No surprise at the top, but it gets interesting after that.
This year’s Domain Name Wire Survey asked respondents who the most influential person is in the domain name industry, as well as who they’d most like to have dinner with.
Unsurprisingly, domainer-turned-registry/registrar/parking/sales person Frank Schilling was the top vote. 38% of people said Schilling was the most influential person in the industry.
Rick Schwartz came in second, despite taking a step back from being a public figure this past year.
Other vote-getters included ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, Michael Berkens, and a few people were nice enough to put me.
The story changes a bit when it comes to who domain industry people would most like to have dinner with. Schilling is still #1 with 18%, but a lot of other people are on the list. Most people know Frank’s story…and have probably had dinner with him at some point at a domain conference.
The list is much more varied. Fadi Chehade comes in second. There are also votes for GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving and founder Bob Parsons. Some people would also like to dine with the elusive Yun Ye.
That would certainly be an interesting dinner.
sk says
Adam Dicker ?
Acro says
Great choice. I actually had dinner with Adam during NamesCon 2015. He’s fun-tastic!
The GoDaddy/Verisign dinner was also a great opportunity to share food and discussions with many ‘behind the scenes’ people. Finally got to eat with Konstantinos of OnlineDomain and listen to his appreciation of feta cheese. ๐
Konstantinos Zournas says
ILikeFeta.com lol
atlas.me says
I don’t need to sit with any of them because Michael Cyger did a great job on his site. ๐
Tony says
I actually think it’s the new guys that come into the industry that are influential because their story is what allows us to understand how they got in the first place, and so when we can hear their stories, they help inspire and influence that something seems to be working right.
Tony says
Frank Schilling might be influential on surface, but really, none of us know who that guy is, except that he’s just another person trying to make another buck and he’s not so perfect with his chosen tlds, he makes mistakes too, but the key is, who actually learned from their mistakes and made changes.
People like .xyz who over hype and give false sense of the existence of data which suggests that .com is out and .xyz is in, that’s why .xyz operator got the attention of Verisign.
Acro says
This article from 2007 is a great read: http://dnjournal.com/cover/2007/december.htm
RU says
The next NamesCon should be in Sochi, Russia! ๐
George in Miami says
Different strokes for different folks…
I would with Adam Dicker
Arpit Agrawal says
Adam Dicker is my clear choice.
He is the most happening person in the domain industry as of now.
Very down to Earth person even after having achieved so much!
It would be a great dinner!
Adam Dicker says
Thanks to those that chose me in this thread. It is an honour to even be mentioned once.
Anytime/anywhere we are together we can do dinner on me. ๐
Andrew Allemann says
Yep, Adam got some votes too. A very influential person in the industry. And having had dinner with him, it’s a great conversation.