You would have to be completely deaf to not have heard about the upcoming Merge conference to be held in Orlando from the 14^th-18^th October. It’s shaping up to be a real highlight of the year for not just the domain industry but industries that run alongside it.

Both Jothan Frakes and Ray Neu are the driving force behind Merge. Their experience in running conferences over many years (NamesCon, The Domain Conference, TRAFFIC to name but a few) is clearly evident as they pull together the event.

It seems that almost every day a new top-notch speaker is being announced that will add a significant amount of value to attendees’ experience. Some of the line-up include; Jennifer Wolfe (CEO of Dot Brand), Chris Disspain (ICANN director), David Sams (Emmy winning TV producer) plus a over 52 others.

The clock is ticking as we’re on the downhill race towards the longest vacation we’ve taken in over 11 years. Now that our children are old enough to look after themselves, Roselyn and I are heading away to Europe for six weeks as a part of our 30^th anniversary celebrations.

There’s a myriad of infinitesimal details that need to be rounded up before embarking on the journey. The chore of making sure the bills are paid while we are away (can’t they just wait???), we have Internet on our phones at a half decent price (ie. not extortionate) and the older children we’re leaving behind clearly understand there are to be no parties while we are gone.

On the last point…..is a wink between our two daughters a bit of a joke or something I should be worried about?

I have a lot of friends in Florida and many of them have suffered and are suffering as a result of hurricane Irma. Natural disasters are often terrifying and the wake of destruction they leave behind in both property damage and emotional trauma is terrible.

I just received word from Jeff Sass from .CLUB that their new office in Fort Lauderdale has lost its roof and the interior office trashed by the force of the wind and rain. I have the privilege to count all of the .CLUB team as friends and I would like to particularly wish them all the best as they rebuild their office space.

I would also like to mention that none of the actual .CLUB domains have been impacted by this disaster as they are safe and secure in tier 1 hosting environments in multiple locations.....so don't panic. All is good!

I'm celebrating my 30th Wedding Anniversary today. We're having a bit of a party with 50 people in the evening I've got a new suit with a bow tie so that I look a bit like a silver haired James Bond. This does have it's benefits as I can fend off the other guys from the most beautiful girl in the room......and I get to take her home with me.

It's at times like this you can't help but reflect over the last 30 years and how you've shared them with another person. I was trying to put into words what I feel towards my wife and found myself at a bit of a loss. How can you express in words your feelings for someone that run so deep?

I’ve recently been reviewing a number of new gTLDs to better understand the trends and which ones will potentially be of greater value than others. In my opinion, this regular practice is crucial for any investor that is wanting to gauge when is the best time to stomp down their cash and invest in an extension.

Overall, the new gTLDs have not had a spectacularly good year. The number of registrations peaked in April at just over 29.5 million but since then there has been a sharp decline to just over 23 million. To better understand what’s going on I dug into some good and bad examples of new gTLDs.

.CLUB has been the poster child of the new gTLDs and in many respects, rightly so. Backed by a solid team their focused marketing has meant they’ve built what appears to be a good solid base of registrants that are using the extension.