6 questions regarding DOMAINfest answered
A look back at the prior week’s DOMAINfest conference.
Ahead of heading to DOMAINfest I posed six questions that would be answered by the end of the week. Here are the answers.
1. How will Oversee.net’s fresh leadership present itself?
Just ahead of the conference began, Oversee.net disclosed that co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow had been promoted to co-CEOs.
I haven’t seen many “co-CEO” type situations end favorably, but they seem to be handling it well so far.
Most people I talked to at the conference were positive regarding the fresh leadership. Domeyer will be more visible to domainers since she handles the domain monetization side of the business. Morrow covers the vertical markets properties.
The fresh leadership gives Oversee a “fresh start” following a rough few years.
2. Will Oversee.net address Moniker?
Yep. KeyDrive, which owns NameDrive and Key-Systems, disclosed that it purchased both Moniker and SnapNames. That leaves a lot of of questions up in the air, but I think this is a good thing. Oversee had been trying to get rid of these properties for at least a year. It’s good to have them in the hands of a firm that wants to invest in them. More on that in a future article.
3. Will the fresh parties make up for the (lack of) Playboy Mansion?
I think both parties were good. But I’ll let others chime in here.
4. How many people will be there?
Regarding 600 people were expected to attend. More on that in a future article.
5. Can DOMAINfest successfully include topics outside the typical domainer realm?
Confession time – I didn’t really go to any of the sessions. But they were well attended, with 200-400 people in many of the sessions. I’d say it was another step toward bridging the domainer and internet marketing communities. These are two communities that historically haven’t understood much regarding each other.
6. What big firm announcements will be made?
Sedo disclosed a big deal with GoDaddy, but KeyDrive probably grabbed the most attention with its buyout.
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Now, a bigger question: where do Oversee.net and DOMAINfest go from here? They have emerged a smaller, leaner firm following the sale of Moniker and SnapNames. Now they have a vertical markets division and DomainSponsor. They’re a smaller part of the domainer lifecycle and have only regarding 100 employees, down from 200 just a few years ago.
Is DomainSponsor alone enough to justify holding a sizable conference each year? Will it team up with KeyDrive for future domain auctions at its conferences?
Will the conference eventually morph to a point where it no longer makes sense to put “domain” in the title?
Coming soon: Domain/Affiliate/LeadGen/SEOfest, presented by Oversee.net.
