March was an extremely event-full month for the XYZ Team. Our travels and initiatives spanned 3 continents and landed us some great coverage at one of the most recognized festivals in the world. See what we were up to last month in our March event recap!
Early in March, we had the pleasure of sponsoring ANova Hacks held at the University of California, Berkeley. ANova Hacks is a student-run hackathon that brings together high school students from across the Bay area for a 10-hour coding event.
Not only is ANova Hacks a programming competition, but it features workshops throughout the day to teach students how to code. In fact, several participants had no prior coding experience, but still turned in completed projects at the end of the day. You know the XYZ movement is in full-force when the next generation is building their first-ever website with a .xyz domain instead of a .com! We couldn’t be more proud of ANova Hacks mission, and we’re glad each participant was able to come away from the experience with a .xyz domain, XYZ swag, and invaluable coding skills. We look forward to sponsoring their next event!
Next up was ICANN 58, where our Global Director, Shayan Rostam, headed off to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet with our registrar partners about upcoming marketing initiatives and to share some big news. We can’t say anything publicly yet, but if your registrar didn’t have a chance to meet with XYZ at ICANN, be sure to contact us ASAP – you’ll definitely want to hear this!
The standout event of March was by far the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas. This was our 3rd time in attendance, and this year the #XYZsquad did it bigger and better than ever before!
If you were at SXSW, chances are you ran into the #XYZsquad parkouring, breakdancing, and taking thousands of pictures with attendees throughout the streets of Austin. You probably also saw our infamous 3D glasses in the crowds, with people checking out the XYZ 3D Lab on their phones. In fact, the #XYZsquad was such a hit that they were covered by Fox 7 Austin, Spectrum Reach’s Kernel, Comcast, and the official SXSW and Bravo Network Snapchat accounts. They were even the main highlight of our Scavenger Hunt! The #XYZsquad has now become a mainstay of SXSW, and they are already gearing up for next year! Be sure to check out the full blog post here.
SXSW wasn’t the last that we saw of the #XYZsquad in March. Shortly afterward, the #XYZsquad was off across the ocean to Wuxi, China to participate in the Wuxi Marathon.
The Wuxi Marathon consisted of 30,000 runners and attracted over 170,000 spectators from all over the world. The #XYZsquad participated in the event, running the entire 42km (26 miles), all while raising awareness for .xyz in China. We want to tip our hats to all the runners at the event, and congratulate everyone who participated for their perseverance. Check out our full write up about the marathon here.
Despite our global popularity, we like to stay involved in the local tech scene throughout Los Angeles, which is why we attended the TechX & Expo in Studio City, CA.
TechX brought together local tech startups and businesses to showcase their products and services. It was a great opportunity to learn about the newest technologies coming out of our backyard, and also encourage them to share their ideas with the world on their very own .xyz website. Thanks for having us TechX!
After an incredibly busy March, Team XYZ wrapped up the month by hosting an event of our own – The SoCal Domainers & Cybersecurity Professionals meetup!
This was our third time hosting the event, and it’s something we now look forward to hosting at least once a year. This was the first meetup to also host local leaders from the cybersecurity industry, which meant we could not only talk about domains, but also share some the proactive measures XYZ is taking to mitigate abuse. We always enjoy catching up with old friends, and we’re so glad we could make new ones too! We hope everyone had as great of a time as we did.
The XYZ Team was all over the world in March, but as always, we are already planning our itineraries for next month! Are you attending an event that you think that #XYZsquad should be at? Let us know on Twitter @XYZ!
When you’re unsure which domain to register, the most common advice you’re likely to hear is to always register your name. But what do you do with your site once you’ve gotten it? This week’s #WebsiteWednesday will show you three unique ways #GenXYZ members and Hover customers are using their name on a .xyz.
DavidOBrien.xyz – Tucows customer
Tech entrepreneur and digital product developer, David, uses his site DavidOBrien.xyz to give an overview of his professional experience, with a look into his personal life via his blog. He is also the founder of humbolt.xyz, an independent music only website, which will fully launch in Summer of 2017. David’s FirstNameLastName.xyz domain is perfect as a virtual resume and as an online portal through which his audience can connect with him.
NickGutierrez.xyz – Tucows customer
Nick Gutierrez, or as his students know him, Mr. G, is a teacher at the Chicago Tech Academy, who uses his personal .xyz site as a resource for his students as a virtual learning center, and to stay in touch with him outside the classroom. Nick provides resources for his classes on his site, and also highlights some of his favorite projects submitted by past students. In the age of technology, Nick’s FirstNameLastName.xyz is a great way for him to stay in touch with his students using his .xyz domain.
Ando Shah secured an awesome four letter .xyz domain, his first name, as his domain. Ando.xyz is a highly coveted piece of online real estate for showcasing Ando’s past work experience and major creative projects he has worked on. Ando’s passion for 360° film is evident on his site, and he even showcases his work as co-director of the 360° short film JetLag, which was an official selection at Cannes Film Festival 2016 and won Best Live Action Film at Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival 2016.
“I build things across a variety of verticals, from Virtual Reality to Conservation… Ando.xyz has become the platform on which I tie all of it together. When I first sought out a domain for my name, .xyz really appealed to me, and after Alphabet (parent company of Google) launched on abc.xyz, it put .xyz on the map!.” – Ando Shah, creator of Ando.xyz
The only limit to the potential of your personal website is the creativity and passion of its creator. These three .xyz adopters show exactly how imaginative the #GenXYZ community is with their sites. Do you have YourName.xyz, YourIdea.xyz, or YourBusiness.xyz registered yet? If you don’t, now is a great time, as our friends at Hover are having a sale on .xyz domains for just $4.99. The sale ends this Friday, so hurry over now to save 58% on the world’s most popular new domain!
If you were at SXSW in Austin this month, chances are you saw the #XYZsquad running around the city parkouring, breakdancing, and taking pictures with thousands of attendees. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone at SXSW who didn’t come across the #XYZsquad.
You probably also saw our infamous 3D glasses in the crowds, with people checking out the XYZ 3D Lab on their phones. In fact, the #XYZsquad was such a hit that they were covered by Fox 7 Austin, Spectrum Reach’s Kernel, the official SXSW and Bravo Network Snapchat stories, and we even ran into Tyler Ward, who was covering SXSW for Comcast Xfinity! Our marketing initiatives ensured that everyone was learning about Generation XYZ. Many attendees remembered the #XYZsquad from previous years, especially from when they led the SXSW Parade.
That’s not all, though! The #XYZsquad was also the highlight of our Scavenger Hunt, where attendees could post pictures with them for a chance to win some great prizes, including Samsung VR headsets, a Millennium Falcon drone, or the brand new Nintendo Switch! ICYMI, the winners were announced last week, so be sure to check out our Twitter for a full list of winners.
We also had the pleasure of running into several members of #GenXYZ, including Ottia.xyz. Ottia was at SXSW’s Tech Startup Spotlight showing off the prototype for their incredible all-in-one modular maker machine, which can 3D print, cut wood, and even frost a cake – all at an affordable price point! Keep an eye out for more on Ottia, including an exclusive video interview, coming soon.
With another SXSW in the books and the team back home, we have already begun planning the next event – HostingCon in Los Angeles. 2017 was our biggest SXSW yet, but that doesn’t mean that next year won’t be even better! Make sure to follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on where XYZ is headed to next.
Welcome to XYZ’s China Blog Series, dedicated to our loyal supporters in China. Read this post in Chinese on our new Chinese Blog.
When you think of the #XYZsquad, you probably picture them drawing huge crowds at events like SXSW in Austin with their signature style. This past weekend, however, they took a break from their well known street performing to run 42 km in the Wuxi Marathon and spread the word about .xyz in Wuxi, China.
The marathon featured 30,000 runners and attracted over 170,000 spectators, who came from around the world to see the event. This isn’t the #XYZsquad’s first time generating buzz about .xyz in China, though, as they previously provided entertainment at World Hosting Days in Beijing, where our CEO Daniel Negari was a keynote speaker, a featured member on the roundtable discussion panel, and was interviewed by newg.TV.
Running a 42 km is no easy feat, but the #XYZsquad was ready to push through the pain. Here is what one member said after the marathon:
“Every marathon that I have participated in has felt different from the others, but running this marthon for .xyz felt especially different. It’s a challenge to run while also letting as many people as possible know about .xyz, but the XYZsquad suit is very eye-catching so people cheered and applauded any time they saw me. Because this run was especially difficult, I found it to be a fun challenge. And above all, it was well worth doing it to support .xyz.” Li Shubiao, marathon runner and .xyz supporter.
Events like the Wuxi Marathon and World Hosting Days are just a taste of things to come as we gear up to get the next generation of internet users in China online with their own .xyz domains. Stay tuned to see where the #XYZsquad will pop up next!
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Spring has officially arrived and Team XYZ is excited to host this month’s SoCal Tech Meetup! This is the third time we are hosting an event like this, and we are expanding it further this year to include not only people from the domain industry, but also cybersecurity professionals and anyone else with a passion for technology.
If you haven’t seen the XYZ office in Santa Monica before, it’s the building with the awesome mural by Shepard Fairey and Risk . You can’t miss us!
Thursday, March 30th | 6:30 pm
2800 Olympic Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
If you happen to be in the area, stop by for a night of food, drinks, entertainment, and most importantly – great conversations. Be sure to RSVP and reserve your spot for the night!
