Reglikedomain industry desk

DOMAINfest Discloses Keynote and Improves on Winning Formula

Biggest domain name conference tweaks formula and adds famous author to agenda.

The biggest annual conference geared to domain name investors is less than three months away.

DOMAINfest Global 2011 will take place February 1-4 in Santa Monica, California. Last year’s event brought together over 600 internet and domain name professionals.

Yesterday DOMAINfest organizer DomainSponsor disclosed a fireside chat/keynote with Ben Mezrich, Author of “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” — the book the popular “The Social Network” movie is based on. While a number of people have called into question Mezrich’s portrayal of the founding of Facebook in the book, Mezrich has no doubt researched a lot regarding the founding of successful firms. Perhaps this conference will stoke enough intrigue in Mezrich that he’ll consider writing a book regarding the domain name industry (similar to this one.)

Here are a few changes compared to last year’s main DOMAINfest Global event:

1. Shorter live auctions. The low/no reserve auction will be just one hour on Tuesday and the main auction will last only 1 1/2 hours on Thursday.

2. A fresh format for PITCHfest. At PITCHfest firms get to pitch their firm or fresh product to the audience for 5 minutes. Last year they then faced questioning from an expert panel. This year there will be no follow up questions; the panel will vote on a winner and the audience will get to choose one, too.

3. Interactive workshops. These workshops will be aimed at beginning and intermediate domain investors and take place in a structured setting. These workshops will feature experts that can expand knowledge and give the kinds of tips and tools to increase the learning curve of people that have more recently discovered the potential of domain names as an asset class. Buying and selling, monetization options and website buildouts will be covered.

And in case you’re wondering: yes, the Playboy Mansion party is on again this year.

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