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Here I am once again sitting in the Qantas Club at LAX waiting for Qantas Flight QF94 to head back home to Melbourne. The last five days have been an absolute blur of meetings, presentations and of course, like any good domain conference, a chronic lack of sleep. At the moment I feel like I’m running on adrenalin and even a shower didn’t manage to wake up the flagging grey matter sitting atop my shoulders.
 So was it all worth it? You bet it was! I’m so glad that I attended the event and had a chance to catch up with so many friends, make new business contacts and more importantly get energised once again about domains.
With TRAFFIC Las Vegas being the week prior I was worried that DomainFest may have suffered but this definitely wasn’t the case. Speaking of TRAFFIC, by all accounts it didn’t achieve the expected numbers and I heard that it lacked some zap. Some domainers seem to take a perverse joy in this and I would like to remind those people that TRAFFIC really launched the industry as a semi-coordinated whole by creating a meeting place for us all. Personally I wouldn’t rule TRAFFIC out and i’m sure that it will come back stronger than ever.
 Let me give an example of how I measure a conference’s success. If the conference goes for three days I could meet with a maximum of 15 people per day, making it possible to squeeze in a total of 45 meetings. So from my perspective there really isn’t any point in having over 45 people at a conference......in fact, having the 150 at traffic and the 500 or so at DomainFest was a mammoth overkill. The only caveat to this is that the 45 people need to be the right people.
This really means that as long as the right people are in the right place at the right time then a conference gets my thumbs up. Let me assure you this was definitely the case at DomainFest where my biggest problem was there were so many “right” people to meet with that I sometimes felt like a stunned deer caught in a cars headlights. Too many opportunities, too little time, where do I go and who do I meet with?
The vibe of DomainFest was electric. It felt like the domain industry had left behind the depression of 2009 and was being rebirthed with a sense of energy and purpose that I hadn’t seen for quite some time.
The Oversee.Net organisation went like clock work and even when I’d lost my badge (along with 400 hundred others) they seemed to be able to magically replace it. Congratulations to all of those tireless behind the scenes workers that manage to make the upfront guys look good and the attendees feel loved.
Sadly, other than the keynote I didn’t manage to get to any sessions....as I said, there were just too many people to meet with. Other than the 15 minutes that I fell asleep (courtesy of Mr. Jetlag) the keynote was riveting, witty and at times hilarious. Interviewer, Oversee.net CEO, Jeff Kupietzky managed to tease founder of Zappos, Tony Hsieh into revealing quite a number his more intimate moments in growing Zappos as well as his philosophy on customer service starting with a happy staff. All good!
 The night at the Getty was a cultural experienced that could only be sharply contrasted by the reports coming back from the Playboy mansion experience the following night. When I reflect upon both evenings they both represent various forms of art. A tastefully painted nude may adorn the wall of the Getty while a similarly clad woman adorned many domainers at the mansion. I must admit it that I found that the dinner and conversation I had later on with a number of domainers who didn’t go to the mansion scintillating compared to that of those that did go to the mansion that seemed to be more titillating. For my part I felt more at home in the Getty and opted out of the flamboyance of the mansion.
I do find it mildly amusing that over the years the domain industry has done its best to distance itself from its roots in the seedier side of the Internet but now finds itself embracing once again its heritage. I just hope that any domain company that plans on an IPO or raising venture money doesn’t find the press all over some of the pictures that are bound to make it onto Facebook.
The auction was a great success in terms of numbers and professionalism. The system worked, buyers bought and sellers sold. When I looked at some of the prices that a number of the domains sold for I was pretty excited as it meant that my own portfolio must be worth billions. Congratulations to those owners that managed to get buyers excited and buy some domains that I personally would have just dropped. At the same time there were also a number of bargains that were snapped up by some very savvy, cashed up purchasers.
So as I write this blog post at 40,000 feet I find myself pausing to reflect on the last few days and ask whether its been worth it. I can only say that if you weren’t there then I think you’ve missed the opportunity of the year....but all is not lost, there’s the Domain Mardi Gras just around the corner, followed by TRAFFIC which is followed by Domain Roundtable which is followed by.......
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