High Stakes and Handshakes: My Journey at the ICA Conference | Saw.com

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is Jeffy Gabriel in the Uncomfortable podcast. I flew to Fabulous Las Vegas for the Internet Commerce Association conference that was held at the brand new casino called Resorts World, and today I'm going to tell you about it, based on what I heard about the conference last year, because I didn't go. It was a small, tight-knit event with people who are serious about dominating in our industry. I was told it was very good, and I decided to not schedule any meetings and just let the wind take me wherever it decided to blow me. Other conferences I feel like there are always people who are just having meetings with you to have meetings, like they need to hit a number of meetings to tell their boss, but this one was different. It was a special one and it reminded me of the good old days. I felt like going there and having quick conversation with people, introducing myself to others, was the way to go this time, instead of creating like a regimented schedule and, yes, approaching people I've never seen or met before and saying hello. Well, this might sound cheesy, but it's leaving my comfort zone and making myself uncomfortable, which was definitely the way to go. On the flight there, though, I thought to myself maybe I made a mistake and I should have scheduled a lot of different meetings. But I said, oh well, too late and guess what, it was the right decision. Prior to leaving, I did a post on Facebook that I was going to the show and an old friend from college I haven't seen in 23 years sent me a message and said I live in Vegas, let's meet up. Guess what we did? We had breakfast and caught up, which was really cool. Anyways, back to business.

Speaker 1: 1:44

So my first day I landed pretty early in the morning, vegas time, checked into my hotel, went down to the casino to see if I could find any people wandering around and I bumped into an old friend named Lisa Box. Lisa works for Identity Digital, which is also namecom and used to be called Donuts. If you're not familiar with them, I love the Donuts brand. I wish they didn't change it, but they manage domain extensions like FYI, dot, bio, dot, live and dot IO, and we discussed their premium domain portfolio. We talked about other business development opportunities and I got to meet some of the other folks that work at her company. After our meeting I walked around the casino floor, some more met some more friends, gave some hugs, had some handshakes, had some good laughs and networked and met some new people.

Speaker 1: 2:34

That evening we went to the sphere and if you haven't seen what the sphere is, I highly suggest you search it and see it. I would probably compare it to an Epcot center ball on steroids. It is humongous. It's probably 10 or 20 times the size and just the colors on it is unbelievable. It was really cool. After that ended, we headed down to Old Vegas and on the ride to Old Vegas, my friend, sam Dennis, who's been in the domain industry for years, told me him and his wife are expecting, so congratulations to his wife, remy. Sam has been in the business for years and he's launching a domain management platform very soon called domainlink, and I think it's going to be really cool because it is built by a domain investor and really an industry pioneer, and I'm excited to see what he does with it and also, being an investor in the domain extensionlink, I really want to see what he can do and for it to be successful.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Now we arrived at the venue that all of us left. All of us left the sphere to go see and we left there to go have some drinks in a cocktail hour and it was put on by Monty con, who is from dot hip hop and right of the dot and an investor in the new restaurant called crash and burn on the old strip which hasn't opened yet, and he also did with Chad Fokening, who's also a domain investor, and we had a cocktail party and pizza and the bar had duck pin bowling some day it'll have indoor skydiving and and you know, it was actually really cool and it overlooks the old Vegas strip. I had some great conversations, one with Domain Shane and I got to say you know it was delivery pizza and some drinks, it was nothing too fancy, it wasn't over the top. The restaurant isn't even over yet open yet and some of the like booths weren't even finished being built. But that is kind of like how the ICA is, you know, nothing perfect or over the top, but it certainly did its job. And again, a nice cocktail hour meeting friends, colleagues and meeting new people.

Speaker 1: 4:34

I Was in bed around 2 am, which I think I was awake for about 24 hours at that point. Not good on my old withered body. So the next day I woke up, shockingly, I felt great, went to the ICA breakfast. We also had a broker breakfast or broker meeting, so all the IC members were there. Then we had a where we had kind of networking and a little bit of coffee and breakfast. Then we had a broker meeting and a town hall meeting. At the same time I networked some more, spoke to friends, caught up and strangely enough, we had two reporters from Thompson Reuters who wanted to learn more about us as an industry and they focus, focus. These two Reporters focus on legal matters and do kind of like a legal circular as well as writing articles. We discussed at the broker broker breakfast the broker code of conduct that we have all opted into being members of the Internet Commerce Association and their broker code of conduct that we opt into as being part of the bro.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Being part of the Internet Commerce Association is that we provide professional service, we stay informed, we use written agreements. We work in the client's best interests. We always work in providing professional conduct with each other and with our clients. We represent only names and opportunities were authorized to do, to do we offer conflict of interest disclosures if there is one. Dual agency disclosures if we're representing both sides. The disclosure of third-party compensation if we are getting compensated, we use Proper escrow services or give them the up, our buyers or sellers the opportunity to use them. We seek professional advice when it's necessary or offer it to our clients, stay within the compliance of the law. We have a public and easily searched public profile With respect for contracts and our other fellow domain investors. We're going to be adding a badge to the ICA as well to our website. We think that's very important.

Speaker 1: 6:42

From there, we actually had a choice of many different activities to choose from, and this conference was a little bit unorthodox. So our first real day of the conference, we were allowed to choose between four or five different activities and it was great for these unorthodox Networking versions. And he offered us pickleball the white lines exhibit I think this is the one that Siegfried and Roy had. Top golf I love top golf, it's always fun. There was a museum option in a hike. I chose pickleball.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Amar Kuban is wife Josephine, who you can listen to. Amar story is one of our episodes. Put it together. We did a 32 person pickleball tournament for what we called the Cuba Cup. I think I came in 31st only because someone left about halfway through. But I will have my revenge. I'm just kidding. I think I finished last. The great thing about this was is that there was only three courts and so during that time when the 32 people were out there, we all networked with each other and the people that did the other activities got to network with each other as well. And then when we came back to the conference and did some other activities where we mingled together, we got to talk about the other activities that each person does and we had kind of like discussions and laughs about those things. In any event, I came back after that, did some work.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Then I headed down and caught up with some of my previous partners in the domain industry who I started domain advisors in Inglis with, and that was Tessa Holcomb and Greg McNair. Another person who was there was my good friend Vern Jervik, who was Frank Shilling's right hand man. If you don't know the story, vern and Frank went to high school together and Vern helped Frank by a lot of his 365,000 domain names with some other colleagues as well. Vern and I met in Vancouver traffic conference, which we hit it off and started our relationship, and he introduced me with Frank, which led me to the opportunity to move to Cayman and work at Domain Name Sales slash Uniregistry for seven years. As an aside, maybe I'll ask Frank to get on here someday, but we shall see. That's a discussion for another day.

Speaker 1: 8:46

Anyways, went into the cocktail hour slash reception where I got to speak with a lot of the biggest players in the domain industry. Catch up with friends, you know, it's not just domainers but service providers as well, from registrars, brokers, parking companies, gtld owners and investors, lawyers. You know, let me say that everyone is welcoming, everyone is nice and, like the night before, it wasn't too formal. You know, one of the aside I'd like to say is, after being in the industry for so long, is that you, you know, it's funny that you assume a lot of people know your story and what you've been, you've done in the industry, or even who you are, but the reality is is they don't. So Maybe in another episode I'll start to talk more about myself and what what sawcom is is trying to accomplish.

Speaker 1: 9:36

But I also have to say it was extremely flattering and motivating to have people approach me and tell me that they have listened to the podcast, whether it's one episode or all of them. They told me that there's certain things they liked about it, and then some other folks had some requests regarding some different subjects and things that we can cover, which was great and it's extremely motivating and exciting to hear this. Um, but you know, you might think that I am some amazing networker who can work a room or not get nervous doing it public speaking. But you know, from time to time I do get nervous myself about these things. But, like I said, everyone is approachable and you know, going right up to people or joining in conversations was quite easy and I got to talk to a ton of different people that night. You know, it's funny. I was telling someone at the show that when I do public speaking or presentation, a half hour Before I go up on stage or my time to talk, my hands always get like clammy, I get nervous, I get anxiety, but then the moment I step on stage it all goes away and I feel totally comfortable. It's, it's almost like a switch.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Anyways, after the cocktail party I went and gambled with mark daniel, a good friend of mine and broker from a domain holdings, joe Udemi, who's also a domain broker, my friend depak, a domain investor, and another depak and a person named vin for a while. Um, then I sat down with andrew miller, who is with hill co, stream bank and squad help, who is also a competitor and he taught me how to play three card poker. Probably played for two or three hours and we had a great time. By the way, I ended up winning 300 dollars playing three card poker and nine hold dollars playing roulette. I was walking on air, but around two or two thirty it was time for bed, which in reality it was 5 am For me. I woke up, I had the old irish whisper and for anyone listening, it's when your voice gets really raspy from talking too much and we started our truly full day.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Camilla, who organized the entire event and did a great job, gave her opening remarks, along with braiden paul, who's adding some color, spoke a bit, and then our fearless leader, zack muskovich, head of the ica, went on and went over what we accomplished last year and what the plans are for the ica this year, and I'm going to get more into that in a little bit as an aside. Zack is our fearless leader for the ica, but he's an also an absolute top-notch lawyer In the space. He's one of the best in the business, without a doubt, and he's a very nice, approachable man, but don't let it fool you, because when you see him in action, he certainly has a bite. Um, he's also been a guest on our podcast, so please search his name, zack muskovich, to listen to him in his story. Uh, we had a town hall where we as a group discussed how we can continue to grow as an organization and discuss when we have the next conference, and where they also wanted our feedback, which was great, which we all shared. Then the ceo of squad helped our pan mun jow I don't know if I pronounced his last name Right, so please forgive me if I didn't pronounce it right had a short presentation along with an ask me anything session at the end, without, which I thought was quite good.

Speaker 1: 12:44

After that, we had more time to chat with each other, then broke out into guru tables. So what are guru tables? Well, leaders in our industry had their own tables and people came to them to learn about their specialties. Forgive me, I don't remember all of the guru tables, but, to list a few, we had j Chapman Talking about doing a deal and he's a board member on the ica Doing a deal where you can switch the dns of a name for a company and get a rev share on the domain. It's not a lease, it's not a payment plan more like an affiliate deal and how to structure it. I found it very interesting and combined my sales table with his, as I have never heard of this kind of deal before.

Speaker 1: 13:21

Andrew Miller was giving going over negotiation tactics for high value deals. Karen Bernstein offered legal advice about udrp. Squad help had a table. Cito had a table, go daddy had a table dine. A dot had a table um. John barry hill had a table as well Um, and again, no one was forced to participate. You could go and listen, ask questions in a small group setting and I thought it was well put together. Not sure where else you can get this level of access to leaders in our industry and in all facets From there. My friend, john barry hill, who I believe is one of the best lawyers in the domain industry for the record, he's also an engineer, patent lawyer, trademark lawyer who will definitely be a guest on this show, whether he likes it or not gave an entertaining but very interesting presentation on how the creation date is perceived in different legal jurisdictions around the United States and how it could affect you, the domain registrant. Believe me, if you are a domain investor, you should know, but you'll need to join the ISA to learn more about this one.

Speaker 1: 14:26

After that we took a break. Paul Nix who I guess we could call him the hand of the king, as in one, down from the CEO at GoDaddy who runs the entire domain sales auctions, of vision didn't ask me anything, where customers, domainers, service providers asked him questions about the future and their grievances and provided feedback. I don't know about you, but when was the last time you could hang out with or speak directly to, or in this setting with, someone that close to the top at a $16 billion dollar company? I've known Paul for 14 years and GoDaddy is a very different place 14 years ago than it is today, but he continues to keep coming to these conferences for years. But anyways, it was a great talk.

Speaker 1: 15:12

When we finished the AMA, we gave out the Lonnie Bork Memorial Award. The Lonnie Bork Memorial Award, in my opinion, is the most prestigious award in our industry. Lonnie Bork Memorial Award celebrates individuals who made outstanding contributions to fostering a sense of community within the domain name industry. This award was established in memory of Lonnie Bork, a deeply respected and cherished member of our domain community. The award winner this year was Jason Shepard and he unexpectedly passed away. You know I did not get to know him very well, but from the stories people shared and the things he did for others, there wasn't a dry eye in the room at the end of the speech and when they gave him the award and his sister came to accept it which was very nice I had the chance to speak and meet with her and they live streamed it to his mother as well, so I'm sure she was very proud. In ICA fashion.

Speaker 1: 16:06

We had another cocktail hour sponsored by GoDaddy, which again it gave me the opportunity to network more, catch up with friends. We actually had have a buyer who would like to purchase a Greek or Roman god or goddess domain name with a budget in the hundreds of thousands, and I was asking around for that. I found some. Found a good Greek name, but it isn't a Greek god Zorbacom. I remember the song Zorba the Greek, zorba the Greek, and I know it isn't a Roman, greek or God name, but also found goddesscom, but still not exactly one. Anyways, if you have a good Roman, god or goddess domain name for sale, please let me know. Has to be incom.

Speaker 1: 16:47

As an aside, a gentleman I met it was his first show ever said he was surprised how well the brokers get along in this industry. He said he comes from a real estate background and they aren't all that nice all the time to each other. And I said well, we all get along. We treat each other with the professional each other deserves and I respect each of them and they're all great at different things and there's plenty of business to go around as well. From there.

Speaker 1: 17:13

We had a magician mind reader. So when I was there watching I'm going to give you the abridge version the magician made eye contact with me. He walked over and he said why don't you think of somebody who isn't at this conference? He isn't directly related to you and, you know, nobody knows him here. So I thought of a person's name, he said. Then he gave me a business card and he told me to write his name on it. But I had to walk over in the corner and do it. So I went over there, wrote it, wrote the name on it, folded the card up and then I handed it to him.

Speaker 1: 17:48

He proceeded to tear up the card. He put the little piece of paper in my hand. He said shake them. I dumped them back in his hand. He held it for a couple of minutes. Okay, oh no, couple minutes, couple seconds. And then he handed me his wallet and he told me to open his wallet. Well, let me back up. Before he handed me his wallet he said I think your friend has an issue going on with his hair. And I was like holy shit. And so then he handed me his wallet. I unzipped the wallet, pulled out a folded up piece of paper and it had a little message on it and at the bottom of the message it had my friend's name and his name was Brent, and my friend Brent is as bald as a cucumber, so it was funny how he hit those things.

Speaker 1: 18:35

He continued on to do multiple other really cool and exciting tricks and we all kind of watched and were entertained, which again was a great experience for everybody there and for us to kind of get together more as a group, more talking, more fun. Again, this is kind of an unorthodox conference, but I think a lot of people left there, even if they knew the people before getting to know them a lot better. Then a large group of us went to a place called Gatsby and got a table where scantily clad women brought us bottles of vodka with sparklers and we danced, yelled, screamed, laughed and when the clock hit about one, it was time to hit the hay. You know, saturday had some additional activities and things planned, but I decided to head home because I missed my bride and my kitties not my kitties, as in cats, but my children. Now it's time to sell you the Las Vegas timeshare.

Speaker 1: 19:26

But no, really, if you aren't a member of the ICA, you should certainly consider it. On top of the Great Show and the long and the short of it is, they're the only nonprofit group on the planet fighting and defending the rights of domain investors and any person, company, nonprofit that owns a domain. You know, if you would, if you make your livelihood from the domain industry, you should consider paying into this group for them to protect it. An individual membership costs $300 a year, $25 a month and, on the corporate side of things, your entrance starts at about $1,000. And obviously, if you're a large company and you wanted the platinum membership, that goes up to $25,000 and above.

Speaker 1: 20:10

But if I remember correctly, I paid $500 my ticket to the show. I paid $400 for my hotel room, which included tax. I paid $350 for my flight, spent a couple hundred dollars on food and booze, so let's say 300. And yes, food and booze is a rip off in Vegas, but you know someone's going to pay for the giant casino and the giant building and all the ridiculousness that you see. I won $300 playing three card poker with Andrew Miller and roulette with my pack of D-Packs, mark, and then I made $9. So I made a lot of new contacts, created multiple new possible partnerships, business development opportunities, shared what my company, sawcom, is working on, and learned a few things and guess what? I had a great time doing it and I loved it.

Speaker 1: 20:56

I also have to say that going to these shows as an aside and talking our language is reinvigorating for me and when I get back home and recover from the conference, I'll be more motivated and into it than usual. Let me say for the record I love what I do, I like my job and I like all the people I get to work with. But you can burn out a bit here and there when you're just sitting at home working in your home office, so this can bring you back quickly. It can re-inspire you, like I already said, reinvigorate you and if you can learn a few nuggets or you can hear a few ideas that you can apply to your daily business and get value. I mean it's totally worth it and I heard a bunch. I'm a bronze member because of pretty small company and I have to say if I spent $1,500 on this trip and paying for my yearly membership if I'm into this for three or four grand I definitely think it was totally worth it. And on top of this I have a group of people very intelligent people lobbying, debating, fighting for our livelihood and I'm sure there are other benefits you get with a membership, but I'm feeling I'm getting a lot just from this part. So if you'd like to join the Internet Commerce Association, I highly suggest you go to internetcommerceorg slash join.

Speaker 1: 22:15

Here's what the ICA did last year. They emailed out over 250 cases with dozens of insightful commentaries which is distributed weekly, bringing the ICA's message of fair decision making to hundreds of UDRP panelists and practitioners, along with hundreds of real time tweets of new UDRP decisions. They created 17 concrete proposals for UDRP reform, developed in conjunction with two UDRP panelists over a course of 150 hours of deliberations. They had 48 weekly calls with Gerald Levine UDRP panelists, udrp complaint council and UDRP defense council to discuss developments in case law and to build bridges. They had two workshops with UDRP panelists and training workshops co-hosted by ICA general council at the CIDRC. The ICA contributed to internet governance through its bi-weekly participation in the ICAN business constituency. The ICA's general council is chair of the BC credentials committee. They traveled over 30,000 miles from Las Vegas, washington DC, austin, hamburg and Dubai.

Speaker 1: 23:20

Ica has assisted in the registrant recovering the valuable domain. Three letter domain named foxorg and a letter to NIXI advising on proposed changes which could destroy the secondary market for 3 million dot IN names. We're getting ourselves involved with that and, following the ICA's extensive public comment on the dot net registry agreement, a letter to ICAN board decrying the policy wash of the dot net registry agreement affecting over 3.4 million domains. They've also spent 60 hours of weekly meetings in the transfer policy working group to protect registrant transfer rights. They've also appeared on two podcasts, which one was for domain name wire, catching up with the ICA and with this one. So again you can listen to Zach on our podcast under Zach Muscovich.

Speaker 1: 24:10

We gave out one lifetime achievement award and we got picked up over 30 new members and picked up an additional staff member. Her name's Tiffany and she did a wonderful job organizing this event this year as well. We hosted three AMAs so you get to listen to private interviews with Darpin, sten Lillstrom, john Berryhill and actually the fourth recently was also Paul NIX. We had over 140 guests attend our NamesCon ICA dinner in Austin, texas, and we have over 100 plus ICA members that attended the conference in Las Vegas. I think it was closer to 150. And yeah, so again, I thought it was a great show. I really think you should join yourselves or look into it or talk about it. At least look into it. If you are a member, I'm going to put the badge as being part of the ICA on my website to create more awareness as to what the ICA means and what myself and our brokerage has signed up to. And thank you for listening to my podcast. I hope you have a great day and until next week. Talk to you soon.