Do you ever feel that domains have a tendency to get into your blood. Your calmly watching the television with your wife and before you know it, you're reaching for your phone to register a domain that was inspired by some character in an episode of "Big Bang".

Like me, you've probably been denying your secret (or not so) addiction to domains for quite some time. When I believe that I've finally freed myself of their clutches, they reach out from the most surprising of places to get me to register just one more.

For example, this week I was reading the newspaper (I do this a couple of times a year) and found that my Aussie rules football team was playing at none other than "Domain Stadium" this week. For those that don't believe me I took a snap shot of the paper for you below. Just for the record.....Hawthorn is going to win by a huge margin :-)

Seeing the fact that my team was playing at "Domain Stadium" I was sorely tempted to registered domainstadium.com only to discover that some other domainer had beat me to the punch. This is probably a good thing given that fact that it's likely to be trademarked.

This morning I've started my journey to The Domain Conference in Fort Lauderdale....nothing like 26+ hours door to door to remind you that you were once alive. My wife kindly got up at 5:30am and we headed out to the airport. That was when I noticed the following:

Seriously! Domains and domaining is EVERYWHERE! I secretly wondered whether ICANN was getting a fee per car as they passed through the "Domain tunnel".....I would think that this is not just likely but given. Afterall, ICANN is the expert at clipping a few cents off millions of transactions each year.....why not broaden the catchment to cars?

So despite my best efforts to go cold turkey and be free of my secret addiction I'm finding that I'm inadvertently sucked back into the vortex that make us all domainers. One of the great things that I do love about domains is that unlike the "white powder" addictive substances my bank balance seems to increase rather than decrease.

So while I sit in the Qantas Club in Melbourne waiting for QF93 to be called I want to ask you....are you as addicted to this industry as much as me? If you are then upload some photos of you being hounded or show them to me on your phone when I arrive in Fort Lauderdale. I'll need to see something after going 26+ hours without Internet access......right now......I've just got to get my fix and register one before I board.

See you at the Domain Conference!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

I can’t believe that “The Domain Conference” is kicking off this coming week! It won’t be long before; I board a plane, put my noise cancelling headphones on and assume the foetal position for the 15 hour journey to LA followed by the 5 hour flight to Fort Lauderdale. Sounds like fun....not!

Overall the trip is around 26 hours door to door. At the end the journey the flight attendant pours me out of my seat and I typically stagger into the blazing Florida sun while wondering why it isn’t night time.

A few years ago I arrived at a TRAFFIC conference and an attendee I hadn’t met before came up to me. They were complained about the length of their flight and how terrible it was. I asked them where they had travelled from and they replied, “Boston”. It was at this point that I explained that they were probably talking to the wrong person to get some sympathy. LOL!

So why am I sharing all of this? The only reason why I wave goodbye to my family and regularly travel across the Pacific to attend a conference is because it’s worth it. Sure, I hate the flights but meeting up with other domain investors, clients and partners is worth much more the than the temporary pain of the journey.

From all reports, “The Domain Conference” is going to be really well attended with people flying in from all over the world. The majority are geared up to do business and are looking to make deals….I know that I am! So if you don’t plan on attending then sadly, it’s likely you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities.

So what am I doing at the conference? I’m really looking forward to the two sessions that I’m involved in and I hope to share some of my own experiences in domaining with those that attend. My colleague from ParkLogic, Joe Politzer, is flying in from San Diego and I know that he would love to talk to you about how we may be able to help you better monetise your domains. Feel free to reach out to him or me to arrange a meeting.

What’s really exciting for me personally is that ParkLogic is providing a free copy of my debut book, “Battleframe”, for the majority of the attendees. There are a limited number of copies so make sure that if you are attending that you sign-up to secure your copy (more details to follow). For those that are interested, I’ll also be available for signing copies.....which is really humbling as I've never done anything like this before!

ParkLogic will also be providing a sneak preview at our new interface and platform. So if you would like a demo just let me know. I’ll post a link out to a video early next week that highlights some of the great new features.

The best part about a conference is that it’s a chance to catch up with a lot of friends that I’ve made over many years. Howard, Barbara and Ray Neu are hosting the event and they’ve all become great friends to both myself and my wife. Sure, there is a lot of business to be done but it’s the reaffirmation of friendship combined with business that will make “The Domain Conference” so special.

If you have been thinking about whether you should attend or not then can I encourage you that it will be worth the journey. Whether you’ve been investing in domains for a long time or are new to the industry “The Domain Conference” will be an outstanding opportunity to learn and do business. It costs me around $4,000 for my airfares and I typically make that money back plus more within a few hours of landing.

For those of you that are wondering, I’m arriving on the 24^th Sept and leaving the 30^th. If you would like to catch-up then please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Safe travels to everyone that is attending.

Michael

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

This past week I had the pleasure of heading to DomainFest in Macau. Besides the fact that it was a brilliant conference I learned a lot about being an alien. No, I’m not talking about something that creeps around in the dark on a strange planet. You’ll have to read my book “Battleframe” to find out about those…..I’m talking about being a stranger in an entirely different culture.

While I sat in the Qantas club waiting for my flight to Macau I browsed the Internet to learn at least some of the do’s and don’ts of interacting with Chinese. I didn’t want to do some cultural mistake and upset anyone inadvertently.

The first thing that I found was the Chinese culture is VERY different from western culture and that it would take a lifetime to learn the subtle differences. In the end, I gave up and decided to be as “good” an alien as possible. So what do I mean by this?

Two words summarise the attitude that all of us should try to adopt upon entering the turf of a different culture, they are, “Be Humble”. As a broad generalisation, humility is not a typically western trait. We tend to come in telling everyone why they are wrong and we are right. This, in my opinion is a BIG cultural “no no”.

Humility involves changing both your outward and inward responses to situations. For instance, I may not understand what is transpiring in a Chinese social setting where there are various people from a company at different levels. This can be very off-putting….but I can make the decision to reduce my natural voice volume and hand gestures. In short, I’m trying to reflect the behaviour of those that I’m interacting with.

Remember that humility involves not emphasising your own achievements but acknowledging those of your host....so be mindful of doing a bit of research beforehand.

Humility is also a realisation that you don’t know everything and that people from different cultures may view the world very differently from you. For instance, westerners tend to highly value freedom while those from Asia place a higher importance on security. This one difference in mindset can completely change your interactions.

Freedom tends to be very individualistic while security has a more group mindset. For example, a person from Asia is very concerned about their job security and working for a prominent successful company. Westerners tend to be more loyal to their career path and taking the next steps forward.

From an interaction perspective, when you ask an Asian to “sponsor a project” internally in their organisation then it’s a REALLY big thing. They are essentially being asked to trust that you will deliver results….because if you don’t then their job security may be on the line.

Understanding these little but also substantial differences in culture is sometimes hard and requires all of us to be humble in the recognition of our differences. It’s sometimes tough being an alien in another country but it can also be extremely fulfilling.

I found my time in Macau incredibly exciting and it was great interacting with a completely different group of investors. I think that one of the best sessions I attend was moderated by Simon Cousins. He really opened up the whole language of Chinese culture that was brilliant. I could write a whole series of blogs on what Simon shared.

I would encourage everyone to attend DomainFest in Hong Kong next year as I believe that it will not only be an outstanding event but an opportunity to learn a little about the diversity of cultures in the world.

Have a great weekend!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

I'm now sitting at Hong Kong airport waiting for my plane to return me home to Melbourne Australia from DomainFest in Macau. The conference was an outstanding success on so many fronts that in the limited time I have before my flight I'll try to get through a few of them.

For a start, the organisation team from .Asia with ample support from Allegravita should be congratulated on hosting a great event. Of course, we must not forget all of the work that Jothan Frakes did to make it all happen.

It was wonderful meeting a lot of new domain investors from China and abroad that were seeking to learn further about our incredible industry. I'm really sorry that I didn't manage to get around to everyone as there was only so much time in the day.

What I really enjoyed were a number of sessions that I attended outside of all of the meetings. I'm finding that with Simon Cousins able mentoring that I'm finally beginning to understand the nuiances of the Chinese domain space. I absolutely came away with a possible strategy for moving forward and engaging this incredibly diverse and massive market.

Edmon Chung (CEO of .Asia) presented an absolutely brilliant summary of the Chinese market that really opened my eyes up to the opportunities. I hope to get a copy of the presentation and share parts of it here on my blog.

It was also great catching up with old friends and have some good times with them. Many of us had a brilliant time at a Water show that was very reminiscent of Cirque de Soliel (I think that's the spelling!)

Sorry.....gotta go my flights's just called for boarding.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

Cheers!

Once again I find myself sitting in the Qantas club at Melbourne airport waiting for my plane to head to DomainFest in Macau. It's been a little while since Namescon earlier this year and I'm really excited to catch-up with many of my domaining friends and make some new ones.

So why do I make all of these long-haul journeys? No surprisingly, I've found the more you attend conferences, the more friends you make and the more business results. What's great is that  I'm now conducting business with friends not just partners or clients. We've known each other for so many years that in many cases I know all of their children as well.

So when I look at DomainFest Macau I'm really hoping to not just "do business" but make new friends. It's taking the long-term view that helps build good solid businesses and long-lasting friendships.

I'm really looking forward to speaking at the conference and have been asked to be share in two sessions. It should be a great time.....and even more so as we work with a Chinese interpretter.

If you aren't going to DomainFest then it's not too late! It would be great to catch-up and swap domaining stories. In the meantime, my flights just been called so I'd better get going.

Safe travels everyone!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.