Last week, ResellerClub held its second annual Hosting Summit – an event that had attracted 1,800+ attendees previously in Mumbai in 2012, thus making it the largest exclusive web hosting industry event in Asia. This year, RCHS was held in Gurgaon, New Delhi, India; approximately 2,800+ attendees were present, including web hosting resellers, web hosting providers, domain name registries, domain name providers, data centers, ISPs, web designers, and more.
Like last year, Public Interest Registry was one of the Diamond sponsor for RCHS following the title sponsor. Once again, we were very pleased to participate in the event alongside a number of other international players and major industry brands, such as Verisign, .ASIA, HostGator, cPanel, Microsoft, and Google.
Check out our snazzy booth space:
And this was (Y)our .ORG Wall, where attendees wrote down the name of either their own personal .ORG website, that of an organization/foundation/other .ORG that they are affiliated with, or a name that they want to register with the .ORG extension:
On day one of the hosting summit, our own Channel Manager, Anand Vora, had a session and spoke to the audience about how to stay relevant in the new domain name space. More specifically he touched on the 1,000+ new domain name extensions that are coming to the Internet soon, the magnitude of the changes that are coming to the web hosting industry, and how it will affect channels and the way of doing business in the near future. Vora also addressed Public Interest Registry’s view on these changes – which is that resellers will play a much bigger role in selling domain names – and how we plan to create a playing field where everyone can rise to the top.
The session proved to be extremely engaging and was well received – not only by channel partners, resellers, and registrars, but also by some of our counterpart registries in the industry.
Later that evening, we hosted the .ORG After Party – delicious food, good vibes, and so much fun! Check out highlights from the night:
We want to give a huge shout out and thank you to ResellerClub for helping us put together such an amazing party! The turnout was fantastic and everyone had smiles on their faces J We couldn’t have done it without you.
What was different about our experience this time around compared to last year? We had an entirely “new look and feel,” as well as new messaging and products to share with the audience. In addition to promoting the .ORG domain extension, which we have operated for the past 12 years, we also introduced the attendees to 4 new international domain names (IDNs), as well as .NGO and .ONG.
So, what’s up with these new extensions?
The IDNs (.机构, .संगठन, .орг) will serve as the equivalent of .ORG in two Chinese scripts, Hindi, and Cyrillic, respectively. With hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) coming to the Internet soon, we believe that these IDNs will provide consumers with deeper connections to native speakers, better opportunities, increased awareness and reach to people who may have previously been offline, or who used the Internet only in a limited way. These new extensions are ultimately intended to help make the Internet more user-friendly, encourage heightened communication, and serve as a useful branding tool. They are expected to launch in early 2014.
Toward the end of next year/early 2015, .NGO will be exclusively available to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) throughout the world. It’s counterpart, .ONG, is the translated equivalent of .NGO for Romance languages (i.e. Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian). Why choose .NGO|.ONG? For trust, global teach, validation, and visibility. These extensions will provide immediate recognition for genuine NGOs that have undergone a validation process, and they will help strengthen the brand of your NGO.
To stay updated on everything .NGO|.ONG, visit www.globalngo.org to sign up for our newsletter and receive monthly news. If you are interested in registering your own .NGO|.ONG domains, please submit an expression of interest here.
Once again, a huge thank you to ResellerClub for all of the hard work they did to put together a great summit. What a nice surprise to learn that these guys will be partnering with HostingCon next year to put together three additional new events for the web hosting industry!
And also a big thanks to all of those who attended RCHS and made our time well spent –engaging in dialogue, asking questions, and providing valuable feedback about .ORG’s current presence in India, as well as the future of our IDNs and .NGO|.ONG.
See you all next year at HostingCon!