Cloudfest is next week. And in a normal year, several Blacknight staff would be decamping for Germany to attend the biggest computing conference in Europe. But this is not a normal year, and Cloudfest has gone virtual like so many other events due to COVID-19. Best of all, it’s free to ‘attend.’ And as the same people who run Cloudfest also run Namescon, they will already know how to run a virtual conference pretty well.
Blacknight is still participating, even with the conference being virtual. Our CEO Michele Neylon will be speaking on a panel, and I will also be on another panel. I’ll publish the details below.
We’ll also be attending many other panels that are relevant to the domain and hosting industries, and we’re always looking forward to learning new things and hopefully virtually networking with people. And hopefully, next year, we’ll all be able to attend in person.
Michele Neylon’s Session
Cloud Service Provider Industry Panel – State of the Industry Report
March, 25th, 4h10pm – 4h40pm CET, 30min
Lockdown didn’t stop the Cloud. These influential decision-makers haven’t been sitting still, and you can benefit from what they’ve learned as the tumult of 2020-2021 shakes out and we begin a new chapter of the digital economy. The deeper your understanding of today’s state of play, the better you’re positioned to make great decisions and partnerships going forward. This is the second half of our State of the Industry panel—one virtual stage simply couldn’t contain all the expertise!
Moderator: Soeren von Varchmin, Chairman of the Supervisory Board for CloudFest / NamesCon
Panelists: Michele Neylon CEO Blacknight, Thomas Vollrath Investor Cantabo, Jochen Haller Head of Information and Security at 1&1 IONOS
Length: approx 30 minutes
Jonathan Thomas’s Session
The Trouble with Walled Gardens
March 24th at 4PM-4:30PM US EST/8PM-8:30PM UTC
Are you just a bird in a gilded cage? Building a recognized and trusted brand is more important than ever, and though your social media credentials can be a strategic and integral part of your brand and marketing, problems emerge if your brand lives only on third-party social media platforms that you don’t actually control. Find out from internet marketing experts what you’re missing by training your customers to seek your brand on social media sites instead of using a custom domain name. Learn how to leverage both domains and social media to amplify your brand’s messaging and take control of your own community—and destiny. More importantly, find out how to convey these risks and rewards to hosting and Cloud customers, and use domains to drive more business.
This is an essential session for marketers, brand managers, and anyone who wants to understand how to teach their clients to control their own Cloud environment and not to get trapped by third-party social media platforms.
Moderator: Jeff Sass, CMO – .CLUB Domains
Panelists: Neha Naik – RADIX, Jonathan Thomas – Blacknight, Elisabeth Klughardt – i2Coalition’s DNA Working Group
Length: approx. 20-35 minutes
Additionally – here’s a preview of who else you can see at Cloudfest this year.
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (Yes, this is happening—and you’ll have to catch it as it streams)
- Heidi Zak, co-founder and CEO of Thirdlove*, who revolutionized e-commerce
- James Gosling, the father of Java
- Sir Alex Younger, former Head of MI6, who served as Britain’s top spymaster
- Cassie De Pecol, Guinness Record-setting solo female traveler, athlete, and entrepreneur
- Aaron Draplin, award-winning designer* who’s created for Nike, Ford, NASA, and the Obama Administration
As I said before, it’s free to register and participate – normally is €399 – so it’s quite a deal!