NamesCon

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Event
Start	Oct. 1, 2022
Venue	Omni Austin Hotel Downtown
Organizer	Richard Lau Jothan Frakes Terri Potratz
Website	namescon.vegas

NamesCon, or the Domain Name Industry Conference, is an annual event that brings together companies, representatives, and individuals in the Domain Name industry, especially Registries and Registrars. The first 4 conferences were held in Las Vegas at the Tropicana Hotel and Convention Centre, with the first conference occurring January 13-15, 2014, the second conference in January 2015, and the third conference in January 2016, and the 2017 NamesCon in the same venue from January 22-25, 2017. The 2022 conference was held in a new venue, the Omni Hotel, in Austin, TX from August 31 to September 3.

On August 19, 2016, it was announced that WorldHostingDays acquired NamesCon for an undisclosed price.

Background

NamesCon aims to be a prominent Domain Name industry conference for creating business opportunities and networking. The conference does not focus on policy or Internet Governance as ICANN Meetings do. Attendees include professional and aspiring domain developers, portfolio investors, private equity/venture capitalists, and brand marketing managers from top brands.

Domain Name Association Membership

NamesCon is a member of the Domain Name Association, an organization that promotes the domain name industry and includes Registrars and Registries as its members.

NamesCon 2019

NamesCon 2019 took place January 27-30, 2019 at the Tropicana Las Vegas.

NamesCon 2018

NamesCon 2018 took place January 28-31, 2018 at the Tropicana Las Vegas.

NamesCon 2017

NamesCon 2017 took place January 22-25, 2017 at the Tropicana Las Vegas.

NamesCon 2016

NamesCon 2016 took place January 10-14, 2016 at the Tropicana Las Vegas. It began as CES concluded, and the Affiliate Summit West conference took place during an overlapping 3 days of NamesCon. Attendance and audience diversity were expected to be magnified in 2016, and conference producers intended to welcome more than 1,000 attendees.

Speakers and Content

Keynotes

Jennifer Wolfe, Stacey King, Cecilia Smith, Frank Schilling, Nat Cohen, Elliot Noss, Solomon Amoako, Colin Campbell, Derek Newman, Akram Atallah, Stephane Van Gelder, Brian Cute, Ron Jackson, Paul Stahura, Hilary van der Meulen, Christian Dawson, Mike McLaughlin, Paul McGrady, Edmon Chung, Pat Kane and Matt Barrie were keynote speakers at the 2016 NamesCon.

Speakers, Moderators, and Panelists

Joe Alagna, Chris Ambler, Nicholas Beizer, John Berard, Michael Berkens, Karen Bernstein, John Berryhill, Lisa Box, George T Bundy, Margot Bushnaq, Monte Cahn, Kelly Campbell, Patrick Carleton, Mike Carson, Paul Carter, Francesco Cetraro, Edmon Chung, Nat Cohen, Mason Cole, Tim Cole, Darren Cornwell, Phil Corwin, Simon Cousins, Christine Cross, Ran Cui, Shane Cultra, Michael Cyger, Christian Dawson, Pervez Delawalla, Sevan Derderian, Krutal Desai, Theodore Develegas, Natasa Djukanovic, Stephanie Duchesneau, Bret Fausett, Amanda Fessenden, Larry Fischer, Jothan Frakes, Samantha Frida, Jeffrey M. Gabriel, Tony Gilharry, Michael Gilmour, Ari Goldberger, Angie Graves, Rob Hall, Statton Hammock, Kelly Hardy, Bill Hartzer, Marco Hoffmann, Tessa Holcomb, Don Hollander, Ron Jackson, Karn Jajoo, Angela St. Julien, Vern Jurovich, Bill Karamouzis, Paul Keating, Jochen Kieler, Ray King, Stacey King, Monica Kirchner, Tony Kirsch, Rubens Kuhl, Andrey Kuzmichev, Chris Lahatte, Rolf Larsen, Richard Lau, Daniel Law, Chris Leggatt, Trish Leighton, Reg Levy, Raymond Li, Stevan Lieberman, Morgan Linton, Bruce Marler, Tiffany Marler, Peter Maxymych, Bill McClure, Scott McCormick, Paul McGrady, Aaron M. McKown, Roelof Meijer, Hilary van der Meulen, Brian Michitti, Frank Michlick, Cory Miller, George Minardos, Jason Miner, Rob Montgomery, Bob Mountain, Mou Mukherjee, Zak Muscovitch, Neha Naik, Michael Navarini, Cybele Negris, Derek Newman, Michele Neylon, Paul Nicks, Elliot Noss, Katrin Ohlmer, Crystal Peterson, Alfredo Pinochet, Braden Pollock, Terri Potratz, Jim Prendergast, Michael Rader, Sandeep Ramchandani, Jodee Rich, Andrew Rosener, Gary Saposnik, Tobias Sattler, Jeanette Söderlund Sause, Frank Schilling, Kamila Sekiewicz, Barbara Sher, Chris Sheridan, Elliot Silver, Cecilia Smith, Wade Smith, John Smrekar, Michael Stricker, Joe Styler, Bill Sweetman, Christa Taylor, Michele Van Tilborg, Sean Tyson, Christian Voss, Amanda Waltz, Michael Ward, Lori Anne Wardi, David Warmuz, Richard Wein, David Weslow, Jay Westerdal, Lance Wolak and Tony Woodruff

NamesCon 2015

NamesCon 2015 included DOMAINfest on its first day, and the overall show attracted more than 900 attendees. The Domain Name Auction was a wildly successful event, organized by Right of the Dot. Because of the proximity on the calendar to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES, January 6-9, 2015) and Affiliate Summit West (January 18-20, 2015), NamesCon attracted a large number of people already in Las Vegas who are interested in domain names and learning about the opportunities that exist within the new domain names being added to the Internet. CES attracts more than 160,000 people to Las Vegas, and a small percentage of those people are expected to have a keen interest in the new TLDs and domain names.

At the 2014 conference in January, the organizers initially expected 400 attendees, but registrations went over the 600 mark. It may have been the largest New gTLD conference to date.

NamesCon confirmed that it had acquired DOMAINfest and that this would be part of NamesCon 2015.

There were more than 800 people expected for the 2015 NamesCon, and the conference was able to break any attendance records that might exist for conferences about domain names.

Speakers and Content

Keynotes

Jennifer Wolfe, Khaled Fattal, J.Scott Evans, Mike McLaughlin, Howard Lefkowitz, Fiona Alexander, Frank Schilling, Dan Schindler, Akram Atallah, Andrew Allemann, Sal Fuentes, Thunayan K. Al-Ghanim and Dima Beitzke (Dima was a late substitution for Solomon Amaoko) were keynote speakers at the 2015 NamesCon.

Speakers, Moderators, and Panelists

Yusuke Adachi, THUNAYAN AL-GHANIM, Joe Alagna, Fiona Alexander, Andrew Allemann, Christopher Ambler, Solomon Amoako, Francisco Arias, Akram Atallah, Dima Beitzke, Anthony Beltran, Brian Benko, Matt Bentley, Michael Berkens, Karen Bernstein, James Bladel, Joseph Bollinger, Phil Buckingham, Monte Cahn, Colin Campbell, Patrick Carleton, Dave Chiswell, Edmon Chung, Berry Cobb, Nat Cohen, Philip Corwin, Simon Cousins, Antony Van Couvering, Michael Cyger, Christian Dawson, Sevan Derderian, Theodore Develegas, Adam Dicker, Urs Eroes, John Berryhill¸ Ph.d. Esq., J. Scott Evans, Dave Evanson, Khaled Fattal, Bret Fausett, Frederick Felman, Gary Fisher, Tobias Flaitz, Jothan Frakes, Samantha Frida, Sal Fuentes, Jeffrey M. Gabriel, Stephane VAN GELDER, Theresa Geraghty, Michael Gilmour, Ari Goldberger, Jim Grace, Aaron Grego, Matthew Griffith, Rob Hall, Statton Hammock, Damion Hänkejh, Kelly Hardy, Bill Hartzer, George Hong, Page Howe, Ron Jackson, Mark Jeftovic, John Kane, Steven Kaziyev, Paul Keating, Adrian Kinderis, Raymond King, Chris LaHatte, Peter LaMantia, Richard Lamb, Jennie-Marie Larsen, Rolf Larsen, Richard Lau, David Lee, Howard Lefkowitz, Dietmar Lenden, Ryan Leszczynski, Stevan Lieberman, Brent London, Steve Machin, Tyson Mackay, Bruce Marler, Tiffany Marler, Jonathan McCarrick, Kieren McCarthy, Ruth McCartney, Scott McCormick, Paul McGrady, Phil McKegney, Mike McLaughlin, Danny McPherson, Daniel Ruzzini Mejia, Richard Merdinger, Frank Michlick, Bob Mountain, Kevin Murphy, Zak Muscovitch, Yancy Naughton, Michael Navarini, Daniel Negari, Cybele Negris, Jeff Neuman, Derek Newman, Michele Neylon, Kathy Nielsen, Elliot Noss, Matt Overman, Krista Papac, Garrett Pattiani, Crystal Peterson, Kellie Peterson, Victor Pitts, Braden Pollock, Jim Prendergast, Richard Pringle, Kurt Pritz, Sandeep Ramchandani, Angus Richardson, Mike Rodenbaugh, Andrew Rosener, Neil Sackmary, Daliah Saper, Gary Saposnik, Jeff Sass, Frank Schilling, Dan Schindler, Helena Schindler, Jörg Schweiger, Tom Scopazzi, Vladimir Shadrunov, Sean Stafford, Jennifer Standiford, Adam Steck, Thomas Stocking, Bill Sweetman, Christa Taylor, Jonathan Tenenbaum, Marc Trachtenberg, Jim Trevino, Hiro Tsukahara, Jean-Christophe Vignes, Dwayne Walker, Russ White, Brian Winterfeldt, Lance Wolak, Jennifer Wolfe, and Armen Zeynalvand.

DOMAINFest

NamesCon purchased DOMAINfest in Late December 2014, and held DOMAINfest @NamesCon on 1/11 for people who may be new to domain names or the domain name industry. The conference week featured innovative content, deep-dive topics, and start-up contests focused on TLD innovations. A Chinese Domaining Masterclass session about IDN, Domain Investment, Domain Development, Registry Services, Marketing to the Registrar Channel, TLD CEO Roundtables, Legal and Rights Protections, Aftermarket Sessions was extremely popular with attendees.

NamesCon 2014

NamesCon 2014 was hosted by Richard Lau and Jothan Frakes at Tropicana Las Vegas, and included sessions, panel discussion, and presentations, as well as keynote speeches and networking events. The sessions were categorized into one or more of 3 tracks: Registry, Registrar, and Registrant.

Session topics were on a wide range of Domain Name industry topics, with a focus on New gTLDs as ICANN's New gTLD Program begins delegation of dozens of new Domain Names. Topics include Brand Management, ccTLDs, Domain Hosting, DNS, IDNs, and more.

Speakers and Content

Keynotes

• Matt Mullenweg of WordPress
• Frank Schilling, Managing Director of Uniregistry
• Jeremy Schoemaker of ShoeMoney.com
• Jennifer Wolfe, Entrepreneur
• Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr, dotCEO, dotBEST, and dotKRED
• Mayor Carolyn Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas
• Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager at Bing

Speakers, Moderators, and Panelists

The panelists, speakers, keynotes and workshop leaders included Matt Mullenweg, Merlin Kauffman, Kurt Pritz, Normand Fortier, Brad Lemire, Daniel Negari, Yannis Li, Lillian Zhang, Lauren Price, Dr. Paul Twomey, Bob Mountain, Alan Ezeir, Fred Krueger, Matt Overman, Ben Crawford, Mike Berkens, Zak Muscovitch, Mike Rodenbaugh, Marcel Trik, Chris Jensen, Andrew Rosener, Shaul Jolles, Paul Keating, Alex Lee, Ray King, Daniel Ruzzini-Mejia, Albert Angel, Dwayne Walker, Paul Nicks, Victor Pitts, Michele Neylon, Amanda Waltz, Ari Goldberger, Kelly Hardy, Aaron Grego, Andrew Allemann, Joe Uddeme, Mark Daniel, Jason Schaeffer, Stavros Anthony, Tim Chen, Bill Arent, Ruth Burr, Tim Cole, Richard Merdinger, Roland LaPlante, Edmon Chung, Statton Hammock, Robbie Birkner, Daliah Saper, Theo Develegas, Mike "Zappy" Zapolin, Jeffrey Gabriel, Lisa Box, Monica Kirchner, George Bundy, Solomon Amoako, Tom Scopazzi, Alan Sullivan, Ken Hansen, Braden Pollock, Derek Newman, Ron Jackson, Bill Doshier, Chris Sheridan, Daniel Schindler, Karen Bernstein, Jonathon Nevett, Kevin Murphy, Jennifer Standiford, John Matson, Colin Campbell, Ching Chiao, Michael Young, Dusty Trevino, Nigel Roberts, Michael Cyger, Anthony Beltran, Joe Alagna, Rob Rozicki, Yancy Naughton, Morgan Linton, Philip Corwin, Larry Fischer, David Weslow, Antony Van Couvering, Monte Cahn, Phil Buckingham, Jason Hennessey, Frank Michlick, Jennie-Marie Larsen, Bill Sweetman, James Morfopoulos, Patrick Carleton, Adam Dicker, and Richard Lau, Jothan Frakes.

Sessions

Tuesday, Jan 14, 2014

• Keynote by Jennifer Wolfe
• Special Welcome to Las Vegas by Mayor Carolyn Goodman
• Meet the New gTLDs, panel 1
• Navigating the Market: Experiences from recently launched TLDs for new TLDs
• Understanding Rights Protection Mechanisms in New TLDs & the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH)
• Doing Business in China: For New gTLDs
• Private Equity, VC, Wall Street and New gTLDs
• New TLDs + ‘Domainers’ : The Opportunities
• Registrar Reseller Platforms – You Can Sell New gTLDs
• The Things a Marketing / Brand Manager Needs to Know
• How to Become a Registrar from ICANN
• Parking vs. Megasites vs. Mini-Sites Whitelabels For Your Domains
• Keynote by Frank Schilling

Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014

• Keynote by Jodee Rich
• Keynote by Jeremy Schoemaker
• Premium Domain Case Study: Soothe.com and Christmas.com
• Keynote by Matt Mullenweg - Q&A on WordPress
• Meet the industry Press
• Keeping it Sexy – How Registries can make themselves attractive to Registrars in the new TLD landscape.
• Real-World Legal Issues and Guidance for Domain Name Investors and Entrepreneurs
• SEO, Search, new TLDs, and Audience
• Applying for your TLD
• Keynote by Duane Forrester

Videos

ICANNWiki teamed up with Dyn and CircleID to produce a video blog during NamesCon 2014. Raymond King conducted interviews with various business leaders in the domain industry, including Jay Westerdal, John Matson, Daniel Ruzzini Mejia, and Chad Folkening.

Top-Level Domain

Top-Level Domain

Internationalized Domain Name

Generic Top-level Domain