Tradeshow Wars: DomainFest Coming To South Florida & New York With 1 Day Events & Live Domain Auctions

2010 March 25
by Michael H. Berkens

DomainSponsor, announced today it will hold two,  a one day “Domainfest” events, the first  on May 13, 2010 at the W Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and the second on August 18, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt in midtown Manhattan.

“”Each meeting will continue DOMAINfest’s tradition of providing a rich setting for discussions around how to increase the value of Internet real estate with subject-matter experts invited to facilitate free-flowing power networking sessions that will kick off each event from 1:30 pm to 3:30pm EDT”

“Moniker will conduct a live  premium domain auction names from 4:00 to 7:00 PM EDT, followed by a private dinner party hosted by DomainSponsor.”

Each Live auction will be followed by a week long Extended Online Auction on Snapnames.com

Registration for both events will open on Monday April 12, 2010 at www.domainfest.com.

The registration fee will be $175 per event.

Oversee  announced earlier this month that it will be holding a 2 day Domainfest in Prague in October.

Certainly after spitting from TRAFFIC,  a lot of people in the industry wondered what Moniker would do to get itself back into the live auction game, now we know.

We wrote a post last June when it was announced that RickLatona.com would be the exclusive auction house for the TRAFFIC shows,  if that move would create a tradeshow war.

Guess we know the answer to that one as well.

Yes.

It’s not just that Oversee has announced several tradeshows this year when they used to hold just one.

Its the timing of the shows.

The South Florida show now scheduled for May 13 is just a few weeks before the TRAFFIC Vancouver show which is scheduled for June 8th.

The NewYork show is scheduled for August 18, just a week before the TRAFFIC Dublin show which is starts on August 24th.

DomainFest Prague is scheduled just 11 days before TRAFFIC South Beach starts.

Yup looks like a tradeshow war to me.

15 Responses leave one →
  1. 2010 March 25

    I don’t know that the dates were picked to disrupt TRAFFIC. After all, just about any date you pick for a conference in 2010 is going to fall within a few weeks before or after a TRAFFIC shows.

  2. 2010 March 25
    MHB permalink

    Andrew

    I have to note that all of the dates picked by Oversee are dates just BEFORE a previously announced TRAFFIC show. They certainly could have picked dates after some of the shows, especially in October since there are no domain shows scheduled for November or December.

  3. 2010 March 25

    Maybe…I guess if you’re a few weeks before a TRAFFIC show this year then you’re probably 5 weeks after one :)

    TRAFFIC started it by scheduling that Vegas show right before DOMAINfest.

  4. 2010 March 25
    MHB permalink

    Yup

    Like I said its a war.

  5. 2010 March 25
    Domainer permalink

    Too many shows. Domainfest is prolonging the ultimate death of Traffic. Now some will attend Traffic because they are already there for Domainfest.

  6. 2010 March 25
    domain meeting attendee permalink

    I think it is a smart strategy.
    One of the major complaints* about domain meetings are the time comsumption out of a week.
    * Mike, even from you.

    One competitor always try to neutralize it competitors actions.
    Find the weakness and solve the problem.

    Hertz – Avis
    Coke – Pepsi
    Verizon – Comcast
    Sprint – ATT
    Toyota – Ford
    Democrats – Republicans
    Google – Yahoo/Bing
    Microsoft – Google
    Sedo – BuyDomains
    Snapnames – Namejet

  7. 2010 March 25
    domain meeting attendee permalink

    It is not a war.
    It is competitiveness.

    If it was a war, they would have scheduled it the same week.
    Or, the week before at a 1/3 of the attendence cost.

  8. 2010 March 25
    domain meeting attendee permalink

    How is it any different then when we are bidding for a domain in an auction?

  9. 2010 March 25
    Topher permalink

    When Howard and Rick do this it’s business. When someone else does this it “sounds like some kind of childish payback.” The fact of the matter is TRAFFIC has been on the decline with respect to attendance and substance for some time. When you combine a lack of substance with a 2k ticket price it is only a matter of time before someone else comes into the space, charges less, and provides actual value to the domainer community. I can’t name one person that has been pleased with a TRAFFIC show since 2008. TRAFFIC has turned into nothing more than a forum for Howard and Rick to pat each other on the back for being so “great.” Sorry Howard, sometimes the truth hurts.

  10. 2010 March 25

    Natural selection will do it’s thing…
    Unless of course “pride” gets in the way.
    I am voting for wherever Latona is, he brings a lot of energy to the shows .
    Domo.

  11. 2010 March 25

    As a side note, I noticed that Rick Latona (TRAFFIC Milan) allowed domain name submitters to choose either the LIVE or extended auction at time of domain submission. This is excellent to provide domainers the choice, and something that many people asked for for a long time.

    This should become the new standard for all conference auctions because many domainers do not want to submit for both LIVE and extended. Each format requires different safeguards and submission criteria.

  12. 2010 March 25
    domain meeting attendee permalink

    Quote from DNJournal
    “The agenda for each of the new regional shows will kick off at 1:30pm with a free-flowing two-hour power networking session. The Moniker auction will follow from 4-7pm with with a private dinner party hosted by DomainSponsor closing the event.”

    I withdrawl my complimentary comments about being a smart strategy.
    After reading the agenda, it is just another profit center for DS.

    An early bird special price of $ 175. to have a 2 hr. network meeting, watch an DomainSponsor auction and then a dinner.

    If it was a full day then it would have my interest.

    Concept great. Execution terrible.

  13. 2010 March 25
    MHB permalink

    Domain Meeting

    “”"If it was a war, they would have scheduled it the same week.
    Or, the week before at a 1/3 of the attendence cost.”"

    They did schedule a week before (NY); (10 days before Prague) at more than 1/3 of the cost.

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