled by a winter storm in
Denver where we were supposed to connect to
Tampa). There were no other available flights
out today, so we are enjoying an unexpected bonus
day and night in Santa Monica. Our day was made
especially delightful when Michael
Castello brought his family
down from their home in Moor Park
to have a long, leisurely lunch with us at the
Fairmont this afternoon. Several
others stayed over in the Los Angeles area for a
weekend-long Domain
Boardroom Funfest at Dana Point.
Domain Boardroom is a private forum operated by
veteran domain investor (and one of the finest
people you will ever meet), Donna Mahony,
that has attracted many of the industry's
leading experts and investors.
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A couple of
other house keeping notes to wrap up these
closing day highlights. For the second
year in a row the winner of DOMAINfest's Fantasy
Domaining Contest was Edwin Sherman
who picked up a great prize package that
included free DOMAINfest admission, four
free nights at the hotel and a $1,000
travel stipend.
The winner of
the Passport Drawing (attendees got
their passports stamped by visiting each
exhbitor's booth, then dropped the
completed passport in the drawing bin) was
Adam Young who won a $500
Amazon gift code. The $250 second
prize went to Daniel Eisenhut and Enrico
Schaefer received a $150
American Express gift card as third
prize. |
View
of the Pacific Ocean from our 9th
floor balcony
at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa
Monica, California
where the DOMAINfest Global 2012
conference
was staged this week. You can see why we
didn't
mind having our flight home cancelled
today. |
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While
I've covered a lot of ground in this
week's daily Lowdown reports from Santa
Monica, there are a lot more photos and
details to share than could be fitted into
these posts that have to be made on the
run while the show was underway. I'll tend
to those in a comprehensive show review
that will bring everything together in one
place for posterity a week or so after we
get back home and clear the decks
there. |
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