Rob Monster, Chairman and CEO of Epik, a domain development firm in Seattle, confirmed today that the 2010 Pioneer Award will be given away at the 1st Annual Epik.com Domain Developer Conference.
The official Press relase appears below, but I can tell you that I was excite to be part of the selection process and therefore know who the winner of the award is.
Not only is the winner of this honor, the most deserving of the award, but he really the only person who could have been awarded with this inaugural honor as he is truly a pioneer in the domain industry.
The winner of the award has not only has only enjoyed amazing success in the industry but, is responsible for building Domain Investing into an recognized industry.
If you want to guess who the winner of the award is, place your comments below
Here is the rest of the information from the press release:
The event will take place on September 16, beginning at 1:30 pm at the Bell Harbor Conference Center Bay Auditorium in Seattle.
Following the award presentation is a live auction of 100 income-producing websites and an industry-first ‘domain trading event’.
A tribute video profiling the recipient’s career and industry achievements will shown to those attending the conference.
The Pioneer Award is presented annually to the one person or organization who most embodies vision, leadership, and courage in building a better Internet through domains.
“The selection of the Pioneer Award winner was not a simple task. A discreet industry veteran roundtable was formed who assessed a multitude of candidates and qualifying criteria,” said Rob Monster, Epik’s Chairman and CEO. “Based on their feedback, this recipient was deemed the most deserving of the inaugural honor due to their early recognition of the opportunities that existed on the Internet and, that domain names would be such a huge part of it. The Pioneer Award will preserve each winner’s history and legacy as the industry moves into a new and exciting phase of domain development,” said Monster.
Virtually every website uses a custom indentifying domain name as it’s recognizable address on the Internet. Intuitive, short, descriptive domain names are regarded as more valuable in the domain and Internet marketing industries because of they are easy to type and recall and command prices in the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.
The Epik.com Domain Developer Conference features workshops covering the entire domain development lifecycle (Acquisition, Development, Management and Selling), as well as a live auction of revenue-producing websites. There will also be an industry-first “domain swap meet” where domain owners can trade domain names in potential cash-free transactions as a way to expand specific areas of their domain portfolio.
For more information about the Epik Developer Conference, visit http://Epik.com/Conf
My money is on Monte Cahn.
Yun Ye?
Oh, Owen 😉
Actually, Owen, that’s a pretty good thought.
His sale really opened a lot of eyes.
Hopefully a real “developer”. The only real “developer” I know who is also an active “domainer” is Elliott. I know of many successful domainers and I know of some who built a few sites, and I also know people who have very successful developed websites and hold decent size portfolios of domains but are not active domainers.
it could only be Al Gore.
The award has a big focus on development. ItsElliot, duh. I’ll be disappointed if it isn’t.
@ BusinessWebsites.com
Thanks but there are plenty of domainers who are also successful developers – including Mike Berkens. I also certainly did not have “early recognition of the opportunities that existed on the Internet” since I started sometime around 2003 🙂
@jp
Thanks for that, but nfw do I qualify!
@ BusinessWebsites.com – Where are you located? There are a ton of us domain developers in and around Seattle.
@ Elliot – maybe they’ll have an “Urban Developer” award for those of us who came way past the pioneers. 🙂
The pioneers have already been rewarded with great wealth. Give it to the guy that registered the most dot tels. He could use the lift
Mike Mann… Duh
Here is a hint. The selection committee were asked to select the winner on the basis of the following selection criteria:
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The Pioneer Award is presented annually to the one person or organization who most embodies vision, leadership, and courage in building a better Internet through domains.
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Here is another hint, since Rob gave you a hint, you could fairly assume its none of the people you mentioned so far.
Frank would be my guess
@ Shane – That’s so funny. They’re over in the corner sulking with .mobi.
@ Cartoonz – Schilling would be my guess, too. Kevin Ham was an early pioneer, but not sure if he qualifies under Rob Monster’s description. Have to wait and see.
Will the real “King” please stand up!
All you have to do is “Follow The Yellow Brick Road” . . . . .
🙂
Paul Mockapetris
Lawrence
Castello Bros is my guess.
Mike is my Mann for this award 🙂