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Day 4 – Tues 18th Nov
The sessions kicked off first up and each of them outstanding. I had the privilege of being a part of the first one with Ammar Kubba (TrafficZ), Rick Latona and Dan Warner (Fabulous). I attended a lot of the sessions and it was with some reluctance that I was dragged away for a number of meetings. I think that this was largely due the fact that Dan Warner insisted that speakers did not “advertise” their services and added value to the conference with unique quality content. Well done Dan for insisting on these criteria as there is nothing worse then experiencing a continuous stream of advertising.
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| Dan Kimball, Michael Collins & Ron Jackson - having a good time at the cocktail party |
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| Prue (Dan Warner's wife) and Roselyn (my wife) at the cocktail party |
The meals were excellent at the Mirage but the conversations around them were even better. I didn’t realize how many Australian domainers I didn’t know. It was great making new friends and swapping stories with some insanely smart people. Just when you think you know everything about domains along comes an idea that just blows you away. This is what really makes conferences special.
Another highlight for me was Paul Twomey’s (CEO of ICANN) session on ICANN and how he really encouraged the domaining community to get involved in the process rather than just react to the outcomes. It was really interesting to have Paul speak the conference and share his thoughts on the new TLDs and the ICANN processes. More in particular it was really good that he thought that it was worth his while attending a domainer conference.
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| Page and Penny having a great time. |
Although the beach BBQ didn’t happen because of the rain the team from Fabulous still managed to make the evening really special with a variety of entertainment which included fire-eaters. We ended up with a stack of people back to our villa unit to play a few games of poker or just chat. It wasn’t long before 4am arrived and we kicked everyone out to get a few hours of sleep.
Day 4 – Wed 19th Nov
From all accounts the sessions were once again top-notch but the real highlight for me was Graeme Wood (founder of wotif.com). He really shared openly on the struggles of launching his business and how the name “wotif” was came about. His dry sense of humour and sharp mind accentuated his conversational style of presentation. You almost felt like you were sitting alone in a room with him as he told you his story of business success.
The gala dinner was exactly what the name suggested, it was a real gala. At one point a magician entertained us and we all experienced a multitude of laughs at both Ren (Trillian) and Ammar’s (TrafficZ) expense. They were both pretty good natured about it though.
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| Markus Schnermann showing his expertise at playing the diggeridoo - he was really good! |
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| Ammar Kubba with the magician entertainment been given a hard time. LOL! |
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| Ren from Trellian giving the magician are tough time - nothing gets past Ren! |
It was great to see that about $18K was raised in the charity auction for the Internet Commerce Association (ICA). This was outstanding as it helped show Michael Collins that there were a significant number of domainers that were willing to put their money where their mouth was in supporting the organization.
Of course, the day wouldn’t have been complete without another marathon friendly poker tournament back in the room. From my perspective it was even better when Roselyn came second a couple of times :-)
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