The domain investor community is in Las Vegas right now. Here’s why this TRAFFIC conference matters.

I’m writing this post from the Bellagio in Las Vegas, where the latest TRAFFIC conference is taking place.

I think this conference “matters” for three key reasons.

1. Without this event, it would be a long time between seeing the domain community.

Webfest was in early February. If TRAFFIC only had its Florida show this year, it would be about 8 months between major U.S. domain conferences. Sure, there are other events throughout the year where you can see a portion of the domain industry. A lot will be at HostingCon next month, a handful come to AdTech, and there are several web industry events. There are also ICANN meetings, although this year’s are in far flung locations for those of us in the U.S.

Going 8 months without a major domain conference is a long time.

2. This week will raise a lot of money for The Water School.

Tonight The Water School will hold a charity event that should raise about $20,000 to help bring clean water to people in developing countries and rural areas. There’s a lot to like about that.

3. It’s the last conference before new TLDs.

By the time the next domain conference happens in October, we (might) start seeing the rollout of new top level domains. This is kind of the calm before the storm. Later this year the domain industry will change. You can argue what it means for .com owners, but one thing that’s clear is that a lot of money and new people will be coming into the industry. That’s good. It’s just different. The people attending domain conferences will likely be quite different 12 months from now.