In my last DNCruise update that I wrote from Cozumel, Mexico I covered the first half of the trip which included a recap of the first day of sessions, the awesome day we spent with Frank Schilling in Grand Cayman and the first game night. As promised, here is a recap of the rest of DNCruise 2 as I saw it. I have put a bunch of the pics I took during the conference and day trips on this page.
Cozumel, Mexico was great. Spent some time checking out some sights and before departing the island I made my way up to Pancho’s Backyard where I met up some amigos for margaritas, was a good time. DNCruise attendees were welcomed to a nice cocktail party on thursday night that was hosted by Gregg McNair.
Friday was our last day at sea and it was back to business as a full day of sessions were on the schedule. The first session of the day was an early ladies only meeting hosted by Zezura Ruddell and Charlie Gilbert of Dobhran Development. I heard it was very informative and focused on important aspects of domains, social media and online business. Once the rest of us woke up, had our coffee and made it down to the conference room Craig Rowe started us out with a super informative and entertaining talk on large scale development. Craig shared in depth his experiences and struggles with launching WhyPark, the highly successful domain name development platform. Morgan Linton was up next and gave a brilliant speech on the most important aspects of taking a domain name and building it into a brand. Morgan cited experiences and strategy that has helped propel his Kayaking.org into a leading destination for kayaking information on the web.
Kicking off the afternoon session was a Q&A session with Morgan Linton talking with Braden Pollock about using domain names for lead generation. Braden utilizes a portfolio of over 13,000 domains, most of which are developed to provide DUI lawyers with leads. Legal Brand Marketing, Braden’s company runs the most comprehensive DUI referral network on the Internet. Following Braden’s interview attendees were treated to an SEO/development panel which was led by Brian Gilbert of InnovationHQ, Craig Rowe and Jason Boshoff of Domain Holdings. This was a great session where attendees (especially Patrick :)) got to pick the brains of the panelists. A lot of great information about development and SEO secrets were revealed during this hour long discussion.
David Sams was the final speaker of DNCruise 2 and he delivered an awesome keynote address. David, being involved with domain names for many years is also a nine-time Emmy winning TV producer, author, speaker, and emerging technologies guru. His speech was a very motivational piece urging domain investors to really think about doing more with their domain names than buying and selling. I jotted down a couple key lines Mr. Sams emphasized that really stuck with me moving forward. “What is your legacy?” and “.. An idea is never too small.. think outside of the box”. He is spot on, there are so many opportunities that domain investors have with their portfolios, many of which begin with opening up to the idea of joint ventures. One example David elaborated on is his own j/v project that started with a domain and is now a radio show that ranks #4 in LA and #1 in Orange County! KeepTheFaith.com has grown leaps and bounds in the last year and shows no sign of slowing down. Thank you David for such an inspiring keynote speech!
Friday night was game night #2 where we broke up into new teams and played trivial pursuit. The winning team then battled it out over a game of headbandz where Linda Koritkoski of .CO and domainer Oscar Correa struck a deal for the top two prizes (Xbox 360 and iPad2). Congrats to all, I know Oscar really wanted that iPad2! After our team lost early.
To sum it up, DNCruise2 was an absolutely kick ass week at sea! So many thanks to go around – Patrick and Ze did such a great job of organizing this event and the sponsors provided so much for the attendees including boat rides, jet skiing, catered meals, drinks, game night prizes (really enjoying my iPad2!) and much more. This recap does not do justice to DNCruise 2.
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A great time was had by all. Great pics!
@Braden – Sho’ was! Thanks!