You probably have read on many blogs already the opinion that the TRAFFIC Miami show was the best TRAFFIC show since the 1st one way back in 2004.
They’re right.
Now out of full disclosure I have missed two shows over the years; the one in Santa Clara and the one in Orlando, but of all the others I attended this one had the perfect mix of attendees, facility, location, speakers and parties.
So after a few days to reflect here’s my thoughts about the show.
As a domainer when I attend a domain show, I’m looking for a great facility for networking, meetings, getting business done and having time to enjoy each others company, in a convenient, comfortable and enjoyable location.
If you add some great speakers, and some good parties to the mix you have a huge winner.
The weekend prior to the show start on Sunday night was wonderful.
Getting all the Cabana’s out by the pool was nothing short of brilliant.
Ray and Kim decorated each of the cabana’s and did our’s in Gator Blue and Orange.
It was a perfect environment for relaxing, having some fun, hanging out with great people enjoying some adult beverages and for bandit to have his picture taken with models.
What more could you ask for?
The hotel had plenty of comfortable meeting spots inside and out.
The food was 1st rate
The location was perfect right in the center of South Beach.
The party at the Versace mansion was special.
Although I have lived in South Florida for many years I never had the pleasure of experiencing the one of the most beautiful homes in America.
Without a doubt is was the most elegant of any TRAFFIC party or any domainer function I have attended.
As the music played under the star filled night, with the warm ocean breezes blowing, I know there were many in attendance who realized why so many domainers live in South Florida and how lucky those domainers are.
The party was conceived of, planned by and paid for by the .Co registry.
There hasn’t been a bigger success story in the domain industry this year than .Co and why not throw a fabulous party to celebrate.
And Simon pointed out there is more to life than just making money, its about sharing success and enjoying those select few people that touch your heart and you just won’t find nicer, smarter people than Juan and Lori from .Co
When I speak of Simon of course I’m talking about the keynote speaker, Simon T. Bailey. .
I’ll be the first to tell you, I have never been big on motivational speakers.
But Simon spoke to me and some of his points will stay with me for the rest of my life.
“Trust your gut.”
Yup I forgot that one somewhere along the way.
As you get older and supposedly smarter you start to over think things.
Decisions and calls you used to make just on a gut instinct, just because you knew they were right, you start to talking yourself out of.
As you get older decisions become an exercise of battling all the pros and cons, your head gets clogged up with facts and figures and then you start polling the crowd, no longer trusting the instinct that got to where you are.
“Trust your gut.”
Yup I’m back to that.
“Life’s special moments cannot be measured by money”
Yes we need to support our family and there is no one who wants to live their life under the pressure of finding money to pay a mortgage or car payments or your kids education.
Yet there is a simple joy of sharing special moments with the people you care about.
As the winner of last years Domainer of The Year Award, I was given the honor to announced this years recipient, Greg McNair.
Greg like most of us, up to the second he won the award didn’t think much of it.
As he said he never voted for anyone, never filed out a ballot, and never asked anyone to vote for him.
However, it only took Greg minutes to be visibly moved by the honor.
To realize that your peers selected to honor you, out of the universe of all domainers, without any urging or politicking on his part, you can’t help be emotional.
Its a special honor.
A special time and I was happy to share it with him.
Monte Cahn, who I nominated for the Domainer Hall of Fame, was elected to the Hall and I couldn’t have been happier when his name was called and to be in attendance to see him accept his award.
A well deserved honor, 15 years in the making.
A fantastic hardworking, smart guy that has moved the domain industry forward like few others.
Now I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed not winning the award for best domain blog, but if I had to lose, I was glad to see Elliot win.
Blogging is not easy.
Besides being very time consuming, you open yourself up everyday to criticism, second guessing and you place a target on your back which many use for target practice.
Its something I never would have done or could have done at Elliot’s age.
So I respect Elliot for his achievement and his ability to stand up for what he believes in everyday and tell his story.
Besides being one of the nicest and smartest guys you will meet, if he really likes you and you happen to visit New York City, you just may receive a few of worlds tastiest cupcakes.
I had the chance to speak on three panels but the one that was quite meaningful was on security and identity and domain theft.
I hope that I would have the courage to stand up in front of 100+ people like Dr. Chris Hartnett did and tell my story if my identity and domains were stolen out from under me.
I also admired the strength that a couple that had their domain stolen that told their story of a multi-year battle, not only to regain the domain P2P.com, but got the theft put in jail.
Now for some of the bad and ugly.
While many people said they got a lot out of Don King’s speech, I was one of the many who simply had no idea of what he was talking about.
That was especially disappointing to me since I was one of the few that supported Rick’s decision to bring Mr. King to the show.
If Mr. King had stayed chatting about his life, his business and his secrets for success and staying successful, I still think it would have been a meaningful speech.
But clearly Don knew little about domains and rarely mentioned the word “domains” without feeling the need to rhyme it with something, making his speech for me, a little lame, for someone with his fame, and I felt partially to blame.
For me the ugly was the live domain auction.
It wasn’t so much that the auction failed to generate any big numbers, but worse of all it was just plain boring.
Some domains auctions rock and other domain auctions flop but boring should never be an option.
So ironically the best TRAFFIC show had the worst auctioneer.
How boring was the auction?
I’m pretty sure its been the only live auction I’ve attended, where not only didn’t I buy anything, but I didn’t even place one bid and left before it was over.
Finally there has been a lot of discussion this week about money, those who pay to attend the show and those that don’t.
I understand its not my show and not my money, but I feel that a few things need to be said.
As to the main sponsor party, if the sponsor is spending tens of thousands of dollars or upwards of a hundred thousand dollars to put on an event for the show, I think they should have a number of people outside the show they should be able to invite that they believe is important to their business.
I don’t know if that is 1 person, 5 people or 10 people, but it logically seems there should be a number of people that the one paying the bill for the party is entitled to invite and that number should be negotiated long ahead of time.
Second for anyone nominated for an award, I think they should be allowed to attend the award luncheon to receive their award and be recognized for their nomination without having to paying for the privileged.
For all others I would ask that you act professionally and respect the show organizers rules and wishes as they are the ones paying the bills and taking the financial risk on putting on the show, just as you would respect anyone’s property.
As you would not just pull up to someone’s house and jump in their pool, or go into someones house uninvited and eat the food in their refrigerator, you simply can’t trample on peoples rights, property and hard work to use it for your own purposes.
We all know many domain shows lose money, and none are guaranteed to succeed without a ton of work and a lot of investment.
So with the exceptions stated above, while no one can stop someone from staying in the Hotel where a show is being held or using the common areas, lets all be grown ups and recognize that people that do so, are pigging back off of others hard work and investment.
If your staying at the host hotel during a domain show out, of your consideration for those in the industry, who paid quite a bit of money to attend the show, and the hard work and financial risk the show sponsors take on, you should either sign up or stay away.
For all that attended TRAFFIC Miami, you know your business changed for the better, it was money well spent and you experienced the best a domain conference had to offer.
unfortunately, only a few lucky buyers and sellers can take advantage of these events 😐
Hi Mike, and thanks for a great read, definitely from the heart. Will touch on a couple of points here.
1. Don King. If you can take one thing from Don King than the speech is well worth it, and the truth is, it isn’t what he says that is the message, but who he is that is the message. He is a legend, an inspiration, against-the-odds success story, fought similar battles to what our industry is going through, humble to stay with us for many hours after the show and take interest in what we do, and at almost 80, gave a speech that if you listen to again, will surely find much you can learn from.
2. Simon Baily. Not to forget Simon here, he is also just as humble and stayed with us for the rest of the conference. Simon showed much interest in the industry and what we do, and I know many of us have shown the same humility taking much interest in what Simon had to say, and where he is coming from.
3. The sponsor’s party of .CO was special as you said. From the settings to the people, it was a very relaxing atmosphere to get to know your peers. When .CO first started I had my doubt they can pull it off but now, seeing the results of their release, and their class, I have no doubt they are the right people for the job.
4. Leeches & worms. I have no respect to those who show up at the hotel and take advantage of what conference organizers put into the show. This was a total disrespect with no logical excuse.
Overall, a great show, and am looking forward to TRAFFIC SAN FRAN.
Best,
Sahar
there are no doubts that .CO has had an excellent PR campaign… 🙂
Friends, inspiring moments, more friends, fun and being around people you work with but never see in person. All good.
The Don King speech was inspirational. Rags to riches, David and Goliath. That sounds like many domainers I know. Don sent us a lot of love and while hanging around with him after the speech I could see he felt connected with us.
I enjoyed your post MRB. Well said.
From reading that post, I could almost swear that’s Rick posting under Sahar’s name 😀
I’m with you on Don King. A lot of people are saying “you just didn’t get it” about the King speech. To me that’s like the old fable “the emperor has no clothes”.
King talked mostly gibberish up there. Lots of “pontification”. (sorry, had to throw that in).
Was he a draw? Was it worth having him there? Perhaps. But let’s not try to make more out of it than it was. An entertaining trainwreck.
Michael,
I don’t read much. Heck I’ve read one book in the last 3-4 years. There are so many different blogs to read each day and I religiously visit only two sites. Dn Journal and The Domains. Although you didn’t win blog of the year, for me you are the best! Not many can get me to read, and you do.
I had a blast in Miami with you and Judi. It would be ideal for her and I to live closer, could you move to upstate NY?? :)~
Thanks for the hard work Michael, your view gets my daily type in!
You are a decent man Michael. Well said and tempered. We are still a small industry and need to find common ground for those things that will keep us moving toward the future. We wtill have a lot of work ahead of us. Love your blog. It was great seeing you and Judi in Miamii.
As someone who has very few domains, but follows the industry with a passion, I really enjoy reading your blog and your well grounded perspective on things.
I have a great amount of respect for you and the time you spend writing your blog
Thanks !!!
Hi Michael,
Great post, great suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts!
Howard and I had to reach really deep to pull this off and have it unfold as it did. There were a lot of headwinds and in a year that saw more shows than any other in our history, was quite a battle.
The vibes and electricity were the best I have seen since 2004. I am thrilled that everyone found value in what we did. But as I always say, Howard and I just facilitate things. We take the greatest group of folks in the world, the most forward thinking business people and provide the conditions for everyone to do great things. The last thing we want to do is waste anyone’s time.
It is hard to explain tho it should not be. All these commenters are our friends and pay to come to TRAFFIC. I admit, Bandit got in for free. But when we charge our closest friends like you and Judi to come to TRAFFIC, we detest others that as you say are “Pigging back”. It’s wrong and it is hard to hide that emotion. Howard and I should not be on the defensive for the wrong doings of some that really should know better.
Communication is always the key to prevent unfortunate circumstances. We made no secret how we felt about this happening. If it happens again, don’t be surprised if we react the same way. It is something very deep that will come out every time. Kind of like somebody speeding through a school zone. Unconscionable.
Next week I will be making a post about future auctions. As you know we sat next to each other as we normally do. It was not good. It was nearly impossible to understand the auctioneer and went downhill from there. I know putting on an auction is a huge undertaking. But I think our ideas will streamline things in 2011 and bring back the glitz and glamor. Sellers will now have a responsibility to market. Like I said, we are going to change things. We have a premium show and we are going to have domains that match our audience.
As for the blog. The voting was very close. You were first runner up. I read both yours and Elliots blog. But I know your subject matter is more in tune with what info I need as a businessman. Elliot is great for case studies etc.. So once again the cream always rises to the top. Congrats to both of you!
As for Don King. That chapter is still be written. I have been in communication with them even after the show. I’ll try and translate the takeaway when we chat.
Benchmarking the most memorable TRAFFIC Shows. 2004 was the first show and it was magic. 2007 was Steve Forbes and put us on another level. 2010 was off the hook. An industry all grown up. I think we should just do a show every 3 years! 🙂 TRAFFIC 2013. Sign up today! 😉
Michael,
I too, think your blog is the industries’ best. When I see the The Domains logo on the daily Domaining feed, your blog is the first I open to read . Your content is always fresh, pertinent, timely and thought provoking!
Ironically, Elliot’s blog is the one I open next!
Congrats to the both of you.
Earl
Sahar
All of the points you made about Mr. King I made on Ricksblog.com when the announcement was made, his story is “the American Dream” rags to riches story, I just wish he would have stuck to that.
Jodi
Judy and I love you too
But moving to upstate New York is a no go.
Guess you will just have to visit Florida more.
Michael
You and your brother are 1st class and your comment is greatly appreciated
Rick
I understand your’s and Howard’s frustrations.
I don’t think anyone who spent good money to attend the show is happy seeing others standing next to them who wormed there way in for free.
It’s not right.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment and I look forward to attending TRAFFIC SF.
Mike,
It makes me suspicious and comes off as totally insincere when I read commentary from individuals associated (directly or indirectly) with companies and events that only shower or heap praise on something without constructive critical criticism, as we all know there is always room for improvement. Your honest and candid commentary (both good and bad) is much appreciated.
I have always thought of Domaining as something I do at home in my pajamas in the comfort of my easy chair and could never understand the merit or reward of paying to schlep around a conference hall with other “Domainers”. I am not trying to be antisocial, it’s just something that has never appealed to me before. Reading the reviews of this TRAFFIC conference I picked up on something I never had and for the first time I could see myself there (in the future).
By all accounts this TRAFFIC conference was a resounding success and had some of that intangible excitement and magic from years past that has been missing from it for years. Besides, I have to agree, there is no place as beautiful and vibrant than Miami this time of year.
P.S. I measure “success” not in terms of volume of domain sales, but rather in terms of creating a a great memorable event that offers a platform for education, opportunity and further promoting the domain industry.
DONALD DOMAINER KING DAY!
After all the “Rumble in the Jungle”
I would suspect that NEXT YEAR 81 yr old self made multi millionaire …
DON KING will return to the TRAFFIC conference next year after being tutored by RICK SCHWARTZ and then speak of his “new domain investments and
show and tell…, with a great DEAL OF ZEAL and bluster.
(Mr King an uneducated black man against all odd’s in Americas worst racist times, with nothing but gutsy CONFIDENCE (and a great hairdo) took on the mob (as a independent boxing promoter) and livid to tell about it)
HIS SECRET MESSAGE WAS :
Sell…’em ,,,,
Don’t dwell on ’em
🙂
Hey Mike …
I appreciate your honest and accurate assessment of the show and agree that it ranks as the best Traffic show I have attended, and I have not missed one since 2006!
The unexpected bonus for me was the DoY award, concerning which I am getting more comfortable as I see it particularly as recognition for the work of the PPX team and The Water School. I am grateful to those who encouraged me in what we are doing through their votes.
Keep up the great work on the blog … its my favorite anyway!
ggg
Trust your gut and release your inner brilliance
Mike,
Perfect recap. We had a great time hanging out with Judi, bandit and you.
As for don kings speech, it reminds me of modern art, neither of which I understand.
Larry
“If your staying at the host hotel during a domain show out, of your consideration for those in the industry, who paid quite a bit of money to attend the show, and the hard work and financial risk the show sponsors take on, you should either sign up or stay away.”
———————————–
Wow. Intensely scummy, if that sort of thing was going on. Might want to look into implementing a credential control program for the next one. Not much you can do about someone loitering in a lobby, but perhaps restrict the seminars, events and general kibitzing to access-controlled areas, so any leeches wouldn’t get much.
Good post. I do like the theme around it trust your gut.
The thing that amazes me is this and the continuing rant about google and yahoo
You guys at traffic have millions of type inn traffic names each day and by sounds of things a lot of top domainers were there.
Didn’t google attend a conference a few years back and look how things changed when they attended a conference. Things went down. Some of you guys think google is our friend and disappointed in them not attending.
I will say this again and look at frank. He is doing some huge tests and guess what he is telling yahoo to go f u c k themselves. Rotating traffic to companies, testing tons of traffic on note.com
Maybe go with the gut hasn’t kicked inn after all and still chasing a dead horse???
A lot is happening behind the scenes and not being announced. Hope we have some major news in the next 12 months by the big guns IMO.
Rick
Don’t take this the wrong way but with all those .co into auction and a flood of them was there a conflict of interest and .co being a big sponsor?
When I think of quality I think .com. Sure submitting 20 or so .co into auction I see but long tail .net names and .cm ?
Berkens I read your blog everyday and elliots. Both do a great job and both are honest people!
For the Record….
NONE of the .CO domains in the auction came from the .CO registry. None.
ALL were owned by private companies or folks.
it seems there is less interest for .CO now… probably it already reached the top of sale… so far, I’ve registered only two .CO (one to redirect to a .com and one to resell later)
Additionally….
In 2011…..TRAFFIC will focus ONLY on auctioning off .COM domains. That means that at a minimum, 9 out of 10 domains will be .COM and any other extension better be a very desirable keyword. No more 200 domain auctions where you get bored to death. Lots of changes coming.
Ok thanks for clarification on things rick
Either way just way to much junk IMO
Awesome rick. Glad to hear this.
Rick one last question you probably can answer this
How many millions of uniques a day by the top 10 domainers or top 20 domainers who attended?
I honesty would have believed you guys would done a big surprising announcement. Maybe that’s latter
Its like how you forward your type inn traffic to your blog and your rant. Awesome. Let the traffic read that post. One of the best ideas by you!
In 21 shows we have never been able to control the auctions in any fashion. We have tried many things in which we did have control. But from now on, ALL auction houses will be invited to submit up to 20 domains each. They MUST be domains of value and if there is an end user price, the seller is required to bring TWO end users into the fold. If not, then price it accordingly as you are selling to other domainers. It is a wholesale auction not a retail auction. The motive for the auction houses is greater exposure and a more competitive environment. Win for the auction houses and win for the domain owner. More to come.
Rick, from the economical point of view, I dont see anything wrong about auctioning the .co domains.
If I look at the top5 sales in the live auction it looks like:
Shock.com $200,000
BVI.com and BVI.co $110,000
Idle.com $20,000
Coches.co $15,000
MZH.com and MZH.co $15,000
So I see 4x .com and 3x .co, I dont see ANY .org .net …
So apparently there is a market for a high level .co domains, maybe bigger than for .org or .net
The reason why the auction was boring was the auctionator and the proxy-software, not the domains. I personally was trying to bid on some domains via the proxy-software (java applet) and my bids didnt get through, the domains got passed.
But, let me say this: Looking at the percentage of the domains sold in the live auction the auction was a full size success. 22% (39) of the domains got sold, it is much more than in any other of the global domain shows this year (as comparison at DOMAINfest Prague only 19 domains got sold in the live auction). And there is still the extended auction where usually more domains get sold and they achieve higher prices.
So, from my point of view. There are some points to improve, but: Well done!
I understand the voices critisizing which domains have been chosen, but there will always be fans of this extension or that extension (your heart is always where your domains are), but you just should look at your numbers and choose the domains rationally, not depending on the views of the defendands of their interests.
Thank you for write up. this only made me want to attend the upcoming events.
Hopefully I can make some sales to be able to afford the ticket!
“the seller is required to bring TWO end users into the fold.”
If I had that I wouldn’t be thinking “which auction do I want to call”. Just sayin’
Yes 22% of those who submitted to auction went home happy. But 78% did not. That’s what needs work. Doesn’t matter is this is the best of all the other results. If I were an auctioneer, there’d be no money in it to make it worthwhile. So the real loser here is Rick.
This time around, they had too many .CO domains for inconsistent reserves.
I am a .CO supporter, however some of the people had/have their .CO domains for reserves that you would expect to see a .COM sell for.
Even thought .CO in my opinion is a decent extension, it has not reached the heights of .COM yet.
Those names should not have been excepted at those reserves. It just makes the whole .CO extension look silly, and brings it down because of the shear numbers that have not nor will not sell.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
great write up, nice to have someone have opinions on all side of things without pretending like everything was perfect. This is the type of opinion people actually respect.
“we all know that domain shows lose money”
Huh? Are you kidding. Now you want us to believe the Rick and Howard are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and that they have held tens of conferences all at a loss to themselves in order to move the industry forward? Then he tells Bailey to Fuck Off. Perhaps the cool aid you get as the domainer of the year is spiked cause you are way out of touch here Berkins. According to my calculations the gate at this conference was approx 600K, then theres sponsor money and revenues from auction sales etc etc. To expect people to believe that all these shows are done at a loss is nothing short of ridiculous.
Schwartz “the seller is required to bring TWO end users”
Right Rick! Sheer brilliance. I bring the domain names (cheap of course) and I bring the buyers so YOU can get the commission. Nice idea. Ever wonder why people put things in an auction Rick? If they could the stuff themselves they wouldn’t need an auction. You, Howard and TRAFFIC are becoming more and more irrelevant with eah passing day. Dinosaurs. Wave bye bye.
Pigeon
I didn’t say TRAFFIC Miami lost money.
I also did not say I said that:
“we all know that domain shows lose money”
What I did say is:
“We all know many domain shows lose money”
You think I’m wrong go ask Mr. Latona how much he made on this “TRAFFIC” shows this year.
So much that he has already bowed out of the conference space.
And he’s not the only one to lose money on conferences.
The point is these are not slum dunk home runs.
You have to have a great location at a great time, you have to give people a reason to come and promote the hell out of it.
I also think you would be SHOCKED to see how much it costs to put one of these on.
The hotels charge a fortune for all food and drink.
You ever buy something out of a minibar at a hotel. You think if they are charging you $6 for a coke they are charging any less to the show.
No
Finally please don’t twist my words to fit your comment.
Doh
I got a preview of Aftermarket.com and they will have this feature built into their online platform, so if you did have 2 or more people interested in your domain you could set up a private auction only inviting those people hold an online auction of that domain
On the other hand SwapFest on Wednesday morning SOLD 5000 domains in 75 minutes right under everyone’s nose. You had to do your homework for that one and come into the room with a list of domains you wanted and the most you’d be willing to pay. I sat with Howard, Rick, Rob Grant and Ron Jackson who are among the smartest guys I know and they had no idea what was happening. But they will the next time. More here:
http://www.epik.com/blog/swapfest-miami-update.html
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2010/dailyposts/20101021.htm
UPDATE
The person who was involved in the theft of P2P.com, whose victium said in on the securty panel was found guilty today and convected to 5 years in prison
http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20101213fad
UPDATE
The person who was involved in the theft of P2P.com, whose victim said in on the security panel was found guilty today and convicted to 5 years in prison.
http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20101213fad