My telecom background allowed me to participate in large industry conferences, in the 1990s and early 2000s.
As an employee of corporations and start-ups, I was on the flip side of the conference participants, that of an exhibit staffer.
Having to interact with thousands of people at a time, was a task that allowed me to gain a better understanding of how the promotion of a business can be more effective.
I was able to receive feedback and to use it for the benefit of my employer’s marketing and product management teams.
That, was before 2004 – the year the first TRAFFIC conference brought together domain professionals with a goal to organize a loosely defined industry.
In 2008, I attended my first TRAFFIC conference here in Orlando, and it helped me understand the issues related to the domain industry. The event itself was a great get-together of professionals, and an effort to unionize the “domainer” class.
The economy soon faltered, and my decision to attend every two years took that into account. It simply wasn’t easy to justify paying the same overall cost when global finances were down. Despite that, I gained tremendous benefits from attending TRAFFIC in 2010 and in 2012. The latter, allowed me to witness the resurgence of the domaining economy, thanks to the opening of the DNS platform to the general public.
Last year, I attended NamesCon in Las Vegas, and experienced an air of change in how the domain conference business is defined. The gathering was a reluctant but important step in the right direction, involving professionals and exhibitors that had decided to exchange fresh ideas and new ways of expanding the industry.
This year’s NamesCon was bigger, better, brighter; the kind of people that visited Las Vegas for the event came from across the globe and from different professions and industries. It was the type of convergence that I witnessed during my telecom years, so long ago.
NamesCon did not happen in 2004, because the economy at the time was sound, stable and baptized in its own glory.
When one sits on their laurels for too long, they can’t see the oncoming train. At times of financial duress, one has to improvise, to adapt, to change. NamesCon did not happen in 2004 because everything seemed idyllic and set for life, back then. But that’s not how one should manage the future, and life in general.
I’m grateful that I belong to a community that wants to make a positive change for the future, reaching out beyond the mentality of the past few years. NamesCon has become an energizing compass for an industry that can only grow in leaps and bounds from here, and I’m looking forward to being part of it.
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