T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C is a conference or trade show focused on the latest developments in domaining and the domain name industry. It is primarily marketed to domainers to provide them information and opportunity to increase their profits. One of the key activities of the conference is the domain name auction.

Type:	Partnership
Industry:	Domain Name
Founded:	2004
Founder(s):	Rick Schwartz Howard Neu
Headquarters:	Florida
Website:	targetedtraffic.com
Key People
Rick Schwartz, President & CEO

In December, 2011, Rick Schwartz, co-founder of T.R.A.F.F.I.C., announced that he was signed onto the conference through 2013, but that he didn't know if he would continue past that point. He said that it would possibly continue if he could turn it into "something very grand".

The Beginning

Rick Schwartz, self-proclaimed domain industry king, and Howard Neu, a domain industry lawyer, co-founded T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in 2004. The first conference was held at Marriot Del Ray Beach, Florida on October 20-23, 2009. Swartz explained that the main objective of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is to "accelerate the entire domain industry and teach others about the art and science of traffic." Actor Ben Stein was the keynote speaker of the event. Some of the sponsors of the event include DomainSponsor.com, Fabulous, Pool.com, Moniker, Sedo, Hitfarm.com, Kanoodle.com, FMA.com, ParkingDots.com and SmartName.com.

Subsequent Events

The event was successful and it was attended by approximately 100 exhibitors and 1,000 participants from the domain industry. The event was succeeded by two conferences in 2005 which were held in Las Vegas (T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West) and Florida (T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East) respectively. The keynote speaker during the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West was Marc Ostrofsky, a venture capitalist and founder of Internet Reit, LLP and it was attended by 230 domain industry front runners. During the conference, speakers focused on domain monetization and protection. According to Scwartz, the event was able to raise $50,000 which was intended to hire a lobbyist to represent domain owners to protect their interests. Meanwhile during the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference, the topic was focused on issues related to Pay Per Click monetization. Panelists include Eytan Elbaz (Google), Josh Meyers (Yahoo!), Matthew Bentley (Sedo), Dan Warner (Fabulous), Ryan Berryman (DomainSponsor.com) and Ammar Kubba (TrafficZ).

Following the success of the 2004 and 2005 events, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. became a regular activity within the domain industry. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences are held several times in one year in different cities in the United States as well as in other countries including Australia, Canada, Italy, Ireland and The Netherlands.

The latest T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference was held at the Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale Beach in Florida on October 16-19, 2011.Bill Karamouzis, founder of Hallpass.com will be the keynote speaker during the event.

Competition

While T.R.A.F.F.I.C. was one of a kind when it debuted in 2004, in the next few years the market for domaining conferences exploded. Ron Jackson of DNJournal notes that by 2009 he was attending more than a half dozen such conferences only halfway through the year. By 2011, the attendance figures for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. were much smaller than the first shows, with the October conference bringing together 300 people. However the caliber of people, the discussion, and the events caused the very same Ron Jackson to laud it as still one of the "can't miss" conferences.

It also seems that they are focusing on developing singular annual conferences, though Rick Schwartz did announce that he was considering adding a second Las Vegas based conference to the 2012 schedule. They are also not touring to the same extent, evidenced by the fact that the announced 2012 event is to be hosted in the same venue as the 2011 event.

2012

The 2012 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference was held October 7th - 10th in Fort Lauderdale. The auction was reviewed as being one of the best T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auctions in years, despite the fact that many of the domains sold for small sums, the sale figures were generally not as high, and some even sold for less than they were last purchased for.