NamesCon 2019 Preview

NamesCon, the largest domain conference, is coming up in less than a week. Here is a preview of what to expect and my take on the program.

The program starts on Sunday, January 27. What follows is the breakdown of the sessions.

Sunday, January 27

11:00 AM Overview of ICAN Anti-Abuse Contractual Requirements and Abuse Audit

11:05 AM Building a Safer Internet While Fighting Abuse at Scale

These first 2 opening sessions are geared towards registries and registrars. The average domainer or investor will not be totally interested in these sessions, unless they’re contemplating starting a registrar.

11:30 AM Domaining Evolved: An Insider’s Guide to the Best Tools And Hidden Gems at Dynadot.

This will be given by product designer at Dynadot. Clearly this will be a marketing session promoting Dynadot’s services. I like how they don’t even try to hide that fact. If you use Dynadot or considering using them then this will be a session for you.

1:00 PM Fireside Chat with WIPO and the ICA

WIPO is World Intellectual Property Organization and ICA is Internet Commerce Association. The ICA panelist is Zak Muskovitch, the general counsel for ICA. And the WIPO panelist is Brian Beckham, Internet Dispute Resolution Section.  So if you are concerned that your domains may infringe on some entity’s trademark or copyright then this is the session for you. I would assume they will discuss Reverse Domain Name Hijacking which is of concern to most domainers.

1:30 PM Turn Your Premium Domain Into a Recurring Revenue Business

Founder of Moving Sites LLC is the speaker. Recurring revenue is critical to domainers. Should be interesting to see if anything new is learned. This is a topic I am highly interested in, so I will be present. Creating a recurring revenue business is not easy. I will be keen on learning new insights.

2:00 PM The Intersection Between ICANN TLDS and Blockchain

The CEO of MMX will present this session. Still need to figure out this blockchain thing and how it relates to “cryptocurrency” and domains.

2:30 PM Domains on the Blockchain

Like most people, I don’t get blockchain as it applies to domains or currency. It seems to me more hype than substance. Maybe I will give this session a try just to see if the speaker can clarify it finally.

3:00 PM Domain Management is Dead – Long Live the Platform Revolution

This will be given by Marco Revesh, Business Innovation Evangelist at InterNetX. Not sure how to take that theme as well as the title of the speaker.

3:30 PM Secrets to Triple Your TM Typo Earnings

Very surprised that this is on the program. Registering TM (trademarked) typo domains is what gives domainers a bad rep. The speaker will tell us how to earn 3x with typo domains without the “legal risk”.

4:00 PM Learn How to Price and Sell Your Portfolio

Finally a theme I can understand and relate to. Will be attending this one. Interesting that the speaker works for FOX.

Monday, January 28

10:00 AM Insights and Inspiration With Bhavin Turakhia, From Founder to Billionaire

Bhavin is the founder of Directi, Radix and a bunch of other successful startups. Looking forward to hearing Bhavin’s insights. Prepared to learn a lot. This is a must-attend session.

11:00 AM Domain Trends and Insights

This will be given by the Vice President and General Manager of GoDaddy’s aftermarket products. Should be an interesting session. Looking forward to it as well.

1:00 PM Storytelling in Sales: How to Spin a Yarn and Land a Whale

Kate Buckley is the founder and CEO Buckley Media. She has made a name for herself in the domaining community by selling and representing some ultra-premium domains. I am sure this will be a well-attended session. The theme of the session sounds like Kate will present some innovative ways to sell domains.

2:00 PM Fireside Chat with Richard Lau and Mac Nagaswami – Betting on a Busboy: Domain+Idea To $5M Annual Revenue

Any session that talks about revenue, domains, and innovative ideas is worth attending. This should be interesting.

3:55 PM Awards: Escrow Domain Awards & ICA Lonnie Borck Award

This is something new. Not much detail provided at NamesCon.com. So looking forward to finding out what this is about.

4:00 PM Domain Auction – You Gotta Bid to Win!

Always great domains on auction at NamesCon. The auction is presented by NameJet and Right of the Dot moderated by Monte Cahn. If you are interested in what domains will be on auction, here is a list. Bids will be taken online as well as from the audience.

One thing I wonder about is why the auction is 5 minutes after the awards. Either the awards part will be very short or little importance is given to them. The attendance at the auction is pretty crowded traditionally.

Tuesday, January 29

10:00 AM Data Rules. How Domain Industry Leaders Use It To Their Advantage

This sounds like it is targeted towards registrars and aftermarket domain marketplaces. Just a hunch.

11:00 AM The Future of Mobile Web: AMP & PWA

This may sound Greek to the average domainer (or Chinese, if you are Greek). AMP is Accelerated Mobile Pages and PWA is Progressive Web Apps. This session will be of interest to Web developers.

1:00 PM .COM Price Increase, Presented by ICA

Thanks ICA for the .com price increase. Lol, don’t think that is what is meant in the title.

2:00 PM .BEST Presents THE.BEST Social Network

Presented by the CEO of .BEST. At this moment the.best site only shows the.best logo. The world needs more social networks. So looking forward to this one. And I don’t mean it in a sarcastic way. There is too much monopoly and lack of transparency when it comes to social networks.

3:00 PM Proven GTLD Strategies For Global Reach

Given that this session will be given by the CEO of .global I presume that the strategies will deal with new GTLD’s. And the title gives it away that it will be about .global.

4:00 PM The More Language Changes

This will be presented by the founder of Wordnik. Never heard of Wordnik before. I strongly believe that if you buy and sell domain names that you must become an expert (or at least competent) in naming. Although this session may not sound exciting, I think it will be invaluable to domainers.

Wednesday, January 30

The final day of NamesCon will begin at 11:00 AM (so all can recover from the partying and socializing, LOL) and will only gave 1 session which will be:

11:00 AM Expert Round Tables – Table Topics: Getting Started, Working With Domain Brokers, Domain Development, Applying for a TLD & Legal Expertise!

All great topics. The roundtable will include Braden Pollock (Legal Brand Marketing), Bill Sweetman (Name Ninja), Drew Wash (Moving Sites), Christa Taylor (MMX), Derek A. Newman (Newman Du Wors LLP).

Normally the final day roundtable is laid back, relaxed, with a lot of laughs. It’s good to see important topics covered. Usually there are lots of opportunities for questions. So prepare some good ones if you’re coming.

You can find the complete agenda for NamesCon 2019 on their global website.

Final Thoughts:

This is supposed to be the last NamesCon at Tropicana resort hotel in Las Vegas. I hope the organizers mean last in Tropicana and not Las Vegas. Las Vegas offers an amazing array of hotels, restaurants, shopping, and more, within a walking distance. Additionally, there are other conferences that domainers would be interested in hosted in Las Vegas. It would be great to take in another conference if it was back-to-back with NamesCon.