Roundtable or T.R.A.F.F.I.C. (or neither)?

[jberryhill]

Ari Goldberger will also be at both. The roundtable organizers scheduled their main IP session on Friday, so Ari and I are heading up to Seattle Thursday evening.

 

[Dave Zan]

At times like these I wish I can multiply myself.

Oh well...

 

[basscaster]

acronym - that was my thinking as well - attend DR now, and hit the next traffic show in Florida. Then I saw the west show after I had made all accommodations for DR.

 

[Theo]

Could only attend if they were held on a weekend.

 

[ParkQuick.com]

For what it's worth, here's my take on the politics. Rick Schwartz and his colleagues put together a well-received conference in October. They announced plans to do it again this coming October. Domain Roundtable put together a conference with a slightly different focus, and scheduled it for May. Their leadership is quoted as saying that they choose May to avoid conflicting with any other conferences.

Shortly after Domain Roundtable was announced (with a number of speakers lined-up) Rick Schwartz announced a conflicting conference on the same days. We can only speculate on his motivations for this, but it seems likely that he did not want another company moving in on his "domain conference" business.

It was probably a shrewd business move on his part. He charges double the admission fee and likely makes a nice profit. If he can keep the competition out of the field then he can dominate it. His conference site includes logos for scores of companies that aren't really part of the program. It's impressive, but very misleading.

It looks like there will be a lot to learn at both conferences. I doubt that anyone will be given a refund if they have already paid to attend one or the other, so switching conferences is not an option for most people. It's good that Duke has a conflict with his daughter's graduation - since there would have been a lot of pressure on him to attend one or the other. It's great that John Berryhill and Ari Goldberger will be on panels at both conferences.

There is room in our industry for two conferences like this. Let's just hope that in the future there can be a little more cooperation and less competition so that the schedules don't conflict like this.

I will be at traffic, but I too think it's sad both are the same days. I would like to attend both. Clearly politics of some kind is involved, it cannot be an accident this happened. The only losers in this politics are domainers that wish to go to both. -=DCG=-

 

[Rick Schwartz]

For what it's worth, here's my take on the politics. Rick Schwartz and his colleagues put together a well-received conference in October. They announced plans to do it again this coming October. Domain Roundtable put together a conference with a slightly different focus, and scheduled it for May. Their leadership is quoted as saying that they choose May to avoid conflicting with any other conferences.

Shortly after Domain Roundtable was announced (with a number of speakers lined-up) Rick Schwartz announced a conflicting conference on the same days. We can only speculate on his motivations for this, but it seems likely that he did not want another company moving in on his "domain conference" business.

It was probably a shrewd business move on his part. He charges double the admission fee and likely makes a nice profit. If he can keep the competition out of the field then he can dominate it. His conference site includes logos for scores of companies that aren't really part of the program. It's impressive, but very misleading.

I've been trying to stay above this nonsense but if you think I am going to let YOU spread FALSE info about TRAFFIC WEST.......THINK AGAIN!!

1. TRAFFIC WEST started being planned back in OCTOBER which was LONG before the other show was announced or conceived. It was planned for MAY. MONTHS before we knew of another show. MONTHS!

2. Of some 75 companies listed on the website.......67 have already paid and confirmed their attendance to TRAFFIC WEST. So the NONSENSE that SCORES are not coming is just not true! So looks you are doing some MISLEADING yourself. NOT VERY NICE!!

The other 8 companies are still uncomitted. However several companies who were originally doing the other show, are now having a presence at TRAFFIC WEST. We are hopeful that the others will follow their lead as this is a show that can not be missed and everyone knows it! If they don't know it NOW....they certainly will after both events take place. MARK MY WORDS!

Plus (In the interest of full disclosure) there are DOZENS of other companies that are not even listed. I will try to get a few more on the site today so YOU won't accuse us of holding the names back........or some sort of other nonsense.

Lastly...as for making MONEY......The money raised is being used in behalf of all domainers to tackle the problems of Hijacking domains and other areas where domainers are getting the SHORT END of thye stick. So AGAIN you are MISLEADING folks for the gain of others or cuz you are talking trash?? Even folks like YOU, who spread FALSE INFORMATION will benefit from what we are doing.

Just take a look at our speakers SO FAR.

http://www.targetedtraffic.com/bios.html

http://targetedtraffic.com/traffic_west.html

 

[HOWARD]

The focus of the sessions at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. WEST is strictly for domainers and not registrars. It concerns Domain Hijacking and how certain registrars are allowing it to happen and are not protecting the domainer whose domain has been stolen. It concerns acquisitions by large companies of domain portfolios and the different ways of determining valuation of those portfolios. It concerns what law enforcement is doing and is NOT doing to protect domainers from domain hijacking and identity theft. It concerns how the courts are dealing with domains as either property rights or contract rights.

On the last day of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2004 in Delray Beach at a business meeting of the World Association of Domain Name Developers, Inc., it was determined by the membership that the next T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference should be on the West Coast. The very next day, Rick and I started looking into availabilities of hotels and conference facilities in the San Francisco, Monterey area. Two weeks before Domain Roundtable was announced, we were able to work out arrangements with the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, but were unable to make those dates public at that time.

The entire concept being utilized by Domain Roundtable originated at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2004. When Jay Westerdal called me to get together on the 2 conferences I invited him to be a part of T.R.A.F.F.I.C., but never heard from him again. Those who prefer to donate to Tsunami Relief rather than to retaining a lobbyist to represent domainers are free to do so. We wish Domain Roundtable every success because it simply means that domainers are being recognized as a force to deal with.

 

[ParkQuick.com]

I was commenting on the politics alluded to by Adam. My post is just my understanding of the events. I'm sure there are different ways to look at it. I understand why you responded, Rick, but I just don't think your version of events fits with the facts and the dates.

As of 2/8/05 you were still just advertising TRAFFIC 2005. You were not advertising the May show at all. The May show did not get announced until after Domain Roundtable was announced, and coincidentally(?) it is on the same dates. It seems like you could have picked a different week.

On your site you have a box around a few "sponsors" and the others are just listed as "Special thanks to our friends at." The first site listed in that section is DNJournal, and it has been announced that they will not be there. A lot of the others don't appear to be on the schedule either. I understand that some of them still might be in attendance. I'm not sure what "Special thanks to our friends at" means in this context. Plastering the page with logos of people who may or may not be there seems like misleading marketing to me.

I really do wish you success in Vegas. I hope you and the people at whois.sc will coordinate things better next Spring.

Leonard Holmes, Ph.D.

Hi folks!

For those wanting to get an invitation to TRAFFIC 2005, please drop an email to [email protected]

Please include your company name, where you are from, some of the better domains that you own, how many domains you own and any other pertinent information.

Registration will not open until March, but we will have you on file and instruct you as to the next step. We are not looking to exclude anyone, but all attendees must be totally professional and know how to conduct themselves.

Adam, thank you for this "Safe Harbor" in which we can keep folks updated and answer any questions they might have.

Homey,

I think they are still recovering from last years party they had. ;-)

I am SURE they have something even more special than last year planned for attendees. They don't miss a beat!!

Now that the deadline has passed for 2004 sponsors to tie up their slots from last year, we are ready to accept new sponsorship applications.

DomainSponsor is once again the "Overall" event sponsor.

Overture.com is also back for 2005 as is Fabulous.com

New companies that will be joining us so far are Google.com and Afternic.com and we welcome both!

Also coming back to be sponsors again in 2005 are Moniker.com and Sedo.com who will be playing a larger roll as they will be involved in a state of the art domain auction.

Plus ParkingDots.com, NeuLaw.com, eRealEstate.com, Domain Name Catalyst and others.

Pool.com will once again be hosting the cocktail party on Friday night before the Big gala awards dinner that will be sponsored this year by DomainSponsor.com

If you were a sponsor last year and you are not on this list, please contact us before NOON TODAY. This is your ABSOLUTE FINAL CALL.

All open slots are NOW available. If you have been waiting for a slot, or have an advance reservation with Howard, please contact us ASAP and we will tell you about availability. With only 14 major sponsorship slots this may be your very last chance to be a sponsor of TRAFFIC 2005 and beyond. If you or a company you know SHOULD be a sponsor, feel free to pass this message along to them.

We will open attenedee registration next month.

Please check http://www.targetedtraffic.com for further updates and Itinerary details.

Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you in October!

 

[mole]

Leo is right. All anyone in doubt has to do is to do a search on this forum for the threads and date-stamps pertaining to this, and see for themselves, imho.

Rhetorics can twist and turn, but date-stamps hmmm... waste of time arguing with the wind. :-(

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

Rick,

It's good to see you are still alive!

Because of your conspicuous absence in the thread about the VOYUER.COM UDRP, I thought you might be in Botswana on safari or sailing the atlantic.

You know, the thread here:
http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?t=92097

 

[Martin23]

amazing 52 weeks in the year and fell on the same week.

What is the luck in that?

 

[Theo]

Include a full weekend next time so that more people can attend?

 

[NameYourself]

Good suggestion, right now the only people attending will probably be full-time domainers. A huge portion of the crowd is getting left out in this case. Maybe a Friday, Sat, Sun would work best next time.

Include a full weekend next time so that more people can attend?

 

[Rick Schwartz]

Good suggestion, right now the only people attending will probably be full-time domainers. A huge portion of the crowd is getting left out in this case. Maybe a Friday, Sat, Sun would work best next time.

Sorry, but our show is NOT for part time domainers and never will be. It is for folks that make a LIVING with domains.

 

[Duke]

On your site you have a box around a few "sponsors" and the others are just listed as "Special thanks to our friends at." The first site listed in that section is DNJournal, and it has been announced that they will not be there.

To make sure there is no misunderstanding, though I will unfortunately not be able to be at either conference in person, DNJournal will be providing coverage of both conferences. During the shows we will have photos from both events, comments from the organizers of both shows and comments from individual attendees at each show to get their impressions of the respective events. In addition we will have a new cover story up by Monday evening previewing the upcoming conferences.

The two promoting organizations are competing in the same space and they both involve people who want to be the best at everything they do. As a result, like all tough competitors, they are likely to bump and bruise each other along the way, but I think the important thing is that their competitive instincts will almost certainly produce a couple of unbelievable domain conferences. Rather than focus on the petty stuff I think people should appreciate the tremendous workload these people have taken on and the talent they have brought to bear to produce world class conferences that will help further increase recognition and interest in domains. That means you win, even if you don't attend. Of course, any time you can make it to industry events like these, you will win even bigger because the networking opportunities are priceless.

 

[Theo]

Sorry, but our show is NOT for part time domainers and never will be. It is for folks that make a LIVING with domains.

Seems that we won't be playing golf on the same golf course then, Rick :-D

 

[ParkQuick.com]

Thanks for clarifying that, Duke. I stand corrected.

To make sure there is no misunderstanding, though I will unfortunately not be able to be at either conference in person, DNJournal will be providing coverage of both conferences.

 

[Rick Schwartz]

amazing 52 weeks in the year and fell on the same week.

What is the luck in that?

We are going to do our best do hold the show next year in early May if possible. Week of the 2nd, 9th or 16th. Venue availability is the single biggest factor. We are already working on the dates for 2006 RIGHT NOW!

We targeted MAY 2005 in OCTOBER last year. It came down to the week of May 16th or 23rd. The problem with the 16th is the hotel in Las Vegas that could do it during that week........did not have a casino! The week before was Mother's day. The week after would have been Memorial Day Weekend. So our options were more limited than you would think. Plus we started looking in San Francisco, then Monterey then Tahoe, before finally settling on Las Vegas.

On your site you have a box around a few "sponsors" and the others are just listed as "Special thanks to our friends at." The first site listed in that section is DNJournal, and it has been announced that they will not be there. A lot of the others don't appear to be on the schedule either. I understand that some of them still might be in attendance. I'm not sure what "Special thanks to our friends at" means in this context. Plastering the page with logos of people who may or may not be there seems like misleading marketing to me.

I really do wish you success in Vegas. I hope you and the people at whois.sc will coordinate things better next Spring.

Leonard Holmes, Ph.D.

The "Special thanks" was a way to separate the sponsors from the companies that will be represented.

As I look over the ALL the logos the only ones I see not being represented are the following:

AmericanFlags.com (Is sponsoring TRAFFIC 2005 in Delray, was a sponsor of TRAFFIC 2004 and may come to TRAFFIC WEST depending on his flag business.)

Afternic.com (Attended TRAFFIC 2004.....Is sponsoring TRAFFIC 2005 in Delray but not yet committed to TRAFFIC WEST)

Pool.com (Sponsored TRAFFIC 2004......Is sponsoring TRAFFIC 2005 in Delray and we are still VERY hopeful will be present in Las Vegas)

FMA.com (Sponsor of TRAFFIC 2004 and we expect 2005 as well)

Linkshare.com not yet committed.

DNJournal has already been clarified.

EVERYONE else have already PAID and will be at TRAFFIC WEST.

So your SCORES should be changed to a "SMALL HANDFUL" if YOU CARE about accuracy.

In either case, TRAFFIC WEST will be the most important event ever held for domainers. It is much larger than the 2004 show in Delray and folks are coming to MAKE MONEY. The focus of the two shows is completely different and both can co-exist.

Either way....I hope that clarify's things.

Seems that we won't be playing golf on the same golf course then, Rick :-D

Hey, ya never know. Part times SHOULD be aiming to become FULL TIMERS.

 

[basscaster]

Could you further elaborate on your definition of "full-timer" and "part-timer"? Thanks.

 

[Theo]

Could you further elaborate on your definition of "full-timer" and "part-timer"? Thanks.

Part-timer: plays on all 18 holes
Full-timer: only cares about 1 hole :-D

Of course I'm referring to golf. Or not?