NamesCon 2019 is coming up in about 3 weeks from now. This will apparently be the last NamesCon conference in Las Vegas, according to a preview in DNJournal. I have mixed feelings about that.
I don’t love Las Vegas, but I have become accustomed to traveling there every year from NamesCon. There is an assortment of hotels, there are plenty of restaurants for every taste, and there are all sorts of activities. It can also be relatively cheap, depending on your preferences. Everything is also pretty close together, so if you want to have a private meeting, you can easily find somewhere to meet without prying eyes. It’s also a great place to find a public spot and congregate with a larger group of people. There’s almost something for everyone in Las Vegas.
I will probably attend NamesCon wherever it is held next year (buying my ticket right as this year’s event ends), but if others opt to not attend, it will be less appealing. With this year’s conference coming up in a few short weeks, I am curious to know if you plan on attending.
>apparently be the last NamesCon conference in Las Vegas, according to a preview
It’s not really news or a secret though – NamesCon told people in Jan 2018 one that 2019 is the last one planned for the Trop in LV, and back as far as Easter they were polling for suggestions of places for 2020 🙂
True, but I wouldn’t have been too surprised if they chose another venue in Las Vegas.
Why do you have to pay when they are giving free tickets away? With your stature SIR ELLIOT- you can just snap your fingers and get what you want.
I will attend if the event is held in a nudist camp- safer and nothing to hide during negotiation.
The agenda for 2019 is full of timewasting, nothing interesting.
The buyers have mismanaged the conference.
They had a winning formula:
interesting content+lots of domainers+cheap prices+vegas+free booze.
Now they have uninteresting content+less domainers+more expensive prices+vegas+limited free booze
So the only thing they have left is vegas and they are going to change that too.
Also it used to be around the same time as Affiliate Summit in Vegas but they screwed this up too.
I used to love going to Affiliate Summit and the always banging Affiliate Ball and then chilling out at Namescon.
Richard Lau sold it at the perfect time with the huge new TLD bubble creating much more visitors and sponsors.
Unfortunately many domainers are not making the big bucks they used to make (partly due to many wasting money on new TLD’s) and there has been even more increased concentration of the dotcom game and the final nail in the Namescon coffin is the substandard content (there were a few hilarious cases under Richard Lau also of people who clearly bought access as content to parade themselves as experts but still most of the content was interesting under Lau, most of the content was from within domainers or interesting development stories under Lau, well thought out and in many cases the content was so good there was 2 interesting sessions going on at the same time under Lau.
In order to save Namescon:
1. Get somebody in charge who has a clue on what quality content is for domainers.
2. Keep it in Vegas.
3. Hold it around the same time as Affiliate Summit in Vegas
4. Hold one crazy party with good free alcohol, more service personnel to give out the alcohol (nobody likes to wait 20 mins for a drink), less drunken nerds (keep a fashion show around the same time and also invite all the fashion inspired girls and women to the party), less BS new TLD salesmen,
5. Development stories on good domains are key even though most do not develop their domains they still like hearing the stories so invite developers of good domains to Namescon and give them comped entrance, hotels and food in exchange for telling the development story.
You nailed it Vee….
Most of the people presenting are paid spots. They sponsor the show and in turn get a speaking spot.
Once this moved out of Vegas it will be DOA. Good thing is someone will then step up and create the new show, there are 2 places it can happen. LA or Vegas. No boats or Austin or bla bla… 2 places. No one wants to sit on a boat for 5 days. Most the people I know fly in and get 1-3 days of the entire show before doing their own thing.
For a comparison, here is the same poll from January 5, 2018:
https://domaininvesting.com/daily-poll-attending-namescon-2018/
1. One of these days I might want to go, but only if it is in Vegas.
2. Just choose another venue if people don’t like the Trop.
3. Alcohol is not important and is very bad for you. I’d be much more interested in lunch and dinner or something. But I realize some people may feel strongly about alcohol (sad, and not smart).
4. Poker anyone? 🙂
5. Vegas, Vegas, and more Vegas. But if not, NYC during warm weather?
6. Coinciding with “Affiliate Summit” also sounds like the best idea.
If you want to go to Vegas, then just go to Vegas – it’s an awful place for a conference IMHO – too many distractions for attendees and not good VFM
There does need to be more parties/socials – a significant amount of business gets done at those, so when you read ‘monday is a free night’ you know it really means ‘we overpriced the sponsorship by 250% and couldnt sell that slot’
Definitely needs more content – having a day with sessions ending part way through is the same scammy stunt WHD/CF pulls to pretend the event is longer
Lets see if they can impress us this year, we are running out of good learning/networking events
I love the host city. Not as sure about the hotel. Would’ve liked it if NC would change the dates and venue but kept it in LV. I agree with @vee that content needs improvement and would be nice to coincide with other conferences domainers might be interested in. This would certainly increase attendance. Any change in host city will immediately get scrutiny and comparison to LV so it must be thoroughly thought out and an upgrade.