DNJournal just posted an analysis of the past few years, as experienced from the perspective of a conference participant and observer.
The summary of it is at the end of page 2 and one needs to read between the lines of the report to obtain it; a difficult task, as it’s laden with photographs of happy faces.
A strange mix of emotions is obtained after seeing the faces from the early domain conference years; several of which are recognizable from recent events as frequent – or serial – participants.
The truth is that no matter how one would like to polish the participation and other financial figures and remain optimistic about the future outlook of the domain industry’s social gatherings, the current situation is critical.
It’s simply impossible to sustain a healthy momentum when the number of domainer conferences each year almost matches the number of months!
The original mystique, authenticity and expectation of a handful of events is watered down once the number of events becomes uncomfortably high; right now we are heading beyond the edge.
As a social gathering opportunity, each domain conference must offer something distinctively different to its participants, advertisers and sponsors in order to be considered successful. The tight schedule in-between conferences makes it difficult for willing participants to select several in advance; on the other hand, for financial reasons and for practical reasons, event planners cannot provide these schedules well in advance.
An obvious and dangerous Catch-22.
For the past several months, the state of “bad economy” has created a stronghold around the neck of every industry, including domaining.
While there is a need for entrepreneurs to converge and join forces, creating multiple and similar meeting venues without a solid plan is clearly becoming a non-practical approach; no matter how nostalgic one wants to remain about the early days of domain conferencing.
The bottom line is that the domain industry must rediscover its methods, structure and objectives and be very selective of the personas it lends an open microphone to, as authority spokespersons.
Otherwise, there will be blood.
