June’s Southern California Domaining Meetup: It Was All A Dream

On Saturday, the Southern California Domaining Group had its sixth meetup.  The group met at Urth Cafe in Downtown, Los Angeles.  Urth Cafe provided us with a conference room which was perfect for our group.  In addition to this they waived the $150 conference room fee and really took care of us.  I want to thank Urth Cafe for doing such a wonderful job and providing us the space for free.

This was one of the smallest meetups we have had, but the conversation was simply amazing. I can’t begin to tell you how lucky I felt to be in a room discussing topics with such a diverse group of minds.  Our meetup consisted of ten members and Morgan Linton spearheaded the conversation by announcing our official committees.  Drum roll please!  The following committees made the cut:

1.  Domain Monetization and Development  (9 Votes)

2.  Selling Domains (5 Votes)

3.  Lead Generation And Affiliate Marketing (4 Votes)

Our members voted and the rest is now history.  In case you are wondering about the other categories that did not make the cut I have listed them here for curiosity sake:

4.  ccTLDS and IDNs (3 Votes)

5.  Hosting and Business Tech (2 Votes)

The new committee structure will be  a great addition to our group.  Members will now have an organized platform to learn, provide insight, inquire about services or simply connect with those that are interested in the same subject matter.

Half way into June’s meetup Michael Castello made a great recommendation which completely transformed the entire room.  Initially members were speaking to each other based on there location around the conference room table.  This created several private conversations, which in the end didn’t really benefit the entire group.  Michael, suggested that we try an open question and answer session.  Not only did the open Q & A session work, it kept all of us glued to our chairs well into the night!  Its amazing how much you can learn from people when everyone is free to ask questions and provide answers.  During the Q & A session I truly felt like I was at a domaining conference.

This is why my blog entry is titled “It Was All A Dream.”  I learned an incredible amount of information about domaining and couldn’t help but to think that this circle of minds was the root of the reason.  You couldn’t pay for this type of information and the member insight unfolded as if I were in a dream.  June’s meetup has invigorated me and I am thankful that Southern California has such a great set of domainers willing to meet every month to discuss the topics that are important to them.

I look forward to July’s meetup, let me rephrase that.  I look forward to every month’s meetup!  Morgan and I are commited  to making the meetups better each month.  We are even discussing taping future sessions and making them available for you to download right to your computer!  Since Morgan is the video expert I am sure that it will be done to perfection!  There was even an idea of streaming the meetups live.  We want as many of you out there to benefit from the discussions we have and this is our way of providing a transparent window into the SCDG.  Who knows what the future will hold for us!  Whatever it maybe we look forward to it!

Here are a few pictures, taken by both Morgan and I during the meetup: