Domain Roundtable Goes to Washington

Next conference will be held in Washington D.C. June 2009.

Yesterday on DNJournal Ron Jackson wrote regarding the next Domain Roundtable conference, which will be held in Washington D.C. Jackson points out that this is a good venue since Washington will play an notable role in the future of the domain name industry (have we forgotten regarding the Snowe bill yet?).

But this is not uncharted territory for Domain Roundtable, and is a signal that Domain Roundtable is heading back to its roots. When I attended Domain Roundtable in April 2006, the event was packed with “non-domainers” counting policy wonks, registries, and lawyers. Even Vint Cerf was there. But the focus changed following that show as it moved to cater to a strictly domainer crowd. Personally, I think the quality of the show deteriorated as the conference’s main point of differentiation from other domain conferences disappeared.

This conference won’t just be regarding policy. It will be regarding domaining, too. But I find it much more fulfilling to go to a conference that isn’t just a bunch of domainers.

The show was purchased by Thought Convergence (parent firm of TrafficZ) when it purchased Name Intelligence (parent firm of Domain Tools). The firm made a strategic decision to bring the conference back to its roots, and I commend it for this decision. The shows tagline, “Where everyone comes together”, is an apt description.