Domain Summit Update on Summit

[Sound]

p.s. .. talking, what is expensive: this year Hilton's production team (contractors) tried to charge me 20k just for lights, mics, 2 side screens and setting up the stage. .. just the stage .. this is what is called expensive

Hi Helmuts
I work in the events industry and would be very happy to point you in the direction of companies based in London to supply everything technical for your future events
Simon

 

[Helmuts]

Hi Helmuts
I work in the events industry and would be very happy to point you in the direction of companies based in London to supply everything technical for your future events
Simon

Hi Simon, wow, this is awesome!!!

I am already thinking where to get audio/visual from. Could you book a short Google Meet wih me? https://calendarhero.to/videohostmaria .. or, we could meet somewhere in London for coffee.

.. is it your company?

 

[bluerock]

You simply can't phone these people .

You say this then in the following posts Helmuts arranges a Google meet.
It is possible to build relationships with others in the industry online. Teams and Zoom prove this.

 

[Whois-Search]

This was a great opportunity to showcase UK domains and help international people understand the market. You simply can't phone these people up.

While it was nice to finally meet those three people in person and I appreciate them flying over to London at their own expense … Each country like China, USA, Canada has its own domain market.

For example I have been selling four number .com via www.4.cn for over a decade. Can I get Chinese buyers to buy two number / letter .uk ? Not a chance they want 2-4 character .com only.

That said I did find Yue Dai’s presentation most interesting and a highlight of the conference. Even though we are unlikely to do business.

Godaddy and Nominet are not the solution it is down to the community to support podcasts and events to have a united front. Fingers crossed Brandable adds value as no other CCTLD or extension has a its own marketplace.

Nominet have a co-marketing programme which provides marketing funds for the larger players.

Godaddy now has 50% of all .uk domains (5 million) on its books. They also have their own marketplace and broker service. Not to mention have bought Afternic.com , Dan.com and UniRegistry.com

Going on a podcast or to an event is not going to change their market dominance. They are the marketplace today and even Tucows uses them.

At one point they even bought Namescon and Cloudfest before selling it again in 2021

I've said it before - the uk market is not in great shape - this is where money is made and realised in time.

Sales happen all the time and many go unreported. I sell 2-3 for Giraffe a week without reporting them. Unlike houses there is no Zoopla as there is no ‘land registry’ data. Many have tried to build one but it relies on feeds.

However often a domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it at that moment in time. For that reason your better off with your own landing pages.

Maybe a live auction and promoted sales might help at the conference but again this not dot com and we don’t have Monte Cahn.

It is probably a good thing as fresh blood, a new vision and collective thought is what is needed.

While fresh blood is always welcome I’m not seeing this forum full of 20+ somethings like when we started. Neither do I see new members paying £300 to go to a conference. Perhaps Helmuts though could have a newbie rate like at Namescon?

 

[Helmuts]

.. ok, so we have a couple of people who don't see the value of Summit and in importance of in-person conventions .. that's ok.

Can we move on? Any other thoughts?

 

[Helmuts]

Happy to talk, I'll be at the ICANN event in Hamburg 21st - 24th, also considering the Nominet Xmas get together.

Just created a "Schedule a meeting at ICANN 78": https://calendly.com/icann78/helmuts

Morning coffee on 21st? .. also sent you Linkedin connection request.

 

[Whois-Search]

Can we move on? Any other thoughts?

I just wanted to say that I did enjoy the 2-3 days in London at the conference. I found the sessions informative and the refreshments were appreciated by all those that attended.

The after party was superb (until 1am) and the Union Jack backdrop was impressive. All that does indeed cost money even though it also costs money to attend.

We just disagree on how these events should be funded @Helmuts that is all. I wish you good luck at £300 - £450 per person (including spouses) and hope to be proven wrong. I also hope you continue to find Gold sponsors like the generous Andrey from Intis Telecom.

 

[KarlM]

I hope to attend next year. Hopefully make a trip of it, the wife can go shopping for two days, Will have to do some good business to cover that haha!

 

[Helmuts]

I just wanted to say that I did enjoy the 2-3 days in London at the conference. I found the sessions informative and the refreshments were appreciated by all those that attended.

The after party was superb (until 1am) and the Union Jack backdrop was impressive. All that does indeed cost money even though it also costs money to attend.

We just disagree on how these events should be funded @Helmuts that is all. I wish you good luck at £300 - £450 per person (including spouses) and hope to be proven wrong. I also hope you continue to find Gold sponsors like the generous Andrey from Intis Telecom.

Thank you Andrew. I am happy that you enjoyed it, and many people were happy that you were there Also, your panel was great!

--

Guys, and ladies, everything is fine I am experimenting all the time and learning from winnings and failures. So far we have gained great success! .. touch wood..

.. only now I see that there are many smaller similar events in Europe (strangely hadn't noticed these before), for example, NDD Camp in France, Verisign does great events, InternetX just did a domain summit, Stockholm Domain Days and others. .. B2B Domain Industry Europe seems to be operating as in a history book - defragmented. The great news are: there are company owners, directors and top level managers who are dying to find meetings like these (this helps them to do business in many forms), there are different companies/organisations that support these events, and we are lucky that Europe speaks English > now it is up to me to build all these roads that will lead to London The potential is huge!

Still, please respect that the Summit is not a charity Yes, for some smaller businesses £300 will be a high price - please save up if you wish to have a chance to meet companies we had this year / Link to the Summit 2023: https://www.summit.london/web/event?eventid=2138597763

Established businesses shouldn't have issues with £300. .. if you have - I'm not your issue > you definitely need to save up, meet colleagues who are financially successful, talk to them, ask for advice, follow the advice and find the way to resolve the income stream asap.

After all, UK has the 6th largest economy (GDP) in the world.

There are 200 EarlyBird tickets are available now. The current price is £300. This offer will end on the March 31st or when the last earlybird ticket is taken.
There will be no super-earlybirds .. we are not a discount store.
Earlybird gives you access to Gala/Awards.

Also, the sponsors will have a number of free tickets to their team and business partners. Please follow the sponsor list - I am already working on potential sponsors and exhibitors. // @Ryan Ewen it would be great to see Brandable and the other business (that we can't disclose at the moment) among the top supporters

Let us all be profitable! All the success!! .. the industry has lots of business opportunities!

Helmuts

 

[Helmuts]

I hope to attend next year. Hopefully make a trip of it, the wife can go shopping for two days, Will have to do some good business to cover that haha!

Awesome Karim! It will be nice meeting you. When you register > shoot me a message what companies you wish to meet especially > will try to help you.

Best! Helmuts

 

[JMI]

The problem is it could be the greatest convention in the world but your not showcasing the actual end product to anyone.

Imagine turning up to a coin collector fair that had no coins to view, and the only way you could know what someone had for sale was to ask them.

 

[Helmuts]

The problem is it could be the greatest convention in the world but your not showcasing the actual end product to anyone.

Imagine turning up to a coin collector fair that had no coins to view, and the only way you could know what someone had for sale was to ask them.

what are you talking about? .. did you see the list of attendees?

are you talking about this year's Summit? .. and, were you there? .. apologies, if you were

this year's Summit had fantastic attendees!!

 

[Kaleido]

That's crazy money, why the fascination with the Hilton where everything will be super expensive?

The pathetic perception of prestige.

 

[Helmuts]

The pathetic perception of prestige.

Numbers, numbers and numbers.

There are very, very few hotels in London that are scalable - Hilton London Metropole is one of these. And it is important for an event not to jump around different places every year.

I did compare lots of hotels and venue places, went to lots of meetings, did even consider couple central London colleges (did visit few as well) before choosing the Hilton > Hilton was an absolute winner when all the numbers and features were compared!

I am not happy with a mediocre venue that will attract mediocre/financially incapable guests > aren't we all after the best possible guests and businesses?

--

As for the quality of the place > yes, it is important, especially when we are doing professional event. Hilton is as professional as it gets.

I would ask everybody to see the Summit not as expense. Is it an expense for you? Or, is it an investment in your business?

If an investment in the success of your business > please start getting your earlybird tickets

Have a great day all!

And, very reasonably priced exhibitor places are available, as well. Please DM me or call: 07494142055

Helmuts

 

[Whois-Search]

Established businesses shouldn't have issues with £300. .. if you have - I'm not your issue > you definitely need to save up, meet colleagues who are financially successful, talk to them, ask for advice, follow the advice and find the way to resolve the income stream asap.

Might I suggest you please moderate your own tone @Helmuts if you are expecting people to pay you? Suggesting people are unsuccessful or have to “save up” to pay you is not only rude it is offensive.

Especially when individuals here can afford it, paid more than that to attend this year, but don’t see the value in what they receive in return for £300 each. Or even paying £2750 for a table as a business.

While you are not a “charity” the prices you have picked are your chosen business model. You have the same issue going on with the Official Premium Memberships that you have just announced to us all. Shall we just “save up” 20k for Platinum membership? Or shall we continue to post for free as we have always done? What makes a forum or conference without us?

Many of us are old enough to remember when Dnforum was the only forum. Twenty years ago I setup Dnfaces so people could meet each other. Way before it got sold to Adam Dicker and then this trio who tried to revive it.

I am not happy with a mediocre venue that will attract mediocre/financially incapable guests > aren't we all after the bestpossible guests and businesses?

Again “mediocre/financially incapable guests” is not the way to speak to people. Everyone is different and you need to attract a few hundred people to keep your sponsors happy?

As it happens that Hilton is setup for conferences with the business centre and underground atrium. It has a good space for the after party on floor 23. If overseas guests need to fly in that hotel is ideal. Heathrow Express is that close even the pilots & air hostesses stay there!

Also that particular hotel is probably the cheapest Hilton in London. As it is right out at Paddington. At this time of year it’s less than £200 a night. Compare that to the Hilton on Park Lane which is £500 a night. Again anyone who knows London well knows the score with the Metropole.

 

[Admin]

Might I suggest you please moderate your own tone @Helmuts ...

As I understand it's a response to my warning to Kaleido. I didn't delete his comment, so if you see the value in his comment and you like the depth of his thoughts, you can continue to enjoy it.

 

[Helmuts]

Again “mediocre/financially incapable guests” is not the way to speak to people. Everyone is different and you need to attract a few hundred people to keep your sponsors happy?

Yes, my tone can offend some.. apologies if it does.

and, thank you, yes, Hilton (after running all the numbers - many venues have tonnes of hidden fees) is one of the most affordable solutions.

--

.. I attend a significant number of networking events (for my business needs) and some of them are held in the cheapest places possible. Let us be honest = Cheap places attract lower-level people and with almost '0' purchase power. And, the contrary, higher-ticket events tend to attract more financially capable people.

Let us get real here. This is a serious business event, not a birthday party, and yes, companies/people here are judged by their purchasing power. Everybody wishes to meet as financially capable people/companies as possible, don't we?

.. let me give an example: Verisign gave me an honest feedback that they did not attend (and did not even consider) the 1st Summit that was held at Yum-Sa, just because it was in a restaurant (no matter how many people it could hold and that it had 2 outside areas). Yum-Sa is among top 10 London's Asian restaurants, and still it is a restaurant - for this sole reason it was not considered by some serious businesses. .. this year we were at Hilton, and they were here.

--

Investment in being an exhibitor is £2750 = gives a business constant exposure to all the attendees + logo on the Summit's website in 'Exhibitor' section + higher possibility to get offered to be a speaker at one of the sessions + two VIP passes to VIP event on 3rd day (£900 each) + 5 Full Passes for team members or business partners + the same as this year, we will do additional promotion to every exhibitor on our socials and here at Acorn and DNForum. Yes, this is not a cheap investment, it is for companies who invest money in more opportunities to do more and even better business.

.. I don't know what to say really, if £300 doesn't seem a good investment for a company in the domain name industry to attend the only B2B event as such in the UK.

The cost of not attending is passing the chance to create business opportunities in many, many more digits.

We are who we are, and are strongly impacted by the quality of our network.

Best wishes all!
Helmuts

 

[RB5]

I attend a significant number of networking events (for my business needs) and some of them are held in the cheapest places possible. Let us be honest = Cheap places attract lower-level people and with almost '0' purchase power. And, the contrary, higher-ticket events tend to attract more financially capable people.

Frankly, that's not true. Some of the best events I've been to have been at smaller venues where there are exhibitors who are keen to work with you. The value is provided by the exhibitors/schedule, not the venue.

I don't know what to say really, if £300 doesn't seem a good investment for a company in the domain name industry to attend the only B2B event as such in the UK.

The problem is not the £300 investment (which in reality is significantly more than £300 because of travel, accommodation, time spent at the conference and other misc expenses). The problem is there is no clear path for a lot of people to provide value.

As an example, as someone with £xx,xxx in sales this year, with a portfolio that is UK focused, there was not enough value for me to invest that time.

From an exhibitor perspective lets look at:

Who of these are going to provide me any additional value?

Sedo - Unless there were event exclusive commission changes being offered, which there certainly wouldn't be for a portfolio of our value.
ae server - No added value - also not what I would class as a world leading brand as they don't even show in top 6 results when I search aeserver.
Acorn - No added value
MEF - No added value
OX - No added value
Fuago - No added value
Netistrar - Possible value
InterNetX - Possible value
DNForum - No added value
Domain Days - No added value
Freename - Possible value
Hostmaria - No added value

As for the speakers, which is another way of possibly adding value - these are available after, which I can watch at my leisure.

Then there's the networking, even looking at Fuago's post on their site https://www.fuago.io/london-domain-summit-2023/ you see this image:

or

How does this inspire me that next year my £300+ investment is going to get me to meet with people who would really grow my business. Being a bit to the point, you had free tickets this year and looking through day 1 photos, this was the busiest I saw the seating area in a 216 seat capacity room.

As a secondary point, you need to be realistic about what you're actually providing. As an example, you're trying to sell video sponsorship seen on (https://www.summit.london/web/event?eventid=2138615980) at £10,000. The current playlist has 1205 views on YouTube. At current views they would've paid £8.29 per single view. At a CPM of £8290 there are many, many significantly better advertising methods for these companies to acquire customers. This was only £1500 this year and you didn't get a sponsor, what justifies the increase?

To round up this post into a few clear questions which may help get clarity:

1. What is going to be different at the 2024 summit that justifies this price tag for both visitors and exhibitors.
2. Who is this event for? Specifically what domain portfolio values and target customer base?
3. What value is being provided to .UK (incl .co.uk) portfolio holders.

 

[Helmuts]

@RB5 please also add 2 screenshots: 1) screenshot of speakers; 2) "Business Attendees" ... the same comments apply to these as well?

Does the value appear now?

 

[Helmuts]

.. which business are you in, please? .. it is so difficult to talk to accounts that can't be associated with real people or businesses..