The last leg of a recent 3 country Asia trip Singapore, Guangzhou China, and now Hanoi, Vietnam) where it was about attending my first ICANN (Domain) conference and also keeping things fresh with the ecommerce community hosting an ecommerce meetup.
Arriving fresh off the plane from China, Monday night I attended the opening networking ceremony to kick off the ICANN Hanoi CP Summit. Have to say, it was a heavy percentage of ICANN, Verisign, and Godaddy with sprinkles of Namecheap and other major players in the domain name governance space.
So it took me a day or so to get acquainted, as many knew each other already for years and even decades.
But I have to say, as days passed I was connecting more easily with these organizations and representatives – who basically control the root zone of the internet (domain names). Talking frankly about my domain experience and my Handshake (web3 domain) experience and perspective, I was able to ask at a web3 panel about my perspective on a more organic bottom-up web3 vs what I see as a top-down web2.
Short story, I have a ton of contacts and relationships budding now in this ICANN community and do plan to stay more active and follow the events more closely. Really some big movers and shakers here and the internet is a fascinating place.
Also since in Hanoi and have a great group of ecommerce sellers and put together a Global From Asia meetup talking about AI and ecommerce and how the whole space will change drastically.
And heard about more networking events like the HKBAV (I attended one HKBAV last year) which is overwhelming amount of networking there.
While all this networking connecting and learning was amazing (drinking from a firehose), I am excited to finally go back to my family in Chiang Mai. My son will be turning 11 in the coming days and I need to spend more time with the family.
The balance is so hard. Hope my kids forgive me when they are older.