NamesCon just announced one of its marquee keynote speakers for the 2020 NamesCon Global conference later this month. Aman Bhutani, CEO of GoDaddy, will be one of the conference’s keynote speakers. Aman was named CEO of GoDaddy in September, when former CEO Scott Wagner departed due to an unspecified health issue.
Although the NamesCon email did not announce the date and time of Aman’s keynote address, I can see an unspecified keynote speaker slot on Thursday, January 30th from 1-2pm. NamesCon previously announced that James Booth will be a keynote speaker, and he is scheduled to take the podium on Friday, January 31st at 10am. You can view the full agenda on the NamesCon website.
Here’s the announcement that was shared by NamesCon this morning:
“We’re excited to announce our main keynote speaker for NamesCon Global 2020: Aman Bhutani, CEO of GoDaddy. Since taking the helm in September, Bhutani has reaffirmed his commitment to transparency, as well as GoDaddy’s commitment to helping individuals and entrepreneurs realize their visions by getting the right domain and the right website. Over 20 years of technical, entrepreneurial, managerial, and leadership experience has led him to this stage in his career, and he has many valuable insights to share about the future of GoDaddy—and how domain investors play an important role. “
In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that the parent company of NamesCon is owned by GoDaddy.
Isn’t it strange that the biggest domain conference is bought by the biggest company in the market and that they now use Namescon for their own promotion?
Giving their own CEO the keynote is another signal that Namescon is a tool for promotion of Godaddy and not per se the industry as a whole.
It seems we need a new independent, global industry conference… If anyone from the industry wants to pick this up, DAN is willing to be your first sponsor.