Suggestions - What should be there in Domain Name Conference?

[Edwin]

BTW, if you were proposing to put on something that was free, I'd be a lot less critical. But when you're trying to command £99 a head even at early bird rates, the proposition deserves maximum scrutiny.

 

[Soofi]

Nobody's going to pay £99 for some unknown conference, I think. Especially when you need to tack on another £30-100 for train tickets and £100+ for accommodation/food for anyone traveling from outside London.

Unknown in UK? Yes, but not in other parts of the world, at least not in India, US, Canada and some parts of EU & Australia as well. And you will be surprised to know, we are 35+ tickets already booked for DomainX 2017, London. And, we are yet to start our marketing or outreach program.

It's £99 but definitely a lot lesser than other events which happen around the world. They charge north of $400-$500 or even more. In a city like London, you don't get stuff less expensive my friend

From your comment about bringing a show to the UK after all these years, you seem unaware of the fact that there have been regular meet-ups organised for the UK domain industry every few months, and these have been going on for years and years. They're simple, free events that do one job (bringing like-minded people into the same room, with drink and nibbles) very, very well, and it has been a real privilege to be able to attend. Nominet also hold several free events a year, many of which are open both to members and non-members.

There have also been more formal paid conferences in Manchester as well as in Prague, Amsterdam etc. and there's a regular conference in Spain. There's been shows in Germany too. All places that are nearly as accessible as London for many people given cheap flights and the pricing differential on hotel rooms between London and European cities.

I am sure many have been organized in the UK and still, there has been no mainstream coverage about those happenings? I am definitely unaware of that fact and we want to change that, make it a regular one and people more aware.

You yourself say; sponsors should not be allowed to make an event too promotional, still you go and attend events specifically organized by Sponsors themselves which are bound to be promo-centric and one-tracked get-togethers.

You may have seen a lot many events, get-togethers etc in the past and seem utterly disappointed with most of those however, we have been able to organise them successfully in the past, in last 4 years so at least give us a chance to make our case in the country and then review us. What say?

What I'm saying is there's going to have to be some extraordinarily compelling reason for people to come to DomainX in the UK. So far, I don't feel you've made a very good case for it - a lot of that is down to misunderstanding the audience. As mentioned earlier, Brits can't stand hype on the whole, so the vibe of the big US conferences feels just utterly wrong somehow.

Plus when you look at the proposed schedule is there really anything that is worth paying that much for? I don't see anyone on there who would be considered an "industry leader" in the UK, though that's not to take away from Tommy Butler who always seems to be a very affable and approachable guy.
http://www.domainxevents.com/london/#schedule

I am also sure that I do not understand the local audience as good as you do, but I am trying and the reason why I started this thread. As far as presenting a compelling case is concerned, Speakers are still being announced periodically at our website and none of them looks to be promotional to me so far.

Schedule of the event clearly says "tentative" which means confirmed one would be published once worked upon behind the scenes. So the case is yet to be made 100% and you have already concluded that we do not have compelling case to be presented

I hope you understand that it takes a lot more than just announcing an event to bring up a full-scale show for a day with working on getting audience, speakers, venue, content, sponsors, finances, etc..

It's great to be enthusiastic about something, and I commend you for your success in running the previous conferences in India. But unless you can find a compelling hook, I don't think the one in London's going to fly...

I am here, among some of the best bunch of UK domain name investing industry, to know what's best hook according to them, per their pov. I am writing most of yours and others inputs down and I am sure most will not be disappointed with how we do things at DomainX.

People like yourself are contributors to building a sustainable Brit Domain Name industry, and should be commended. I would love to meet you for sure my friend

 

[Soofi]

BTW, if you were proposing to put on something that was free, I'd be a lot less critical. But when you're trying to command £99 a head even at early bird rates, the proposition deserves maximum scrutiny.

You are the best at scrutinizing stuff as well my friend, and I definitely commend you for that

 

[Edwin]

You may have seen a lot many events, get-togethers etc in the past and seem utterly disappointed with most of those however, we have been able to organise them successfully in the past, in last 4 years so at least give us a chance to make our case in the country and then review us. What say?

Not at all. I have enjoyed every event I've been to a lot (including shows in Amsterdam x2, Prague and Australia), and have been a panellist on a number of occasions.

I stopped going to the expensive paid shows a few years ago, round about when all the hype blew up around the new GTLDs. It was clear that they were becoming less and less relevant, and I was and am able to do the really good stuff (i.e. the catching up with people) at the free events that are still ongoing.

Plus there's less and less new in the industry. The extensions of value continue to be .co.uk and .com (with, arguably, a flicker of life in .uk) and that's about all anyone needs to know.

 

[DomainManage]

So you mean, we should have it or shouldnt?

Should have live, with real human, old skool auction.

 

[boxfish]

Some of the speaker choices are interesting.

Director Operations - Price.com
CEO - Glasgow.com

From some very quick research it seems Price.com is a comparison shopping website which has comprised of only a holding page for the last 2 years.

Glasgow.com has lots of great press referring to 'geodomain empires', "other successful sites such as milngavie.co.uk" and "domain is likely to sell for $1m +" - but when you look into it the domain(s) has a non-functioning site on it, was bought for £100,000 in 2003, doesn't seem to have done much since and has subsequently failed to sell, even despite all the press in 2016.

Have you got any more info on what they'll be talking about?

 

[domainseller200]

Maybe their main talking point will be "Be prepared for your domain name investments to take years to move from the development pile/shelf into actual websites"

 

[RobM]

Maybe there should be a speech about time management. Domainers are the busiest people I've ever seen - the amount of people selling their domains because they don't have time to develop them is staggering.

 

[dog]

£99 ($123) is reasonable for a conference. Unless you promote garbage new gTLDs.

It's £99 but definitely a lot lesser than other events which happen around the world. They charge north of $400-$500 or even more. In a city like London, you don't get stuff less expensive my friend

Makes sense, since that's all these conferences are pushing these days.

I stopped going to the expensive paid shows a few years ago, round about when all the hype blew up around the new GTLDs. It was clear that they were becoming less and less relevant, and I was and am able to do the really good stuff (i.e. the catching up with people) at the free events that are still ongoing.

Agreed. The valuable extensions are .COM, .ORG, and ccTLDs such as .UK.

Plus there's less and less new in the industry. The extensions of value continue to be .co.uk and .com (with, arguably, a flicker of life in .uk) and that's about all anyone needs to know.

Tommy Butler was interviewed here about selling the domain.

http://technology.ie/glasgow-com-domain-audio/

He seems to "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" as they say. It is extremely under developed.

Perhaps he'll talk about why it hasn't sold?

Some of the speaker choices are interesting.

Director Operations - Price.com
CEO - Glasgow.com

From some very quick research it seems Price.com is a comparison shopping website which has comprised of only a holding page for the last 2 years.

Glasgow.com has lots of great press referring to 'geodomain empires', "other successful sites such as milngavie.co.uk" and "domain is likely to sell for $1m +" - but when you look into it the domain(s) has a non-functioning site on it, was bought for £100,000 in 2003, doesn't seem to have done much since and has subsequently failed to sell, even despite all the press in 2016.

Have you got any more info on what they'll be talking about?

My guess it's more due to Google's updates. Much harder to throw up minisites, rank, and make money.

Maybe there should be a speech about time management. Domainers are the busiest people I've ever seen - the amount of people selling their domains because they don't have time to develop them is staggering.

 

[Whois-Search]

Though, can offer heavily discounted ticket prices here to my domainer family because that's what we have been trying to do from the day 1 with DomainX, spread domain name industry awareness among masses.

Any update on the "heavily discounted" ticket price for Acorn members?

My team is working on touching base with most domain name investors, and not just prominent ones because I personally feel each and every individual is important to our community. My data is limited, but we start an outreach campaign as well with what we have.

I can send you a list from our event last year

The UK is unlike other countries as the domainer community is very small >50 people willing to attend. Also most people will only attend if they see other people going first

We are supposed to announce the venue and location sometime this week, once I am back in the office after spending some time off with family.

Any update on the venue? With just over one month to go people need to know where they are going and to book hotel rooms etc

You need deep-pocketed sponsors and new gTLDs on board for such parties to happen and few of our friends here would mind that.

A free bar in London for 50 people is not that expensive if you find the right venue.

Even my bill at http://circus-london.co.uk during ICANN 49 London only came to £1200

We are currently in discussion with couple of auction powerhouses regarding the same. I personally want to explore this option and see if we can do a live auction

Again you have a month to go and no inventory of names - you need to promote this well before the event.

Last but not the least, your advice means alot brother and I hope to see you soon, probably at DomainX 2017.

Happy to help get people there but you need the basic things first: a venue, a list of attendees, a list of speakers, an agenda and an inventory

 

[dog]

Looks like "Earlybird" is a discount code on the site.

Any update on the "heavily discounted" ticket price for Acorn members?

 

[Whois-Search]

@Soofi I see this event has now gone from the front of: www.domainxevents.com

Though the London page is still there:
www.domainxevents.com/london/

The Eventbrite is saying SOLD OUT:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/domainxtm-2017-conference-london-tickets-31678125125

So has this event now been cancelled ???

 

[Edwin]

If so, hope everyone who bought tickets have already been refunded in full. Flaky stuff like this can only be bad for the industry...

 

[Admin]

If so, hope everyone who bought tickets have already been refunded in full. Flaky stuff like this can only be bad for the industry...

Conjecture!

 

[Edwin]

Conjecture!

Not sure what you're getting at here.

 

[Sam]

@Soofi I see this event has now gone from the front of: www.domainxevents.com

Though the London page is still there:
www.domainxevents.com/london/

The Eventbrite is saying SOLD OUT:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/domainxtm-2017-conference-london-tickets-31678125125

So has this event now been cancelled ???

Oh dear ! sold out lol

 

[Admin]

Not sure what you're getting at here.

Really, i thought you were bright

Not sure what you're getting at here.

Really? Conjecture... you were assuming and then saying something negative on that assumption

 

[Sam]

Well Soofi was last on here Feb 21, 2017

With 3 weeks away im guessing its never going to happen now....

So im guessing we wont get any answers

 

[Sam]

9th April tomorrow everyone ready to party ?

 

[isurveyor]

As I read the dnjournal article , it appears to say cancelled due to unexpected illness. Have I misunderstood? I was not intending on going. Anyone heard anything else?