The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is the longest standing and most active non profit trade association that advocates for the rights and interests of domain name owners and related service providers. The ICA is so important to our industry because among many other things, they are one of the only organizations that actively monitors government agencies and ICANN on behalf of domain investors for policy changes or threats that could potentially affect domain name owners.
Last month, the ICA put on an event for its members at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas, NV to celebrate their 15th Anniversary Meetup! I was lucky enough to be able to attend for the first time and it was great to get back to an in person event. Kamila Sekiewicz, ICA Executive Director and the board did a great job of choosing a location with plenty of space, as well as communicating and following health safety protocol indoors. We also had awesome weather which made the outdoor events and morning hike around the scenic Red Rock canyon super enjoyable (see pic). Ron Jackson did a far more detailed write up of the event on DNJournal.com with more pictures as well.
It was at theTown Hall meeting on the second day of the event when I realized just how much work the ICA Board and staff dedicate to our industry every day. The meeting started out with a historical lesson on how the ICA was formed and then covered a wide array of topics they are actively working on including, domain investors rights, UDRP representation, .COM price increase, business constituency opportunities within ICANN and much more. I was truly blown away by how much value is delivered by the ICA to domain name owners, and many of us don't realize how easy it is to support this organization.
The ICA has annual membership tiers that range from only $300 ($25/month) up to $25,000 for Platinum level. All membership levels include access to ICA email alerts, events, webinars, the ability to vote in board elections, ICA Member website badges and recognition in the ICA Member Directory. We at Grit Brokerage support the ICA and recommend any serious domain investor to join the ICA and support them financially because this organization is so instrumental in helping protect and keep domain investors informed.
One last tidbit and another example of the tremendous value that the ICA provides us - last month at NamesCon, the ICA along with INTA (International Trademark Association) orchestrated the first ever full on mock UDRP trial. I watched the entire session and it gave incredible insight to how domain UDRP cases are tried and defended as well as how the panel came to their (split) decision. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, it is worth it and you can still view it on NamesCon On Demand.
All in all, I am so grateful that the ICA decided to do a meetup this year as it was great to see all the amazing faces in our industry that were there and learn more about how we can continue to grow, support and shape the Internet Commerce Association moving forward!
Michael Law (bottom left) with some of the ICA crew on a morning hike to the First Creek Trail in the Red Rock Canyon
