T.h.u.r.s.d.a.y.

[NameDriver]

Hi there everyone,

Some of you will have known about this as we've been mulling it over for several months and I've contacted several people about it just to check we're on the right track:

Thursday 3rd November at 4 pm will see an event titled Pints & Parking to be held in a London pub. We have been mulling over an event since before our launch and, having been to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East, it became clear that meeting people is as much part of the game as getting emails out and posts on threads up. From the inception of our 'launch' event, we always wanted it to be low-key and the phrase 'Pints & Parking' was coined way back in August. Though what you drink is entirely up to you.
The focus here is not so much shining the spotlight on NameDrive with us talking to you as you talking to each other. This is largely a faceless industry and, while we obviously have an agenda on how we see the progression of the industry and what we have in our sights for the future, we will be mingling and chatting to each of you individually about how we can help your portfolios.

We have personally contacted several people to ensure that there will be interesting people to talk to, so you're not going out on a limb. The timing of the event is in recognition of the fact that many people have 'real' jobs too and we hope people can make it for an early evening bash. We also know this is short notice.
I appreciate that this will mostly appeal to people in the London and South East area and that many people will not be keen to travel long distances for a social get together with a couple of ND blokes (though, we are coming from Germany to see you ). We will hopefully be able to hit the road in the ND bus sometime next year...

If you'd like to attend and would be interested in the details / who you can expect to see / what you can expect from the event, then drop me an email or a PM and I'll get some more info off to you.

Have a good evening.

Best regards,

Ed

 

[retired member 1]

Ed,

You need to free up your PM box

Email sent

 

[NameDriver]

Done and Done

 

[Edwin]

Have fun - wish I could be there but there's the small matter of 6,000-odd miles to contend with...

 

[retired member 1]

Have fun - wish I could be there but there's the small matter of 6,000-odd miles to contend with...

I must admit that's a fair old trek for a few drinks

 

[NameDriver]

That's true.

That's why we know that the short notice and the low-key pitch is only going to really appeal to those in or around the area. We see it as more than 'just a couple of drinks', but we also don't want pepole to drive for hours for an event that isn't going to alter the path of the stars. We do have interesting people attending - people who've supported us on this board and others who haven't been around here, but interest has come mainly from the London area, as we suspected.

We do have the biggest public UK sale of the year and one of the most famous drops of the year represented though

It's a tough pitch as we have people who we're very much looking forward to meeting. The event will certainly be entertaining and informative for all concerned though we realise that it's difficult for people outside the area to commit. We've been asked to video it and sell the DVD but we don't want Amazon.co.uk to be flooded with requests for it, so we'll problably not be doing that...
I suppose to be fair, I'd have to say if it's more than 60-90 mins journey time (so from one tube stop to the next), then it may be a bit much for us to expect you to come. We will definitely make it worth everyone's trip and you get to discuss your portfolio needs and desires with us in person. The official timing is 4pm till final orders, so you can drop in any time for as long or short as you like. We'll be there from 3.00 if you want to avoid any pre-rush hour.

It's in Chelsea, which isn't a congestion charge zone, just in case anyone was wondering.

Hope to see some of you there

 

[NameDriver]

Right,

Final message before we get on the NameDrive bus to London:

While those that have signed down for the event won't have the pub bursting at the seams, we're happy to say that those that will be present will offer a broad range across the domain spectrum. The venue is secured and is situated in the first ever street in the world that had trees planted on it. Could it get any better? Drinks and posh finger food are on us. Here is a the agenda for the slightly formal part. It's held in a pub, we're not giong to be there with projectors and flashy powerpoint presentations, but we still want to share our knowledge with you and look forward to gaining more knowledge from the UK owners in return.
The points that we would like to discuss 'from the front'. These will really be 10-15 minute 'infomercials' shining the spotlight away from ND as the main goal of this event is to meet, interact and investigate the correlation between pints and parking.

Understanding Google. SEO, page rank, getting your pages seen. You park some pages, you develop some pages. Google forbids SEO on parked pages, but how do you get your non-parked pages up the rankings? Tips on one of the hottest topics in the industry at the moment.

Selling and buying UK names. When to buy, when to sell, how to get hold of UK names. How do you evaluate them? The viability of selling for traffic revenue versus inherant 'name' value.

Tips for finding the best names for new registrations. In the world of the drop market and with 150 UK domains registered every hour, is there any point in new registrations? How to find new names to register.

The invitation is absolutely open, whether you have 1 name or 10,000, then you are welcome to drop by. Email or PM me and I'll get you the info.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Ed

 

[Paullas]

hope it all goes well, and a full update would be great.

 

[Keyworddomains.co.uk]

Ed you should have told me about this "stammtisch" in London .
I would have come from germany too.

 

[retired_member9]

P & P

The meeting was absolutely fabu...eerm... namedrive!

Such friendly and warm atmosphere as it was there today happens only once.
In the same begining. While there is enough free parking space

Cheers to Ed & Craig!

 

[aappleby]

lovely meeting thanks chaps.
generous with the food and drinks and with the information too!
I look forward to a repeat.

 

[charlie]

apologies for the absense I was stranded in warwick and completely forgot
would have liked to come along and meet fellow domainers - perhaps learn something!!

again apologies

 

[NameDriver]

Hi there,

It certainly was fabunamedrive! Great to meet you guys. Really chuffed that it worked out so well. Definitely something to do again in the not too distant future.

Sorry Markus, we had trouble getting people to come from southern England, so I didn't imagine we had a chance of getting someone to come from the Rhineland. You could have accompanied us on our adventure through Belgium! Definitely next time. And certainly no need for apologies, Mr Charlie

Thanks so much to those that came, a really fascinating bunch of people. I look forward to being able to tell you when the next pints and parking - or more to the point G&T and parking - will be.

Have a great weekend.

Ed

 

[bb99]

Ed

Any highlights/summary notes you'd like to pass on to those who couldn't make it?

Cheers

 

[NameDriver]

Evening everyone,

It's a bit tricky to really sum up what went on there as it was a very 'liquid' meeting (not talking about what was consumed, rather what was discussed). Those present represented all walks of the domaining life from early-reggers to dropcatchers to novices, so it was a situation where 8 people would all talk on one topic together and then groups would discuss a particular point of interest individually.
Maybe it'd make most sense to ask those that attended (of which I think 3 are on this board) what they got out of it. I would certainly say that Greg and I found it great to talk to those present about how they saw the market progressing.
Almost as important for us was the meeting we had on Friday morning. More before mid-November, we're hoping.
Payments this week. Whoopee. Our favourite time of the month...

Ed