I have blogged numerous times in the past about us European domainers raising the bar even higher in the domain industry. We are involved in just about every aspect of this great industry, and when we do something, we do it well.

Domain conferences are no exception. We have already seen some great domain conferences held here in Europe so far this year. Here is your chance to meet some of the most successful European domainers and entrepreneurs.

Second MeetDomainers – Truly European Meeting of Domain Investors – will be held at Warsaw Marriott Hotel, September 25-27. MeetDomainers is an international meeting of people who love to do business and love domain names. It is dedicated to entrepreneurs and domain investors who want to share their knowledge and experience with each other.
English-Polish & Polish-English simultaneous translation will be provided at the Meeting.

“This meeting will be a great networking opportunity and a chance to learn from the best authorities in the field of domain name law, domain name monetization, advertising, affiliation, web development, SEO and more! You will be able to meet lots of Polish domainers and company owners as well as specialists and entrepreneurs from other European countries” – says Daniel Dryzek – organizer of MeetDomainers.

This year the focus will be on the very important issue of the legal aspects of domain names and the copyrights in the Internet. Rafael Sikora from Horynska & Partners Law Company will do the best to help you avoid making basic mistakes, which very often arise from the lack of legal knowledge. There will be also sessions dedicated to domain name traffic monetization and web development. Rafal Agnieszczak (the owner of the second most popular social website in Poland – Fotka.pl) and his guests will share their experiences with the guests.

As usually, live domain name auction will be a part of the event. Dozens of great .pl, .eu and .com domains will be auctioned in Warsaw and most of them will be $1 no reserve. Some of the names to mention: lekarze.pl (doctors), aukcja.pl (auction), kredyty.com (loans),  fotomodelki.pl (glamour models), liga.pl (league), 55.pl, kobieta.com (woman), niemcy.eu (Germany), zdjecia.eu (photos). Online bidders are also welcome. The previous event produced approximately $90,000 in sales, led by adwokaci.pl (lawyers) for $28,000, aparaty.pl (cameras) at $16,800 and fotografie.pl (photographs) at $10,400. 23 out of 34 .pl (Polish ccTLD) domains were sold.

As Organizers say: MeetDomainers is not only about the lectures, we will provide you with lots of entertainment as well. During those three days in Warsaw you will be able to enjoy yourself with a bunch of creative people.

For more details please go to: MeetDomainers.eu

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Europe now has a permanent fixture on the major domaining calendars, at last!

It was announced today that the TRAFFIC domain conference would be returning to Europe in 2010, for two shows.

It is not clear if any of the future shows will be dedicated solely to ccTLDs as was the inaugural European TRAFFIC show held in Amsterdam, Netherlands in earlier this month.

Given the great potential that ccTLDs has to offer, it may be wise to dedicate at least one of the global shows to ccTLDs, or fit in designated sessions in some shows.

I believe the success of the Amsterdam TRAFFIC conference has convinced the organisers that Europe deserves its rightful place on the domaining calendar. The dates and locations have not been set as yet. The timetable is currently as follows:

March/April – Amsterdam

July/August – Either Reykjavik, Barcelona, St Petersburg, Prague or Rome

My preference for the venue of the July/August show will be Prague (as my girlfriend is from Czech Republic) or Barcelona as a second option. Prague is a lovely place and enjoys great sunny weather in the summer. Barcelona is in Spain, is a very scenic city, and has lots to offer, entertainment-wise. Spain, like the Czech Republic has great weather as well.

Yes, the weather is really, really important when you are talking about Europe. It would be a cost, weather and then entertainment options.

London is not on the list of potential 2010 venues. However, from a business perspective that is a good decision. London is a great city, lots of places to visit and lots of things to do. On the other hand, London is a very expensive city. Also, as you would have heard before, even in movies, London is synonymous with bad weather and bad food.

I believe Prague is quite expensive too, when you compare a lot of things.

Although I want to see a show in London one day, and London is quite central, globally, it might be better to get the show entrenched in Europe first.

I don’t know much about Russia and Iceland as they are still on my “places to visit” list.

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Rick Schwartz wrote an article the other day citing that Europeans are not risk takers. It was a very interesting article and one that’s worth reading.

Firstly this blog post is not a direct response to Rick’s post or by any means any sort of criticism.

I had promised to only blog directly to end-users once our new domain marketplace is launched. However, I believe that given the fact that end-users will need to be educated about the domain industry, it is only pertinent that I blog about domaining a bit as well.

I am a Caribbean boy, but I do have a British/European Union passport so that means that I am European.

I make a lot of money from my domaining efforts and without a striking biography here, I will declare myself a domainer.

So I’m European and I’m a domainer, so that makes me a European Domainer.

However, I am a very big risk taker. I have over the years invested and reinvested hundreds of thousand of dollars in the domain industry. I have been burnt not once, not twice, but many times. But what you have to understand is that the domain industry is not taught in school and has very little rules, so the only way to learn and master this industry is by experience.

Now in all of my domaining experience, I have only ever attended ONE domaining event, which was hosted by Sedo here in London some years ago when they were launching their Sedopro platform to UK domainers.

I must say that I learnt a lot and well did get a few contacts. That was very small but intimate domain meet. I gather that even though domainers argue, fuss and quarrel on forums and blogs, they are normally very friendly is such social settings.

I put this down solely to the fact that when domainers meet up, everyone wants to demonstrate that they do know something about domaining, and as such the secrets coming flying out . It’s all good fun though.

Now Europe plays a very key role in the domain industry. I can’t elaborate now, as I have to rush to a meeting on the other side of London in a few minutes.

However, let me quickly point out that Sedo, the world’s biggest domain marketplace was founded in Europe (Germany).

The first pure premium domain portfolio that I came across is that of Dotcom Agency, which is based here in the UK. They had over 30,000 domains when I first saw their portfolio. They still own domains like Ad.com (Ads.com recently sold for $1.4 million), Printers.com and Camera.com.

Dotcom Agency solely inspired me to pursue a portfolio of pure premium domain names. They are European (based here in the UK). (We can offer you better deals on the same quality domains ).

There are quite a few other top European domainers such as MemorableDomains.co.uk, and KeywordDomains.com. So Europe is well connected to the domain industry.

I really can’t write much longer, but the main difference between American Domainers and European Domainers in my opinion, is that the Americans are more loquacious.

I love America, and this is not a negative statement, but American Domainers seem to seek out the limelight, while Europeans tend to just shut up and make their secret millions. Nothing wrong with either approach. Americans have done a lot to publicise the industry, while Europeans sit back and reap the profits! .

The only reason why you heard about me is that my Internet marketing instincts directed me to start a blog to bring more exposure to my online brands.

In a few weeks TRAFFIC will hold their first European conference, which will focus solely on Country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). This is a great and sensible step.

However, Europeans for years have been reaping sweet success with ccTLDs. It is more a case that the Americans are now catching on to ccTLDs and are trying to get a piece of the action.

I am trying my best to make it to the conference. Unfortunately, June is one of my busiest months with work, exams, business, travel etc. I have been postponing a Guest Speaker appearance at Bido for quite some weeks now due to lack of time. That will just be a 1-hour chat online. Now imagine 4 days overseas.

I will let you know in the end if I am going though. I am pulling out all the stops! Some of my best business trips overseas were made to Amsterdam, so those attending will have a damn good time!

Fusu has released the list of domains that will be auctioned at the Domain Convergence event on Wednesday 8th October at 4pm EST.

The list only has 36 domains, which is a mere fraction of the 2,000+ domains that Moniker had on its auction list for the TRAFIC conference last month.

The advantage of having a short list is very clear in that the entire list can be easily perused and scrutinised. With a list of 2,000+ it is quite hard to concentrate on any particular name to bid on.

The Fusu list has some real top quality domain names at some very low reserves. Six domains are listed at $0 reserve, including CanadianPub.com and ChargerKits.com.

The list has quite a few top quality .CA Top Level Domains (TLD), such as Crisps.ca and Climb.ca. The last time I checked, one had to have Canadian residency, a business in Canada, or some sort of prominent ties to Canada in order to register a .CA TLD. If this is still the case, this may result in fewer qualified bidders for the .CA TLD’s domains.

It is definitely the right thing to do though. This is the first Canadian domain conference, so its only fitting that .CA TLDs dominate the list.

I believe that the .CA TLD has got loads of potential, like it’s .CO.UK and .DE counterparts. With regards to the .CO.UK TLD, the growth rate would be exponential if Nominet, the UK domain registry could come out of their stone-age style method of transferring and updating domains. Such a pain to even change your address!

You can see the Fusu’s full auction list at http://dc.fusu.com/.

Domain Convergence, the first Canadian domain conference of its kind, is currently being held in Niagara Falls, Ontario October 6-8.

Over the years, most domain conferences were in America, in very famous cities. This seems likely to change in the future. Poland just had their very own Meet Domainers conference, which was staged in Cracow, Poland over the past weekend (Oct. 3 & 4). Australia will host their first TRAFFIC conference, Traffic Down Under November 18-20 2008 in Sheraton Mirage Resort, Gold Coast, Australia.

This may very well turn out to be a very interesting competition, not just between the event organisers, but the countries themselves.

Countries may end up competing the following areas:
- number of delegates
- auction sales
- hospitality – food, entertainment and parties
-press coverage

It is definitely unfair to compare conferences like by like, as each one is unique and is funded in a different way.

However, with the American economy slumping into a recession as the days go by, another country may eventually step in to take the domain conference crown overnight.

The domain industry spans the whole globe. As the industry grows, I can foresee conferences becoming local events, rather a big global event happening in the same location year on year.

Perhaps domain conferences may even co-exist with Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) events in the future.