Wow! Wow! Wow!
I’ve been back in Australia for about 5 days, and I’m still so excited from having attended the DomainX 2015 Conference in Bangalore, India. Can’t get it out of my mind!
Thank you to my hosts for the invitation to attend and speak. I had a wonderful time – and I really appreciated your hospitality.
For those that may not have read my earlier two articles, here they are again:
So what were the highlights of DomainX 2015 to me?
- Getting to meet the organizers. They are just a great bunch of people – and they will be friends for life. Manmeet; Gaurav and their team did a great job – and overcame lots of hiccups along the way. They are true entrepreneurs.
- Likewise the “Brand Ambassador” Deepak Daftari – what a good guy he is. Great speaker too. Proud to call him my friend.
- The venue was simply the best (well described in last article!). Ditto the hospitality and food.
- The quality of the speakers – both local and international. More on them later.
- Getting to meet so many new people – mostly Indian obviously; but quite a few from overseas too.
- Whilst set piece speeches and panels are great, to me the best thing about any conference like this is networking. Making new friends and contacts is what it is all about.
Day 1
This was all about networking. Got to meet literally hundreds of people – and came back with a “squillion” business cards!
The venue for this was the Blue Ginger Bar. This is a beautiful gazebo bar with a large outdoor area. Coffee, tea and cookies were in continuous supply – followed by the most wonderful buffet lunch. Yum yum!
Day 2
The venue for this was the Grand Ballroom. Just a perfect size.
After everyone had signed in, the conference started with a Lamp Lighting ceremony which all the guest speakers participated in.
This was followed by a welcome address from Deepak Daftari (Brand Ambassador).
Then came the keynote address by special guest Ron Jackson of DN Journal fame. If you’ve never heard Ron speak before, then it’s worth travelling to see him in action. He is the consumate professional – eloquent and interesting. He had the audience enthralled. What Ron doesn’t know about domain names could be written on the back of a bar coaster! I was thrilled to meet him (and his lovely wife Diana) – and even more so to share a stage with him.
Other speakers and panels
One of the panels that I was really interested in was the session on “UDRP, URS and INDRP”. For the uninitiated, this related to complaints and disputes with regards domain names (and in particular .in domain names).
This panel was moderated by Mr. Ankur Raheja ( who I had some good discussions with during and after the conference). Nice chap. The other three eminent panelists were:
- Zak Muscovitch – renowned domain attorney from Canada – DnAttorney.com
- Rodney D Ryder Partner – Scriboard.com
- Naavi Vijayshankar CEO – CyberLawCollege.com
I had some good chats with Zak – he is a really smart guy – and a lot of fun. 🙂
The rules and policy relating to domain name disputes (as they currently stand) disturb me quite a bit, and would make me nervous about investing in Indian domain names. But I won’t dwell on that here – it’s worthy of a separate article. (Coming soon!).
Then came the panel I was involved in.
This was an informal chat between three serious domainers -Deepak Daftari (Brand Ambassador of DomainX); myself; and Martijn Schneider from the Netherlands – HousingAgent.com
We talked about some of our highlights and mistakes in the domaining world; and in general about the way we now operate. This seemed to be well received, and we had some good questions from the audience.
Martijn is another great guy – I so enjoyed meeting him and his lovely wife Adriana. We had some great laughs, and shared a few drinks and stories after hours! The start of a good friendship I’m sure. 🙂
And in conclusion
- I think the organizers will learn some good lessons from this conference, and next year’s event will be simply the best.
- India has such huge potential for business – particularly for those of us here in Australia. The population is huge and growing; everyone seems so friendly; lots of people speak English (and so many other languages as well!); they are the world’s largest democracy and part of the Commonwealth – and they operate under the rule of law.
- The people I met are just bursting to succeed – what a wonderful attitude to have! I’m really looking forward to establishing some new business relationships and friendships.
- For all the people I didn’t mention personally, I apologise. I have to curtail this article somewhere – otherwise it would just go on and on and on ………. 😉
Here are a few more photos:
Great article… good to know you had a great time at DomainX 🙂
It was simply the best!