T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under is happening on the Gold Coast, Australia, with Fabulous.com (Dark Blue Sea Ltd) and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. partnering to host the premiere event being held from November 18 to 20, to be held at the Sheraton Mirage Resort, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Dr. Paul Twomey, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN, and Graeme Wood, Founder and Executive Director of Wotif.com, will be keynote speakers at the event. Wood founded the accommodation booking website Wotif.com and developed it into a multi-national company that attracts more than 3.2 million visits, and processes over 200,000 accommodation bookings each month.

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to address the domain name community,” said Dr. Twomey. “I have great respect and admiration for its pioneering members; forever evolving the robust domain name market that exists today.”

In a boon to the Internet Commerce Association, all attendees can be pleased that all profits from attendees and event sponsorships will be donated to the ICA, meaning they will be better able to work for the betterment of the rights of domainers and domain name holders in general.

The ICA is a grass roots organisation formed to ensure domain services and owners are robustly represented in areas of great risk and importance to the global domain community. The ICA utilises dues and contributions to enable activities related to legislative lobbying, regulatory representation, industry public relations, legal test case support, industry publication of statistics and reports, revenue research, and market intelligence. In order for the association to continue and expand its activities, it requires the support and participation from current members, and also from the entire professional domain name community.

The explosive growth in online advertising (in the first half of 2007 alone, advertisers in the US spent more than $10 billion website advertising) has seen Internet entrepreneurs earn millions of dollars each year by buying, selling, developing and monetising domain names. There are now over 1,000 so-called “domainers”, over 162 million registered domains around the world, and a thriving aftermarket for domain names, with reported sales exceeding US$700M in 2007.

At the recent T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East show in the US, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine and former U.S. presidential candidate was enthusiastic about the industry. “Internet traffic and domains are the prime real estate of the 21st century. This market has matured, and individuals, brands, investors and organizations who do not grasp their importance or value are missing out on numerous levels.”

Rick Schwartz, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. founder, feels a conference in Australia is long overdue, “Australians are a major force in the domain industry, representing some of the largest domain portfolio owners in the world. This show will be a truly global event and those that attend will be enriched forever.”

“Australia is a great conduit and sounding board to the Asian continent,” notes one of the world’s most successful domain investors, Frank Schilling from Name Admin Inc. “I genuinely look forward to exploring that hemisphere’s views and influence on domain development and monetization strategies when I meet the many fine commercial registrants of the region this autumn.”

Ticket prices are US$1,295 until July 31st, and then US$1,595 until the conference opening day on 18th November.

For more information and registration, please visit the official TRAFFIC Down Under website, TrafficDownUnder.com.