Well after the announcements yesterday coming out of the TRAFFIC show organizers and Rick Latona, that Rick Latona will be a partner of the TRAFFIC conference in 2010 and beyond, that means 1 thing for sure.
Moniker.com is out.
TRAFFIC New York, which will be held in October, will be the last TRAFFIC show in which Moniker.com will run a Live Auction (they still will be the premier auction for the NY show).
Moniker.com, one of the many companies owned by Oversee.net already hosts its own show, Domainfest.com, which for the past 2 years has been held in Southern California during the last week of January.
In its announcement yesterday, TRAFFIC said it would be holding a show in Vegas in January/February next year, setting up what looks like a head to head battle. Although no one would expect that shows to be scheduled at the same time, having 2 west coast shows within 4 weeks of each other (DomainFest being end of January means there could at most be a 4 week break between them) would mean for all practical purposes, that east coasters like myself will basically have to pick between them. (unless they were scheduled back to back).
Beyond DomainFest, what will Moniker.com do now that they have built a brand around being a live auction house and have the infrastructure, technology and staff to run live domain auctions?
Should be an interesting.
We send out our congrats to Rick, Howard and Rick and look forward to great things in 2010.
Who said the shows had to be at different times? Maybe Rick (squared) and Howard are going to go head to head with DomainFest.
They will still be doing some adult auctions methink
IMHO DFG spanks TRAFFIC
Jim
They both need sponsors and exhibitors and there are not a ton to begin with so it would make no sense to do it at the same time.
However practically speaking, from the attendee side of things, east coast people are only going to fly out west once in a few week period, so unless they do it back to back, attendees are going to have to make a choice
Heh, I was the first voter 😉 It will be interesting to see how the shows will be scheduled and what will Moniker do in 2010.
D
Rick Latona just did the adult auction at the phoenix forum, the show were webcam.com sold for $1M.
Moniker.com is handling the AVN show in August from Hollywood FL.
(they are now accepting submissions at: http://domainauctions.moniker.com/details?id=200
However, none of these adult shows and auctions are the revenue producer that a TRAFFIC show is.
Daniel
Thanks, I usually vote first, but I didn’t want to tip my hand.
The attendance at all of the domain meetings are dropping.
I’m sure we will eventually hear about the low numbers for Roundtable.
And, I don’t see it get any better in the immediate future.
I believe all of the organizers need to ask the soul searching question –
“Why should domainers really attend the domain meeting?”
When some concrete points can’t be stated, they say – networking.
That only goes so far.
I have attended a number of Traffics and a couple Domainfest. I probably got more out of Traffic. I enjoy being entertained and well fed but the most important objective should be – BUSINESS.
If Rick can make a solid case why domainers will benefit by attending, he will get my vote.
Whereas, DomainSponsor might promise results but it might fall short.
It should be interesting to see if anyone drops out of the domain meeting business.
Mike — Good post. The battle/war indeed seems afoot — I’ll confess to a good chuckle as Rick L’s blog shows/reserves/”puts a line in the sand” for every month in 2010 as a possible conference date!
One challenge is we all see and hear about a predicted consolidation in the space — how would that affect sponsorships? We have a handful of companies after all, we’re not Search Engine Strategies or Affiliate Summit.
We are seeing some good content come to the fore — Scott Klososki’s keynote at TRAFFIC San Jose was spot on and Phil Corwin’s panel at DRT this week was excellent. Greg McNair’s early-morning DRT panel on Monday pulled no punches either. Unfortunately a few too many empty seats, but it’s the attendees loss if they don’t partake in the discussions, I guess.
Heard positives about Amsterdam and it was a good DRT this week — kudos to Thought Convergence and a nice touch with the first five auction domains going to ICA — but I did get a sense of conference fatigue from folks just coming off Amsterdam and facing ICANN next week. A few were welcoming the summer respite and talking up Brooklyn.
I like the TRAFFIC idea of different themes for the shows, but curious if that will divide our strength as a space/industry/group or strengthen us by bringing in new geographies, business press coverage and fresh blood at possibly smaller local shows at lower prices. Hopefully competition/co-opetition strengthens us all at the expense of none and sponsors like us will be able to step up as we can, we’ll see.
For now, onto Brooklyn.
Cheers, bcarr
Brian
Look forward to seeing you back in my hometown, Brooklyn NY
…And we should probably be more aggressive as an industry for more domainer panels and exposure at AdTech/Affiliate summit, etc.
Brian
I believe Howard from TRAFFIC went to Adtech this year before the TRAFFIC show and had a booth and I know Monte from Moniker.com has had a presence at the Affiliate Submit and hosted domain auctions their in the past.
Your company is one of the few better positioned to bring more attention to the domain business
Both MONIKER and Rick Latona Auctions were at AD-TECH along with our T.R.A.F.F.I.C. booth. We are working hard at bringing in outside industries that can only put additional money in Domainers’ pockets. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. means BUSINESS.
Yep, we’ve had booths Adtech as well — think we gotta get a regular panel as an industry.
Cheers, b
It’s too bad that history repeats itself. This battle will do no good for the space really. If there’s a battle the easiest way to end it is for the shows to be free. 🙂
Interesting that TRAFFIC dumped moniker after their sales at the last auction.
Adam
Although I have no inside information, my guess is that Latona bought into the TRAFFIC show as a part owner along with Rick and Howard.
Therefore its a business move rather than a “dumping” of moniker.com
That would explain today’s announcement by Rick Latona of TRAFFIC no longer being invitation only — and previously banned folks to be welcomed back with open arms…
BC quote
“TRAFFIC no longer being invitation only — and previously banned folks to be welcomed back with open arms… ”
Oh, NO !!!
They are going to let the riff raff back in.
🙂
(just joking.)
Just for the record, there have been about 5 folks that have ever been not invited to TRAFFIC. We will still reject anyone who we believe will be a disturbing influence and prevent other attendees from wanting to come to the show.
Secondly, the contract with Moniker ended. It was a multi year business deal that neither party renewed. There are no hard feelings. We all had a good run. Monte, Howard and I will be friends for a very long time.
As for the deal with Rick, that is our business. All I can say is we all believe this is a great move for the entire industry. We all have a similar vision how to take the domain industry to different sectors of business throughout the world and overcome obstacles that we have faced for many years. To expand the industry to include companies that domainers will need to have a relationship with in the future.
Great comment Rick.
PeopleSearches.com
As the producer of a domain conference in 2007, I wanted to do what all domain conferences and domain auctions should be doing now:
• THEMED DOMAIN AUCTIONS AND ADVERTISING THESE AUCTIONS TO THE THEME DEMOGRAPHIC THREE MONTHS AHEAD
• FREE TICKET TO ANY NON-DOMAINER (End-User) COMPANY THAT IS BIDDING AT LEAST $50,000 ON A DOMAIN AT THE EVENT AUCTION. Heck, why not give any company outside the domain industry at least ONE free ticket to attend (especially if the attendee is the company’s marketing director) so they can see how the domain industry rolls.
• LET THE “NOISE” IN, TO KEEP THE CONFERENCE INTERESTING AND FILLED WITH DRAMA. OTHERWISE, WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE SLEEPING IN.
These ideas have also been presented by other domainers and they are catching on as something we should be expecting to see in the future from domain conferences and live auctions.
TRAFFIC will continue to thrive, Domainfest will continue to amaze, and DRT will continue to educate, but only if we stop the incestuous cycle of invitees. We need new blood.
Having booths at Adtech is a nice start, except unless you’re spending that same amount of money specifically targeting the marketing directors at major companies, the advertising community is going to look at domains as “parasites” sucking the cash out of their pockets. No ad agency wants their client to buy a $1million domain name that will continually bring in eyeballs when the ad agency itself is charging the company ten times that much to bring in eyeballs for an average of 60 days through mainstream media. That’s why you always see totally stupid domain names combined with ads for large companies, and the domain names are actually just promoting the ad campaign’s theme. Ad agencies need to find a way to make money with domains. Nobody has showed them how to do this (I have an idea how, in combination with a domain service).
*Tips from a live event producer with 25 years experience
Nice article, Mikey.