Miami Vices: TRAFFIC East 2007

Believe it or not, there are conferences and tradeshows dedicated solely to domain names.

When I tell people this they think I'm kidding. In fact, I thought I was being kidded when I first found out about this. This only goes to prove how big the domain name industry has become.

Next week I'm off to Florida to attend the biggest domain name industry event of them all, TRAFFIC.

TRAFFIC East 2007 is being held in Miami, Florida from October 9-13 and is described by its organizers like so:

"With more than 500 attendees, including the leading executives and experts, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is the largest and most successful domain conference!"

That's right, it'll be me and 500 other domain name fanatics. Sounds like a riot.

I'm looking forward to meeting in person many of the people I've already been talking to and doing business with as part of my new job at Tucows. Most of these domain industry folks, who are based in cities all around the world, are currently just disembodied voices on the phone to me.

And I'm really excited about attending Friday's live domain name auction (think Sotheby's with geeks) where (if I was so inclined and had a few spare million to burn) I'll have the opportunity to bid on some very choice domain names like:

• computer.com
• xmas.com
• sciencefiction.com
• taxes.com

and my personal favourite...

• bourbon.com

Now how cool is that?