Reglike’s DOMAINfest Recap
Recapping DOMAINfest 2011.
DOMAINfest Global 2011 attracted nearly 700 people affiliated with the domain name industry.
There was a lot of business and a lot of fun. Here’s my recap.
Monday
I arrived in Santa Monica Monday afternoon and traveled to the Fairmont. Shortly following arriving I headed over to lunch with a few domain investors. Then it was time to set up the BigJumbo exhibition booth.
Monday evening I attended the Southern California Domainers’ meetup held at the penthouse of Mike Mann’s fresh apartment.
Tuesday
Tuesday afternoon Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky delivered a “State of the Industry” presentation. Many of his 10 prophecies were bigger than the domain industry but could all shape it in the years to come.
His talk was immediately followed by the main event — Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons.
Parsons’ talk was well received by the crowd. His first few jokes fell flat, but then the standing-room only crowd started to warm up to his story of ups and downs. It was inspiring.
Getting to know the founder of Go Daddy.
Following his talk I got to sit down with Parsons for a while. I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple times but it was nice to meet him in person. I tried to get the scoop on who the GoDaddy.co girl was, but he wasn’t regarding to spill the beans.
Speaking of .co, that evening .co hosted a Polynesian Paradise Party at the Fairmont’s pool. This was followed by two unofficial parties: one hosted by Demand Media at the Huntley across the street and one at Mike Mann’s apartment.
Wednesday
I had a busy day full of meetings ahead of the Golden Era of Hollywood party at SkyBar sponsored by VeriSign. The party was fun and featured synchronized swimmers and a mermaid.
TrafficZ co-founder Ammar Kubba has a fresh condo just down the road from The Viper Room. In an apparent bid to piss off his fresh neighbors, he decided to invite 40 rowdy people to the roof top deck following midnight.
Ammar’s spontaneous rooftop party.
Thursday
In the morning I caught a workshop titled “Tips and Strategies for Buying and Selling Domains” moderated by Oversee.net’s Lisa Box. That was followed by numerous meetings and then Moniker’s live auction. No major domains sold during the auction, but that has been the reality of late. I’ll have more thoughts on this in a later post.
Then it was time to head the the Playboy Mansion. I have to admit that, following three years at this party, it’s getting a little old for me. It’s lost its edge. Perhaps I’m in a minority, and I’m certainly not complaining.
There was also an unfortunate incident on one of the buses on the way back to the hotel. Once I saw the aftermath of the scuffle I sobered up quickly. There were lots of following parties, but at that point I just wanted to crash.
Friday
Following a long week of fun and business it was finally time to head home.
As a veteran DOMAINfest attendee, I urge you to not book an early morning flight following four days of DOMAINfest.
