GeoPublishers Expo to be held in Chicago from September 30th to October 2nd 2011
GeoPublishers.com is the new trade association for the geodomain industry. The inaugural Expo will be in Chicago at the Fairmont Hotel. Starting with the President’s reception on Friday 30 September, there will be a day-and-a-half program of keynotes and
panels, and a sponsored dinner on Saturday 1 October.
Speakers so far confirmed include
- Don Jones, President of New Orleans.com
- Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates
- Sandy Martin, Director of Mobile, Schurz Communications
- Sara Mannix, Mannix Marketin
- Dan Hippler, VP Marketing, Vegas.com
- Sean Miller, NewYorkCity.com
Registrations are now open for the early bird price discount of $495 (and reduced pricing of $395 for second and subsequent registrations from the same company).
Details are on the event’s website at www.geopublishers.com/geo-publishers-expo.
(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (1)
Advertisement Tap into the most comprehensive
Whois database on the planet: Discover the details of a domain’s current ownership,
learn a domain’s pedigree and find all the domains ever owned by a
specific company or individual by accessing historical information from
DomainTools.com.
Geo-domain name association Associated Cities went through some rough times in 2009 . Reports of trouble with internal conflicts between board members and the direction of the group circulated as the 2009 Geo Domain expo neared. It seems now that the group is back on track and pushing forward with a new set of board members with Fred Mercaldo at the helm.
The association sent out an email earlier today outlining the changes to the group including a move to reorganize as a non-profit, a new membership structure, advertising programs, and a general vision for the group. The entire email can be read after the jump. It’s good to see this organization back on track and sending a clear message of where they are going.
Dear Members and Associates:
Here is a brief update of our recent progress at Associated Cities, Inc, and our immediate goals, vision and initiatives:
- Conversion from an LLC to a Non-Profit: We are pleased to announce that, while there still remains some unfinished business to clean up, the transformation to a pure NP corporation has been completed. This will ensure that this Association will be member-owned, and run by an membership-elected Board of Directors, as well as numerous membership-run committees populated with elected members who will assist and guide all our activities. There are a few liability issues that I believe we are 90% through the process of making them non-issues, and I anticipate they will all be dismissed within 30 days, giving us a green light to proceed aggressively with our plans to make Associated Cities the Number One resource for all GeoDomain owners worldwide.
- Membership Structure: We have a new Membership Committee in place that will soon announce our new membership rate structure. This new structure will greatly increase our Membership, and open the doors making it easier for all owners of developed City.coms to join. Owners of multipleCity.com properties will be given one rate for all of their domains; owners of small City.com properties will be given a full membership opportunity for as little as $295 per year, giving them full access to all of the benefits that most of us have shared for years. In the past, some owners of multipleCity.com properties usually only joined with one of their sites; there was minimal incentive for the owners to pay additional dues for subsequent memberships. Now, there will be a cap on membership dues that an owner of multiple sites would pay, and each and every one of the City.com‘s under an owners portfolio will join, giving our Association a robust membership roster that is sure to get the attention of National advertisers.
- Advertising Programs: As we build our network of pure City.com Members, our Executive Director Patrick Carleton will focus on securing lucrative advertising contracts, some regional, some national, some market specific…but all designed to bring much needed revenue to our City.comproperties. While this is not a new idea, and as many have said it was actually the original idea and goal of forming Associated Cities, for many reasons this has not become a program that benefited our Membership. This will change in the coming year. We plan on making it profitable for each and every one of us to be Associated Cities members. The potential addition of 100 PLUS new City.com properties to our membership will give us the strength and market share to attract the advertisers.
- GeoDomain Expo: We will form an Expo committee, and explore whether to keep all Expo responsibilities in-house, or appoint an outside organization to manage and organize our future Expos in return for a guaranteed revenue share. We also expect to announce our date and location of our Associated Cities GeoDomain Expo 2011 during September.
- Vision: Associated Cities needs to become an industry powerhouse, providing numerous programs and support, even legal, for the GeoDomain industry as a whole. From the members-only group email list that Associated Cities members have all used when we have a question or need advice, to our actually having formal representation in Washington to protect our interests…to having many lucrative advertising opportunities through our Association…to getting back to the basics of running a successful Expo that attracts not only all of our Membership, but also many new investors that would like to invest in our industry…our needs are many. In order to accomplish these initiatives, we need an active and robust Membership, along with the dollars necessary to accomplish these aggressive goals. I believe we are taking the proper steps necessary to achieve these results.
Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding any ideas or comments you may have. More to come, and thank you all for your patience during this time of transition.
Regards,
Fred Mercaldo
President
Associated Cities, Inc.
Domain investor Michael Bahlitzanakis, aka Mike B, has launched the beta of his newest venture, City.com. The local search site lets local consumers search, review and rate the businesses in their local market. The site already includes 16 million local businesses in their search index. According to the company they have also developed partnerships with leading publishers to include events, local blog content, maps and full integration in to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The company is also focused on creating a better and “more transparent” product than their competition. Bahlitzanakis told us that he’s seen local businesses upset at the lack of transparency on other local search sites and has heard from business that they are looking for cost effective strategies to reach local consumers. He sees a big opportunity in helping these local businesses.
City.com has built a team of marketing professionals who will be “on the street” meeting with businesses and providing direct marketing services. The company has also established syndication and content partnerships that enable businesses to control their listing information at City.com, while having that same data syndicated to over 100 local search providers including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and YellowPages.com.
Bahlitzanakis also told us about some of the planned features for the site to be released soon, most of these are geared to helping small businesses connect with consumers. One of the future plans of the site may be of interest to domainers who hold geo-based domain names though. In the coming months, the site will be releasing a local sponsored syndication which will be looking for geo-targetted traffic (NewYorkDoctors.com or ChicagoRealEstate.com for example). “We want all of that kind of traffic we can get” Bahlitzanakis told us when we inquired about whether the company plans to develop relationships with domain owners with geo-based domains.
It’s always nice to see a gem domain polished up and released as a professional service like this. It’s even better when that business can benefit other domainers. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for City.com
(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com
Advertisement
Upcoming Domain Industry Events, Conferences & Auctions
