You would have to be completely deaf to not have heard about the upcoming Merge conference to be held in Orlando from the 14th-18th 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.
There are currently over 45 workshops during the 5 days of the conference so you will always have some great sessions to attend. THEDomainConference is just one of many other sub events, activities and open meetings, which also will include: Allegravita’s China Bootcamp, Blockchain Road Show, CMS Summit, Confluir, McGrady Domain Academy, TheWHIR Networking Event and more coming soon.
I would like to highlight the introduction of CMSSummit and the bringing together of the major content management systems at a single central location. I’ve been using Joomla for years but it’s great to see that Drupal, Wordpress and a number of others will be featured. Domain investors that are looking to build out their assets will find this part of Merge invaluable.
One of the reasons why I like attending conferences is not just for the sessions but for the attendees. I end up with a schedule filled with meetings that would never have taken place if it wasn’t for the event. If you plan to accelerate the growth of your business then I would highly recommend attending Merge.
It’s with a small amount of sadness, I won’t be in attending. I say small because my wife and I will be traveling through Europe for our 30th anniversary. We both plan on being at the show in the following year. In the meantime, Joe Politzer will be flying the ParkLogic flag at this year’s event.