The two-day Domainer Meeting in Paris last month was a very enjoyable and rewarding conference that I was fortunate enough to attend. There were some great sessions on the issues affecting domainers, plus a great social evening. And to top it all off, it was in Paris, one of the world’s great cities.

The 300+ attendees covered a wide range of people interested in domaining, from buyers and sellers of domain names to those who wanted to talk about their “products”. And of course, the networking in the corridors was always interesting.

One of the highlights for me was hearing Paul Keating from the law firm Renova and Phil Corwin from the Internet Commerce Association speaking on the legal aspects of domaining, and of course Domain Economics by Dan Warner from Fabulous.

There was the story of the domainer, who when asked what their exit strategy was – after all, every business needs an exit strategy if things go wrong – replied they had done. The enquirer was surprised. The domainer said they didn’t need one, or words to this effect, and said they buy a house or apartment every week as a result of their profits. I guess you could call this an exit strategy!

The meeting’s social event at Le Cab Restaurant and Club sponsored by Domain Sponsor in the heart of Paris was also a great event in a great location with locals arriving after midnight adding a bit more style. After all, as interesting as many domainers are, style does seem to pass many of them by!

The meeting was a first for Europe and was a great opportunity for people in Europe to see and hear what the industry is about. And to give it a bit more publicity.

“It also shows that the European market is growing fast. I would also like to thank all the people who travelled to Paris to attend the meeting. We gathered more than 300 people, who highly contributed to the global atmosphere and set up of the meeting,” said Xavier Buck, CEO and Founder of EuroDNS and one of the Domainer Meeting organisers.

There was also a SnapNames Live Auction event on the Friday afternoon where domains were sold for a total of $361,000. The big seller was aftermarket.com that sold for $125,000, while rainbows.com and domain.pl each sold for $45,000 and phoneaccessories.com for $25,000. I can’t say the auction held my attention for too long, but like any auction, if you are involved in it, I’m sure it was very interesting!

With the domainer industry growing, it is intended there will be a second Domainer Meeting, possibly in Prague and hopefully timing it close to an ICANN meeting again. Presentations from the Paris meeting can be downloaded from the Domainer Meeting site at www.domainermeeting.com/?page_id=289. There are also quite a few photos from the meeting posted on Facebook here.

For those in Europe interested in getting more involved in domaining, I’d highly recommend attending the next event. Great people, great networking, learning from your peers, great socialising. All in all, highly worthwhile.