JuliannaWe did it again… for the third consecutive year Webnames.ca exhibited at the Massive Technology Show. This year the business-to-business technology tradeshow and networking event was held at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (Canada Place) on March 28th.
Located just up the street from our Gastown offices, we were set-up and ready to talk domain names in no time. The change of venue from Telus World of Science (a.k.a. Vancouver’s ‘Science World’) was a huge improvement. The prior venue was congested and distracting, more obstacle course than tradeshow venue. Once again, a wide range of tech-related enterprises represented, including software companies, web consultants, telecommunication and wireless providers, Internet marketers, gadget and gizmo makers and numerous technological organizations. We were also pleased to see CIRA (the Canadian Internet Registration Authority) in attendance and busy enrolling and authenticating members. Special shout out to Edward Toy and his group who did a great job promoting .CA and CIRA accredited Canadian registrars.
This year also featured some high profile speakers; unfortunately, attendees needed an all access pass to see most of these presentations. We heard good things about Leanord Brody of NowPublic’s keynote on participatory journalism, as well as the Adobe workshop on Flex and Apollo hosted by Duane Nickall. Cybele Negris, Webnames.ca’s Chief Operating Officer delivered a comprehensive and not-too-technical overview of .mobi, the new top level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices. Her presentation dot.Mobi – Branding the Mobile Internet touched on the growth of mobile Internet use and the emergence of new mobile markets, juxtaposing North America with Asia, as well as .mobi compliance policies, trademark considerations and more.
As usual, it’s always a pleasure meeting local customers and hearing their feedback, both positive comments about our customer support and suggestions for improvements (no, Webnames.ca does not provide 24-hour support at this time; however our systems are monitored 24/7 and we do provide after hours emergency assistance). Was the event worthwhile? Certainly. We met a lot of good people, chatted with some competitors, gave away a bunch of free domain names and swag, and hopefully boosted our brand in the process. As long as Massive doesn’t return to the Telus Sphere, count us in.
Left to Right: Nicholas C, Julianna H, Michael M and Rob L of Webnames.ca.
For readers with their own tradeshows looming on the horizon, check out Entrepreneur.com’s “How to Work a Tradeshow” article for best practices and advice on getting the most from your tradeshow experience whether you’re exhibiting, or simply attending.