I have heard from a couple of people scheduled to speak at the Dot-Nxt Conference scheduled for August 29th-31st that the conference has been cancelled.
The conference was originally scheduled for June right before the Prague ICANN meeting but was postponed to delays with the roll out of the new gTLD program until next week.
We have now gotten confirmation that the conference was cancelled.
Monte and I were asked to speak at this conference but passed.
Having chatted with a number of applicants, everyone is on hold especially in light of ICANN’s recent announcement that no results of the processing of new gTLD applications would be released until mid 2013.
We also spoke at both the previous dot-nxt conferences in San Fransisco and attendance of end users at the second conference was quite disappointing.
oh damn…. Was way too expensive for a majority of people anyway. Good luck to them.
Next thing you know…. the gTLD program gets cancelled.
It is my understanding that Kieren McCarthy is the founder and chief organizer of this conference, which is about launching successful new TLDs. It is also my understanding that Kieren McCarthy is employed by ICM Registry/IFFOR, the people who brought us .xxx. I just can’t imagine why people wouldn’t turn to him and his chums for advice. MASSIVE CREDIBILITY GAP
Bill
I’m not aware that Kieren is or was employed by ICM.
Look at their website. IFFOR.ORG If you look at the “About” page you’ll see him and his position. He’s been working their for at least nine months.
Indeed
Learn something new every day
thanks for the info
IFFOR is funded by money from .xxx registration fees, but I don’t think technically Kieren is on ICM’s direct payroll.
For the record, I am not the “Bill” commenting about Kieren above, although I am disappointed that the conference has been cancelled at the last minute. Apparently *gasp* there is another “Bill” in our industry! ;+)
Kevin
Not “technically” but IFFOR wouldn’t exist without ICM
@Kevin Murphy
Kieren is employed by .xxx’s “Sponsoring Organization.” I do not believe that the name on his paycheck in any way mitigates the loss of credibility.
http://dot-nxt.com/london/speakers
These guys know what they’re talking about. Only one of them works for ICM.
This recent fail is a sign of what is ahead for the gtld industry as a whole. LOL! Can you say .MUSEUM?
I wouldn’t read much into it
All applicants are on hold as ICANN won’t be releasing the results of application processing until June of next year, not much of a reason to go at this time
With all this talk about people dropping their .CO, why in the world would anyone want to buy or invest in a gtld? Yeah, .CO is technicaly different in the sense that it’s a cctld, but …um…so what? It is as close to the coveted .com as a tld is ever gonna get. And if that abreviated bird doesn’t fly, what makes you think that the longtail gtld successors to .MOBI will? I feel confident in my prediction that they won’t. Gtlds will fall flat on their .crapolla faces. Every single one of them.
The first paragraph of their explanation posted on their website is very telling:
“Why have you cancelled?
The number of sponsors and confirmed attendees were not sufficient to cover the cost of the conference. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to bridge the financial gap.”
In other words, they would have lost money. Anyone who is serious about business knows that there’s a risk of losing money. Instead of taking that loss in cash, it was decided to take the loss in credibility/reputation.
George
I have to agree with you here, especially when once again he waited to just days before the conference started to cancel.
Sometimes you just have to stuck it up, take a short term loss for a long term gain
Since McCarthy is on the payroll of IFFOR.org, all he needs to do is get an advance on those future earnings (or borrow against them), and he can likely easily make whole those who are expecting full refunds.
The idea that the conference attendees should be out by even one penny is absurd. We’re talking about $950 multiplied by a number less than 100 in revenues, so that’s a number below $95,000 for tickets. Although, if one adds hotel and airfare, perhaps it’d be $300K or more. Mortgage the house, borrow from parents/family, cut back on expenses (switch to Ramen noodles, etc.), sell assets (laptop, smart phone, TV, car, etc.) and it can be done. That’s what a business is all about, making sacrifices.
If you’re not bankrupt, and you owe other people money (and say you can’t pay), every penny you spend is at the expense of those other people. Similarly, every personal asset not being used to repay people truly belongs to those other people.
If one has read the novel “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, one knows that she writes about how the producers in society must be vigilant against the parasites, moochers, and looters. While the novel is complex and controversial, that part is often true — folks associated with the ICANN ecosystem (and other quasi-government entities) all too often are not producers!
George
Agreed
I got stuck with 2 tickets to London when the 1st conference was “postponed” the week before, since we were going to ICANN Prague we just kept the tickets and used the days to tour the city, but I understand not everyone has the time or luxury.
Otherwise we would have had to eat a VERY expensive ticket.
Once he determined it was a money loser he decided to shift the lose to those who bought tickets to the event and those he invited to speak.
It seems to me that the guys at .xxx have perfected the art of taking people’s money while providing virtually nothing in return.