I’m heading off to Seattle in April to sit on several panels at the Domain Roundtable Conference.

I love this conference because it’s where I re-awakened from my self-congratulatory torpor after having sold NameEngine. I realized within the first few hours of the conference that I wanted back in, and by the time it was over I had the basis of the idea for Names@Work. I’d known for a while, vaguely, that domain names were important for marketing, but I’d never been able to get past seeing them as brands — a consequence of spending a lot of time with brand managers and trademark attorneys.

But after talking with the “domainers” at the Domain Roundtable, I finally understood the flexibility of domains, and how they fit with the rest of the web, from the marketing point of view. I ought to have known earlier, because I’d been calling Keith Teare’s great company RealNames a “web-only gTLD” for a while.

What I learned at the last Domain Roundtable was that domain names are keywords (among other things). Duh! But for me, it was an epiphany, and the basis for starting Names@Work, whose underlying mission is to understand the short, idiomatic, compact language that people use on the Internet. They may be search keywords, Flickr or Technorati tags, or domain names. Or other things. But they’re all closely related.

So I’m heading back this year in hopes of learning more. And Jothan Frakes has been kind enough to let me and James Woods sit on some panels:

• So your corporation just put you in charge of their domains. Now what?
• Proactive vs. Reactive IP Strategy Workshop
• Domain Industry in 2006 (James)
• IDN Update (James)
• ccTLDs and the Domain Marketplace
• Protecting Your Brand Online
• Legal and Business Issues

See you there!

Tags: Domain Roundtable, Keith Teare, RealNames, Jothan Frakes, domainers, James Woods, keywords

Posted by Antony in: Domains, News