NO, they are not renaming the show!

Rick Latona has announced Rick Silver as the new moderator for T.R.A.F.F.I.C., taking the place of Howard Neu. Rick had the following to say on RickLatona.com earlier today.

“As my first major change to the basic concept that is the industries original and premier trade show, I’d like to officially announce our new moderator. I wanted to find a person that would have the skills to represent all of us, keep the show engaging, entertaining and sophisticated. Deep thought and deliberation was put into the matter.

Fortunately, I’ve been a fan of public speaking for some time. While I’m not that great at it, I’ve read enough books about it, watched enough pros and paid attention to be able to recognize real skills when I saw it. Rick Silver has skills.

My first meeting with him was at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs in Amsterdam. He got on stage to represent and promote .ca names, a sector that he dominates. I was blown away. I thought his stage presence was a skill that transcended his domain portfolio. Seriously, he’s the best public speaker in the industry. He’s a clean-cut, intelligent, professional, industry growth focused, honest, family man that can captivate an audience.”

Rick Silver has been in the domain space since 2000 and is the founder & CEO of n49 Interactive Inc, a leading Canadian web development agency and online directory publisher. n49 holds the lions share of premium generic .ca domains such as dining.ca, limos.ca, and kitchens.ca. The company has developed a platform for generating vertical market portals that feature user reviews, video and tools to help small businesses establish, manage, and optimize their online presence.

Rick is active in the domain community and serves as president of the Domain Owners Association of Canada. He is a strong proponent of the development of generic domain names into useful websites through effective journalism, social media and mass collaboration.

Previously Rick was the president of Marconi Medical Systems Canada, a global leader in medical imaging technology. He is a graduate of the University of Windsor and resides in Toronto, Canada with his wife Debbie and their 2 children.

Bio provided by: RickLatona.com

My message to Rick Silver – Congratulations, good luck and I’ll see you in Las Vegas.

Which reminds me. If you haven’t purchased your T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas tickets yet, do not wait until the last minute. Until the end of November they are $1,495, once December comes they will be $1,795. Save the $300 and buy a domain name during the shows auction.

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This was the best domaining conference I have ever been to. Ok, so this is also the first one I’ve ever attended, lol.

Seriously though, this was a great show. I not only suggest anyone in the industry attend at least one TRAFFIC event, but attend several if possible. I will definitely be attending at least one of their shows in 2010 with the strong possibility of attending up to three. I’d like to make the Las Vegas, Ireland and South Beach shows. To view the full 2010 schedule visit targetedtraffic.com.

On a personal level, I felt a little like a celebrity. Corny as this may sound, it is the best way to explain how I felt. This being my first conference and still new to the industry I was extremely nervous going into it. All of that went out the window as soon as I stepped into the hotel lobby. I was recognized right away. How cool is that? The majority of the attendees knew who I was. Please don’t take that as me bragging. I merely mean that meeting all those people that recognized me made me feel like all the hard work I put into my blog is worth every minute and only motivated me more.

Here are my personal pros and cons about the show:

Pros

Amazing networking opportunities. Let me just do a quick name drop of the people I spent time with outside of the conference. Spending time with these people is worth the price of admission alone.

Rick Latona – 2008 Domainer of the Year
Ammar Kubba – Owner of Thought Convergence
Castello Brothers – 2009 Domainer Hall of Fame, Geo Geniuses!
Gregg McNair – Just featured on DNJournal.com
Mike Roberston – Fabulous.com
Craig Rowe – WhyPark.com
Richard Douglas – Nominated 2009 Best Developer of the Year
Brian & Charlotte Gilbert – Brian Nominated for 2009 Domain Hall of Fame
Daniel Dryzek – One of Poland’s leading domain investors
And soooo many more!!!

To continue, the networking was great. I collected at least 50-75 business cards, met people in person that I’ve chatted with before and met a few people I didn’t know. I also had the chance to work on a few new advertisers. Once the deals are confirmed I’ll be happy to introduce you to those companies.

Watching an auction first hand was nice. I sat only 3 seats away from the purchaser of Rio.com for $450,000 during RickLatona.com’s auction.

The Skenzo.com PARTY was off the charts. We arrived at one of New York’s best clubs by way of limousines. There was an open bar, which I took FULL advantage of. There were chances to win thousands of dollars in prizes. Attendees were able to collect raffle tickets to win almost every electronic gadget you could think of. Divyank Turakhia and his team know how to throw a party!

Cons

No goodbye. There was no closing to the show. Towards the end there was a panel session that ended abruptly to make time for Moniker’s domain auction.

Content. Not to take anything away from the speakers, some of them gave great information. But overall I feel there was not enough substance. Here’s an example of what I mean, the keynote speaker, Rick Sanchez of CNN.com basically told us social media (Twitter) is important and the future of communication is changing. That’s it, no details, tips or specific guidance. I would rather Rick talk about the traffic CNN.com gains because of social media and instruction how to build your accounts to accomplish the same.

Closing thoughts…

Rick Latona is taking over TRAFFIC events starting with Las Vegas in January of 2010. I am really excited to see the changes he makes. In what has become a competitive business (domain shows) I really believe Rick and his team can take these shows to the next level.

I want to send a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that made the show what it is and for making me feel welcome, I appreciate it.

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Day three schedule: (final day)

10am – Inside the Candy.com deal.

Greg Belestrieri and Joe Melville, buyers of Candy.com, talked about their acquisition and view as the end user. No picture of this session, I didn’t show for this.

11am – 2009 TRAFFIC Awards and Brunch

The award winners are:

Parked.com – Sponsor Of The Year
Michael Berkens – Domainer Of The Year
Sedo.com – Best Overall Domain Soultion
Above.com – Best New Monetizing Solution
Candy.com – The “We Get It” Award
Shaun Pilford – Best Developer Of The Year
Ron Jackson – Best Domain News Blog
Michael Berkens, Michael and David Castello – Domainer Hall Of Fame

1pm – Man On The Street

Howard asked people on the street and domain bloggers about computers, Twitter, Facebook and websites. Video was recorded before the event in Florida.

From left to right: Rick Latona, Elliot Silver, Michael Berkens, Owen Frager, Ron Jackson, Rick Schwartz, Howard Neu

2pm – Meeting Of The Chiefs

Discussion of current and future PPC situation, alternatives, developing and the pros and cons of Google and Yahoo.

From left to right: Dr. Jeff Reynolds, Greg McNair, Ron Jackson, Lonnie Borck

From left to right: Divyank Turakhia, Sean Moriarty, Ammar Kubba, (not sure), Kevin Ham, (not sure), Donny Simonton

4pm – Moniker Domain Auction

Top domain sale was MultiVitamins.com for $45,000. To view a full list of sales visit DomainNameNews.com.

THE END – I’ll post something over the next few days with my overall experiences at the conference.

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Day two schedule:

9am – Breakfast

10am – Opening remarks from Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu

10:30am – Test Track “Shark Tank”

From left to right: Michael Berkens, Rick Latona, Jon Waterman, Rick Schwartz, Michael and David Castello, Dr. Chris Hartnett

3 Investment Presentations:

1. Kevin Wood of ByOwner.com asked for $150k in exchange for a 10% profit share. Kevin was seeking the investment to help grow his for sale by owner service, similar to BuyOwner.com. All panelists chose not to invest mainly because of the similarity to BuyOwner.com.
2. Mark Michael of DevHub.com asked for $1mil in exchange for a 10% profit share. Mark was seeking the investment to help grow his automated domain development service. All panelists chose not to invest due to concerns with current investors and details shared.
3. Daniel Dryzek asked for $1-2mil in exchange for a 20-40% profit share. Daniel was seeking the investment to expand his European domain marketplace, something similar to a Sedo. All panelists chose not to invest due to their own lack of knowledge on the Polish domain market.

12pm – Lunch and keynote speaker Rick Sanchez of CNN.com

Keynote speaker Rick Sanchez

Rick discussed social media, Twitter and the change of TV and print to online.

Lunch while keynote speaker is talking.

1:45pm – Ad Networks and Traffic Quality

Left to right: Alap Ghosh, Steve O’Brien of Click Forensics, Howard Neu, Adam Epstein of Ad Marketplace, Richard Sim of Anchor Intelligence, Adam Heimlich of Razorfish

3pm – Speed Networking

We switched seats every 2 minutes for one hour. Did not make it to everyone.

4:30pm – Rick Latona’s Domain Auction

Top sale was Rio.com for $450,000.

For a complete list of sold domain names visit DomainNameNews.com.

9pm – Skenzo Party at Club Touch

No other party pictures. Some things should be left private. 

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Today is technically day one of the Targeted TRAFFIC conference. I say technically day one, because for me it started yesterday. Several attendees flew in early to enjoy New York City and spend some personal time with fellow domainers. I immediately bonded with my roommate Danial Dryzek of MeetDomainers.com, Mike Robertson of Fabulous.com and Charlotte and Brian Gilbert, managers of Innovation HQ‘s portfolio. As the day went on and the evening activities began I had an opportunity to share a drink with the Castello brothers, Michael and David and then went to a club with Mike Robertson, Ammar Kubba of Thought Convergence and several other guys.

Ok, so back to day one, today.

10am – Vendors began setting up their booths

12pm – Attendee registration

5:30pm to 7pm – welcome party sponsored by DomainAdvertising.com

Parked.com booth setup and looking good

Barbara Neu (Howard’s wife) helping Dana Abbot and Jodi Chamberlain

Drinks and snacks after getting registered

Bag, badge and information given out at registration

Welcome party sponsored by DomainAdvertising.com

As a closing note, for those that don’t know what T.R.A.F.F.I.C. stands for, because I didn’t, it’s acronym for Targeted Redirects And Financial Fulfillment Internet Conference.

Now off to the after parties

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