Geodomain Expo Review
The Geodomain Expo was a success, again. Words cannot express the inspiration derived from this group of entreprenuers in such a high-potential, growing industry.
This year was quite different for our team. Last year, we had a new domain and no idea how to build it. This year, we had a new site up and no idea how to sell it. The sales panel was crucial to us this year, while last year we were busy learning what it meant to own such a brand and what was expected from that product.
While half of the discussions were actually a bit stale for us – we heard many of them last year and we’ve had several of the other ones internally for the past 6 months – the networking opportunities only grew. We were also able to present some knowledge where I feel we actually have a bit of an edge – using Social Media to the benefit of our businesses. I expect this to help grow many of our relationships with the other cities and geo businesses over the next year.
Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the whole weekend. Fortunately, I have a team of two very competent - albeit too-closely-related - employees kicking ass with Lahaina.com. I was able to meet a majority of the people I intended on meeting and learned a lot in the short time I was there.
I have had one main concern with this geodomain industry previously. I have been worried that many of the players are either too stuck in the past or not moving quickly enough to grow this industry into its full potential, hopefully replacing much of what is being lost as newspapers die. While there are many businesses and sites that fall into this category, there are several others that gave me a lot of hope and proved me wrong. Shawn Pilfold, with Kelowna.com, has been on a tear! So have Fred Mercaldo with Scottsdale.com, Mark Burgess’ team at San Diego.com, Don Jones at New Orleans.com, and many more. They have several years of experience on us and are racing forward faster than we can keep up. I love it!
Lastly, one of the best things about the Expo is seeing new faces. There are new cities within the Associated Cities group and there were people showing up to the expo in the same boat we were in last year…owning the brand to their city and unsure where to go next. There is no better place to start than this Expo and it proved its worth one more time.
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I enjoyed the event. The networking was great, as it was much more intimate that other events. I enjoyed the location, topics, and actually the fresh, new way of auctioning names. It was my first geo domain event and first ever outside outside.
I am glad that you think that the industry is looking and moving forward. I was wondering if you had the opportunity to go to the New TLD panel. I think that when you look at the way they talk about the Internet with Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, it is now time to explore some of the other geo opportunities to diversify the .com portfolios.
Htpp://www.thedomainscene.com
I have not spent a ton of time on the new TLD’s, but I am not a big fan. It has been years and very few of the other TLD’s (.travel, .asia., etc.) have proven useful. There is a chance that a few of these work, but I am not putting any of our money into it.