Fewer domain conferences or just different domain conferences? — Are there

There are only two big domainer conferences this year, but domainers still find opportunities to get together.

Two years ago you could have gone to a domain name conference every other month.

This year there are just two big domain conferences: DOMAINfest (which by now took place) and the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale.

Here at HostingCon I’ve had conversations with a number of people regarding this sudden lack of opportunities to get together.

But is that really the case?

One person pointed out that there are a lot more domainers attending ICANN meetings. My initial thought is this is since domainers are applying for fresh top level domains. But that same person pointed out something else: ICANN meetings are free.

It’s a good point. ICANN meetings are not only free, but more money goes into producing them than any domainer conference. (Thanks to domain investors’ fees paid to ICANN, of course.)

It doesn’t hurt that ICANN meetings are often held in some pretty cool locales.

Still, ICANN meetings are not domainer meetings. Domainers are outnumbered by policy wonks, attorneys, bureaucrats and Donut-eaters.

There are also events like HostingCon which attract many businesses in the domain investing industry (although not many individual domainers).

Next year TRAFFIC will add a second show in Las Vegas. I think this will bring us up to a reasonable number of domainer conferences spread throughout the year (assuming DOMAINfest goes through with its show again).

What do you think?