San Diego Here We Come

[Fearless]

I gleaned this from another forum. Any thoughts from this forum?

How many are SERIOUSLY interested in a San Diego gathering of domainers? Speculator already said he's in! I'm willing to put this together if we have enough people. Below are soem IDEAS, suggestions on changes welcome. Perhaps it can be a weekend event, but flights are harder to get and more expensive that way.

WHAT: A gathering of people in the domain name business, particularly those on a limited budget. This will be more FUN than formal. Ben Stein won’t be here, but there are generally lost of crazy girls in the local bars/clubs. No shortage of things to do here.

Who is invited: EVERYONE. Even the Russian scammers.

Price: CHEAP, possibly free. Just pay for your own food/travel.

WHEN: mid/early December or around April. I’m a snowboarder and may go to Brazil for Carnival, so Jan-March is out. December is in our 'rainy season' but we actually get very little rain. EDIT: Everyone like APRIL

Agenda:
Wednesday – Arrivals; welcome party
Thursday – Meeting Day #1 (TOPICS?)
Friday – Meeting Day #2 (TOPICS?)
Saturday – Departures or begin tourist mode

Facilities:
Up to about 20 people, we can use my ocean-view condo and deck, catered by Domino’s other other local deliveries. Wireless and wired internet access available. Surfing/kayaking/windurfing available a few steps away during break times. 5 very cool beach-bar/grill type places within 1 mile.

For larger groups, most of the 40 or so local bars have large areas we can use during the day, including one place with a 400 person capacity with sound system, stage, and DSL connection. Pacific Beach is a ‘college town’, so most of these places simply have no business weekdays while the kids are in school, and they will rent these places out inexpensively. This may be the way to go if a company wants to sponsor this event and set up displays.

Flights:
Flights to Los Angeles (LAX) are generally more frequent and cheaper, or you can fly directly to San Diego (SAN). I am willing to pick a few people up from the airport and drop them off if I have enough time. Los Angeles is about a 2.5 hour drive if you avoid rush hours. Tue, Wed, and Sat flights are always cheapest and easiest to get.

Accomodations:

I can recommend area hotels - tell me if you want ocean/bay views, downtown luxury, or just inexpensive. VERY nice, just up the beach from me, and walking distance to the 400 person club we can rent:
Catamaran: http://www.catamaranresort.com/
Bahia: http://arestravel.com/618/-/hotel/155
There are other hotels nearby (no views) around $50/night + tax

Food:
About 1,000 good restaurants here, from fun dives with great food and cheap drinks to ‘jackets required’ places with $10 cocktails. One place I frequent has a FREE dinner buffet (baked chicken, Swedish meatballs, lasagna, mashed potatoes, corn dogs, salad and $1.50 beer and margaritas from 5pm to 8pm every Friday and Saturday.

Nearby:
- Sea World is 3 minutes from my place.
- Wild Animal Park, San Diego Zoo 20 minutes away
- Whale watching December to March
- Scuba, fishing boats
- Mexico border 45 minutes away
- Disneyland about 90 minutes away

 

[Fearless]

Must be a bad idea.

 

[JuniperPark]

GREAT idea

(Disclaimer: I'm the one in San Diego trying to put this together)

 

[hiOsilver]

GREAT idea

(Disclaimer: I'm the one in San Diego trying to put this together)

Somewhere between the cost of TRAFFIC 2004 and "sleep for free on my couch" there could be a good event. San Diego is a fine place, even in the rainy season. It takes time, work and some start-up funds to really pull off an event worth my time and an airline reservation (even from the Bay Area). But then, others may want to sleep on your couch :-D

 

[Fearless]

I've offered the use of my name Dollar$igns.com to promote it.

 

[Duke]

Somewhere between the cost of TRAFFIC 2004 and "sleep for free on my couch" there could be a good event. San Diego is a fine place, even in the rainy season. It takes time, work and some start-up funds to really pull off an event worth my time and an airline reservation (even from the Bay Area). But then, others may want to sleep on your couch :-D

If we can get 20 or more guys & gals I would like to meet in one pleasant place like San Diego at once, I would fly there to spend a few days with them. JP, Speculator and GregR all seem serious about it and I would count them as double so that's 6 already.

Building on the relationships we've started in the forums would be worth the time & money involved IMO. And Howard, Dale already offered something in between Traffic and sleep on the couch. He said he also has an air mattress in his bedroom - but you have to sign up early!

 

[JuniperPark]

The 'sleep on the couch' thing was kind of a joke (although I would do it), so please don't say yeah or nay because of that. I'm thinking Duke's number of 20 people is about the point where we say it's a GO or NO-GO.

As mentioned in the post, I know if at least 2 places we can get for a very low cost to have a meeting with 20 to 200 people, within walking distance to the beach, bay, restaurants/bars, and several hotels. That REALLY keeps costs down.

April is probably a good month to travel here, before the summer vacation period pushes up the price of airfares and hotels.

 

[Fearless]

Nitronet (Jack) said he's in.

 

[stevo]

Would there be room for someone with - 1. a mediocre portfolio 2. limited web skills 3. a desire to learn. I basically would have nothing to offer in comparison to the others who have expressed an interest in the get-together. I would hope to gain direction at this conference. It would be great to meet some of the movers and shakers there as well.

 

[JuniperPark]

Would there be room for someone with - 1. a mediocre portfolio 2. limited web skills 3. a desire to learn. I basically would have nothing to offer in comparison to the others who have expressed an interest in the get-together. I would hope to gain direction at this conference. It would be great to meet some of the movers and shakers there as well.

I want to make this VERY clear:

EVERYONE is invited. There are no drudge lists. There are no membership requirements. Heck, we've even invited so Australians!

 

[Fearless]

I just talked to Dale and we're rolling on it. I'll get my programmers working on www.DollarSigns.com.

 

[Duke]

EVERYONE is invited. Heck, we've even invited some Australians!

In that case I'm out. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Would there be room for someone with - 1. a mediocre portfolio 2. limited web skills

Room? Are you kidding? Those are prerequisites.

3. a desire to learn. It would be great to meet some of the movers and shakers there as well.

That #3 could get you barred at the door.
I think it would be great to meet some movers and shakers too, but I'll probably go anyhow.

Nitronet (Jack) said he's in.

It's a good thing you guys are coming, otherwise with all of us New TLDers there it would have been called the NoTraffic conference.

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

Sounds great.

December is too soon, and the holidays are tough. April is tax time.

How about May?

 

[JuniperPark]

The tourist season gets going in May, so air/hotel prices jump and everything gets more crowded. That's why we picked April.

 

[Fearless]

Sounds great.

December is too soon, and the holidays are tough. April is tax time.

How about May?

DaddyHalbucks we're doing all this for you. You have to come.

 

[Keyworddomains.com]

This is a great idea k: !

I will try to come too, April is a good choice.

Are germans welcomed too :wink: ?

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

April is OK with me.

Thanks for the red carpet.

 

[doubledee999]

will this possibly include a field trip to oversee/domainsponsor?

Not sure how far San Diego is from LA

 

[theparrot]

I am probably in, if it is after tax day.

 

[Fearless]

Next step is to solidify legitimacy of this momentous occasion. I'm going to put up whatever money it takes to reserve the facilities. There will be a reasonable registration fee to attend. This will go a long ways in convincing potential sponsors that they will have a good group of potential customers. I was thinking of having an early bird special registration fee of $100-$200 that increases the closer we get to April 6. Not $1,000.00-$5,000.00. The sooner people sign up the sooner we'll attract sponsors.

Call this a conference for the little guy if you want but I think some of these sponsors are fine with signing up a bunch of little guys. The big guys are pretty much set in their ways.

Toss me some feedback.