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NamesCon will be biggest new gTLD show yet

Kevin Murphy, January 8, 2014, 10:20:48 (UTC), Domain Services

The inaugural NamesCon new gTLDs conference, set to run for three days in Las Vegas next week, has attracted roughly 525 registrations, making it the largest such event to date.
Organizers are speculating that the final tally of attendees could pass 600, despite the fact that early bird pricing ended last night and tickets went up $200 to $599.
All of the previous new gTLD conferences I’m aware of — .nxt, gTLD World Congress, newdomains.org and a handful of smaller ones — have struggled to get half that number of delegates.
I suspect that the relatively low cost of tickets, hotel rooms and flights will have something to do with the relatively high participation for an as-yet unproven event.
According to organizers, there are about 100 speakers/panelists and 30 sessions over the two full days of the conference.
With just 45 minutes scheduled for most sessions, and five speakers on many of the panels, moderators will have their work cut out making sure discussions are balanced yet focused.
I will be on two panels, “Meet the industry Press” and “Important Tools of the Industry”, both of which are on Wednesday afternoon.



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Comments (19)

  1. Andrew says:

    I think one of the key differences here is this isn’t really a new TLDs show. I think it’s a domain name show, and new TLDs are a big part of the discussion about domain names right now.
    Not of those other new TLDs shows were created by domainers, and none attracted a lot of domainers.

  2. Acro says:

    I agree with Andrew. The timing of the conference, which is well-balanced in its agenda, could not omit the gTLD subject, but it’s far from being a “gTLD-specific” conference. See you both there ๐Ÿ˜‰

  3. Kevin Murphy says:

    Something like 80% of the sessions are about new gTLDs.

  4. Acro says:

    Kevin – I don’t think the number is accurate; but in this case, your blog qualifies for the title “gTLD Domain News & Opinion” as you seem to focus on an equal percentage of articles. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Let’s face it, gTLDs are a hot potato right now. The point is, NamesCon is not a gTLD specific conference.

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      Put it this way: anyone attending who isn’t interested in new gTLDs is going to be seriously disappointed.

      • Acro says:

        I think that’s very unfair to say, Kevin.
        I did a count of the panels that seem to cover gTLDs almost exclusively – although, some do engage gTLDs for about 75% and up – and they are 12, perhaps 13, out of a total of 30 panels.
        That’s nowhere close to the 80% figure you’ve quoted. Personally, I believe the conference is not only balanced in its agenda, but openly honest about what exactly is going to happen in domain market in 2014 and beyond.

        • Kevin Murphy says:

          We must be looking at a different agenda.

          • Acro says:

            Kevin, you know I respect your work and twice have voted for your blog for TRAFFIC blog of the year, but you are very wrong on this one man. I think that you are doing NamesCon a big dis-favor with this post.

  5. Andrew says:

    There are more non-new TLD sessions at this conference than most recent domainer focused shows I’ve been to ๐Ÿ™‚
    Many of the people attending won’t set foot in a single session, too. That’s typical of domain shows.

  6. Kevin Murphy says:

    @Acro
    Would you like me to issue a correction?
    It sounds like you’re saying “NamesCon will be average-sized domainer show” might be a better headline.

    • Acro says:

      The Swiss solution determines something to be able to name themselves, versus accepting external labels. In this case, NamesCon is a “Conference dedicated exclusively for the Internet Name Industry.” I don’t see any gTLD taglines there.
      Since we’re all going to attend, how about leaving facts vs. semantics for the Meet the Press session? Or for a pub session afterwards? ๐Ÿ˜€

  7. Andrew says:

    To be fair:
    1. NamesCon’s organizers have said there’s clearly a big focus on new TLDs.
    2. This really isn’t worth arguing about ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      Too late. If you ask any questions about new gTLDs during our session, I’m going to refuse to answer.

  8. Andrew says:

    Excellent. That will keep things moving along.

  9. What did I miss? ๐Ÿ˜€

  10. Adam says:

    “NamesCon”, event named as comment on ICANN policy?
    Jennifer Wolfe to keynote mime?

  11. Adam says:

    Crap I thought this conference was about domain name mini-sites. Where’s Epik when you need them?

    • AdamS says:

      Let me go ahead and correct that. I only commented once I swear. Although I do like the other Adam’s comment as well. ๐Ÿ™‚

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