First I would like to thank those of you who read the first part of this article and approached me at NamesCon. It’s nice to know that in some little way I helped some enjoy the experience! I met you, I remember you (maybe not by name but you made an impression), I spent at least a little time with you. And I learned some important things about each of you! You read the blogs (shows interest in the industry), you remembered my advice to politely approach people and get to know them! So you study the industry, read advice and execute what matters to you individually..I bet you had a lot of fun. I know I did! Some of us even are on the http://pixt.com/namescon wall together!
To touch a little on a point I made in the first post. I mentioned that you should not approach people with your portfolio in hand..get to know people. It was great..I didn’t meet one portfolio pusher…there were at least a couple of card shovers. Flying through the room doing “drive by” card drops and shoves is no way to get to know your industry colleagues. Don’t be “that guy” either!
There’s lots of places to read about the business side of Namescon and you all know by now that I am surely not the corporate person so I’ll share with you what I enjoyed and my takeaway from the event. I was that person who attended to support a great group of people doing a fantastic event and meet new people and hang out with old friends. Without breaking the bank!
I was looking forward to hearing Duane Forrester of Bing speak and it was well worth waiting for. The room was pretty full and stayed that way and many asked followup questions so I call it a winner.
One question that has often been asked in the last few weeks is “how do the search engines treat the new gtlds” The answer was simple..they don’t much care what’s right of the dot…content is king!
Duane also talked about exactly what Bill Hartzer has been saying. If you want your page to rank…social media, social media, social media! If you missed his talk, check this out http://www.slideshare.net/duaneforrester/namescon-2014-the-future-of-search
One thing I really enjoyed was the high energy! There was a huge variety of topics discussed during the keynotes. This conference focused on domains as a whole and not just domaining/domainers.
So my take on Namescon in general and which conferences I will attend in the future?
They provided what we wanted. It’s main focus seemed to be gTLDs but that’s the big buzz in the industry now. There were many speakers and panels NOT about gTLDs. Gets my vote!
It was a no meals conference. Well, at $199 and $80 or so for a room at a super revenue..who cares! Once you pay a couple grand for conferences and your unhappy with the food it’s too late. All about choice. Gets my vote!
The shows producers, Richard Lau, Jodi Chamberlain and Jothan Frakes always took minutes that they really didn’t have to spare to meet and greet new faces and make everyone feel welcome! Gets my vote.
I’ve waited a long time for a conference that I felt compelled to attend. Years in fact. I hope Namescon continues on as it is and remains as inclusive as it is. I have no doubt that it will but we need to be supportive for them keep doing what they do so I hope it gets you vote too! See you at NamesCon 2015!
Great to see you there!
Great to finally meet you, Donna, I hope you had a great time as everyone else.
Unlike with Elliot, I got to give you a hug, but at least I learned how to play ‘elbow high-fives’ when I catch a cold. 😀
Just kidding, Elliot, a pleasure to see you, man. Take Airborne vitamins a week before a trade show next time! 😀
Feeling way better already – thanks!
I hate getting sick and I didn’t want to give anyone else my cold. Luckily, I got my flu shot a couple of months ago 🙂
@Acro, It was really great to finally meet you!
Sorry that I missed you Elliot – NOT sorry that I missed your cold!
What a great show! It was probably the best overall value in the domain conference space. The low costs led to a great turnout, which seemed to be a pretty good mix of old and new domainers. And I didn’t feel overwhelmed by domain company employees.
Although I’ve been pretty tired of hearing about all the new tld’s, I did listen to the fresh talk with an open mind. I have some new insights, and it will help my opinions and actions going forward.
Hats off to Richard, Jothan, and Jodi – well done!! I’ll definitely be attending again, and highly recommend that anybody that couldn’t make this one should make an extra effort to attend the next one!