NameconOne of the domain name industry’s premier face-to-face events, the event is back on May 31, 2023 at the Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas. With over 1,250 attendees, there were plenty of opportunities for networking and learning throughout the event. 4 days of professionally crafted sessions and social events.
in the meantime DN Journal‘s Ron Jackson details the NamesCon agenda. I share highlights from my first time attending his NamesCon as part of the GoDaddy team. Use the links below to navigate between sections.
Meet the GoDaddy Team
GoDaddy was an active participant at NamesCon 2023 and now has a dedicated team to engage with the domain name community. Above is a photo of the team members at the GoDaddy booth. The highlight was on Thursday, June 1, from 2pm to 3pm when he hosted his party at the popular pre-auction booth.
speaker highlights
The NamesCon speaker calendar offered three days packed with sessions aimed at providing insight and information for both new and experienced domain name investors.
Take advantage of inbound inquiries
Alan Shiflett, Senior Director of Domains at GoDaddy, was one of the featured speakers at the event. In his presentation, Alan focused on techniques for improving inbound sell-through rates and shared valuable insights gained from analyzing millions of domain name leads.
Due to the popularity of the “Mastering Your Inbound Contacts” sessions within the community, we will be sharing Alan’s insights through a series of blog posts.
The future of domainization and driving innovation
Additionally, GoDaddy’s Vice President of Business Development, Bob Mountain, gave an insightful presentation on the future challenges facing the domain name industry. Despite potential challenges in the form of global affairs and technological advances, Bob’s presentation built an optimistic outlook and pointed to the resilience and growth of the domain industry since the 1990s.
Fireside chat with Jimmy Wales
Most of my time was spent interacting with domain investors and industry insiders at the GoDaddy booth, domain name wireFireplace conversation between Andrew Allemann and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
The extensive hour-long discussion covered many topics, from domain names to testing AI implementations on Wikipedia’s platform.
women of the web
One of the real successes of NamesCon 2023 was the Women of the Web luncheon. The event is a wide-ranging attendee event that celebrates and promotes the diverse contributions each attendee makes to the industry while providing networking opportunities.
Carissa Haydon, Director of Business Development at GoDaddy, gave away a $250 Airbnb voucher to one lucky winner in the event’s raffle.
official photo
NamesCon attendees may have seen official photographers busy taking pictures throughout the event. This is what the organizers have been offering for the past few years, providing a recorded memory of the event for those attending or wishing to attend.
The final photo set is now available for anyone to view via: NamesCon’s Flickr accountfeatures three days of sessions and networking events, as well as a fun day at Bangers, a barbecue venue just down the road from Omni. Bangers was the perfect setting for our final gathering.
I gave you an iPad Pro
Visiting the GoDaddy booth this year gave me the chance to go home with more than just a lucky pair of GoDaddy socks. In his first three days of NamesCon, event attendees could enter a contest to win his iPad Pro.
The giveaway was done via a prize draw during Friday’s Happy Hour event, and over 100 people wanted to hear if they won.
In the end, it was William Liani, pictured above, who won an iPad Pro and a lucky pair of GoDaddy socks.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway project. If you didn’t win, we hope you’ll still get some of his free GoDaddy goodies.
Namecon 2024
During NamesCon 2023, it was announced that the event will return to Austin from June 5th to June 8th, 2024. No other details were announced at the time of publication, but GoDaddy looks forward to attending his NamesCon 2024 to connect with both new and existing customers.
Of course, we will also have new lucky socks this time.
