Q1 2017 flew by and Team XYZ hasn’t slowed the mission to further spread the word about the world’s #1 new domain extension .xyz. We went to three events in our hometown of LA and also made a trip to the Rockies to attend one of the biggest automotive industry events in the country!
Earlier this month, the LA Convention Center hosted the final Global HostingCon event. As part of the festivities surrounding the event, XYZ was invited to attend our partner DreamHost’s VIP Industry Party at one of LA’s hippest locations, Bar Thirteen in downtown.
The XYZ team met lots of new and familiar faces and we got to share the great success of .xyz with industry veterans, like Dave Koston from Help.com (top picture, first person from the right). The event ended sweetly for the entire XYZ office as the team brought back some gourmet chocolate bars courtesy of our friends at Dreamhost!
In between events in the warm SoCal sun, the team flew east to a very snowy Denver to attend the Innovative Dealer Summit, which was held at the Colorado Convention Center right in the middle of downtown. The summit hosts 40+ industry experts from around the country who educate dealership owners and dealership groups about the newest marketing trends and strategies in the automotive industry.
Dealers attended sessions on using innovative marketing tools and were excited to talk with our team about .Cars, .Car, and .Auto domain names for their businesses. Attendees lined up at our booth to get info on the SEO benefits of .Cars/.Car/.Auto URLs and to learn how to register their own valuable names. Even the President of the Innovative Dealer Summit, Tim Jackson, knew about the unbeatable value of these automotive domains as his own dealership uses the URL Colorado.Auto.
As April wound to a close Team XYZ was back in our Santa Monica home base, and we closed out the month by attending back to back tech industry happy hours along with hundreds of hungry entrepreneurs. First up was the Santa Monica New Tech April Happy Hour, where the team spoke with dozens of app developers, startups, and coders looking to get their businesses off the ground. After checking gen.xyz to see that the domains they wanted were available, the attendees could register them for just $1 for the first year by using the promo code on the XYZ 3D glasses. We can’t wait to see what they’ll built on these .xyz domains!
The second night of the XYZ happy hour double brought the team to the luxurious Viceroy Hotel, overlooking the famous Santa Monica Pier for the Silicon Beach Young Professionals Mixer. Our team met with movers and shakers from hot new industries like VR, as well as LA-original firms from TV & Film. Everyone we spoke to was excited to hear about .xyz and positively surprised by the huge amount of household name use-cases. We loved being able to spread the word about some of our favorite .xyz end users like Hooli.xyz. Many of the young professionals in attendance left inspired to build their next big thing on a .xyz domain.
We’ve got some big event plans for May already and are looking to add even more. You can stay tuned to see where in the world Team XYZ will be going to next by following us on Twitter and Instagram @XYZ!
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!
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!
The #XYZsquad joins the XYZ Team in Austin today for our biggest SXSW yet. Last year, these purple people were breakdancing and parkouring all over Austin to make our XYZ 3D glasses the fashion hit of the week.
This year, we’re not only passing out 3D glasses, but we’re also raffling off the latest and greatest by Samsung VR, Nintendo, and Star Wars in our XYZ Scavenger Hunt. It’s free to enter, and all you need to do is find any of our countless purple people hanging out in Downtown Austin!
Questions? Tweet @XYZ or email [email protected]
Terms & conditions at www.gen.xyz/sxsw17
Terms and Conditions
By entering this contest held by Generation.XYZ LLC (“Company”) you agree to abide by the rules above and the following terms. No purchase necessary. Making a purchase will not increase your chances of winning a prize. You must be 18 or older and a US resident to take part. Keep your social media contact information current. Winners chosen at random among eligible entries. A winner will be disqualified if the winner cannot be reached after a reasonable amount of time. If we cannot contact you via your social media account, you forfeit your winner’s status. We reserve the right to cancel or modify the contest at any time for any reason with or without prior notice. Prizes are offered “as is” with no warranties whatsoever. Prized will be mailed to winners free of charge. Use of any fraudulent means to enter the contest will result in disqualification. Acceptance of a prize constitutes permission to use the winner’s name and social media profile for promotional purposes. Sole and final judgement as to all matters related to this contest are at the sole discretion of Company. Prized will be mailed to winners at no charge. You represent and warrant that your social media page and content does not violate any applicable law or the rights of any third-parties. You agree to hold Company and its affiliated companies not liable for any claims, injuries or losses of any kind related to this contest.
After a busy January, the XYZ Team finally got a chance to catch their breath before hosting an event of our own later this month. However, that doesn’t mean that we didn’t go anywhere in February! Check out our RSA recap and a list of events to look forward to in March.
The RSA Conference took place in San Francisco last month, and Team XYZ was in attendance representing .Security and .Protection domains. RSA is one of the leading cyber-security conferences in the world, with over 45,000 security professionals in attendance this year.
The event gave the XYZ Team a chance to meet with businesses and industry insiders about the benefits and best practices for .Security and .Protection. More importantly, this was an opportunity for XYZ to further establish itself in the cyber-security space. It’s already well-known that XYZ takes a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of abuse, including spamming, phishing, malware, and other illegal activities. But did you know that .xyz has a lower abuse score than TLDs like .com, .net, and .info? In fact, according to nTLDstats, there is less than 0.03% abuse in the .xyz zone!
Screenshots & stats from www.spamhaus.org/statistics/tlds, March 5, 2017
We’re very proud of the industry-leading abuse mitigation tool we’ve developed and couldn’t help but to show it off to some of the experts we met at RSA. We explained that by proactively monitoring our zone and analyzing over 100 data points from respected sources like Google and Spamhaus, .xyz has become a safe, reputable namespace that people can confidently conduct business in.
Missed us at RSA? Abuse experts and researchers are encouraged to contact us to discuss partnership opportunities and ways to make the internet safer.
South by Southwest (SXSW) is just around the corner, and the #XYZsquad is gearing up to take over the streets of Austin once again. You might have seen these purple people in the past on the news, at parties, or even leading the SXSW parade.
This year, the #XYZsquad will be handing out thousands of 3D glasses for our exclusive 3D Lab. Best of all, everyone has a chance to win free prizes just by solving the riddles! We also have a festival-wide scavenger hunt in the works that will be taking place throughout Downtown Austin, along with some other new tricks up our purple suit sleeves.
Stay tuned to our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages for more information on the scavenger hunt and live posts from SXSW starting on March 10th!
At the same time that the #XYZsquad is air-flaring and parkouring at SXSW, ICANN 58 will be taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Shayan Rostam will be there to meet with registrars and resellers to discuss our next big marketing campaign, as well as share other exciting news about our domains.
Are you attending ICANN 58? Schedule a meeting with Shayan to discuss marketing and partnership opportunities by contacting us.
Following ICANN, we will be hosting the first ever SoCal Domainers + Southern California Cybersecurity Professionals meetup. Starting at 6:30 on March 30th, everyone from the domain and cybersecurity industries are welcome to stop by for a drink at the XYZ office here in sunny Santa Monica. Although this is the third time we are hosting the event since 2015, it will be the first one since Shepard Fairey and Risk did an original mural on our building.
If you happen to be in the area on March 30th, stop by for a night of food, drinks, and great conversations. Check out the MeetUp page for more information and to reserve your spot at the event!
As you can see, March is going to be an exciting month for us, with a lot planned! If you plan to be at SXSW, ICANN 58, or live in Los Angeles, let us know on Twitter and we’ll arrange a meeting.
As we promised in our November event recap last year, we had no plans of slowing down in 2017. In fact, we have so many events in our calendar that we’ve launched a new monthly blog series to highlight our favorite moments from our journeys. We started the year off strong by attending five events in eight different cities to spread the word about .xyz, .Cars, and our other domain extensions.
Our first event of the year was the Silicon Valley Auto Show in San Jose, California. The .Cars team brought their one-of-a-kind Lucra LC470FS with them to the event, which quickly became the talk of the show. The team spoke with thousands of attendees over the course of the four day event, sharing innovative use cases like MeetOlli.Auto, FMC.Auto, Charge.Auto. Soon, word caught on, which led to our Creative Manager, Holden Andrews, getting interviewed by Chuy Gomez of Hot 105.7FM, as well as KRTY 95.3 FM. Check out more photos from the event on the .Cars Twitter and Facebook pages.
Up next was the annual NamesCon conference in Las Vegas – one of our favorite industry events of the year. Just minutes away from our Vegas office, Team XYZ was out in full force. We had some great conversations with our registrar partners, industry insiders, and bloggers about the success we had in 2016 and what we have in store this year. As one of the conference sponsors, each attendee also got a free XYZ/GoDaddy t-shirt, XYZ 3D glasses, and a .Cars pint glass. By the end of the show, we were seeing XYZ everywhere!
Before the dust had even settled at NamesCon, members of the team were already off to New Orleans to attend the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention – the largest convention for franchise dealers in the country.
With thousands of automotive businesses and dealer representatives in attendance, the .Cars team got the chance to demonstrate the SEO benefits of .Cars, .Car, and .Auto domains, and how migrating could help them be found more easily online (try searching for ‘Arizona cars’ or ‘Arizona used cars’ in Google to see what we mean). Several businesses registered with a GoDaddy manager onsite, including Pensacola.Cars, Spin.Car, and Costco.Auto. Be sure to follow the .Cars blog to learn when these businesses migrate their websites to their new automotive domains.
Less than 24 hours after the NADA convention wrapped up, it was off to Arizona to train thousands of GoDaddy sales agents and customer care specialists before the Super Bowl. Over four days and four nights, the XYZ team RV’d to Scottsdale, Tempe, and Gilbert, followed by a flight to Hiawatha, Iowa. In the week to follow, these agents accounted for nearly 3,000 .xyz registrations themselves – including one agent who sold over 400!
Be sure to read our full GoDaddy Road Show recap and check out the video below.
We ended the month by sponsoring the Queen’s Startup Summit (QSS) hackathon in Ontario, Canada. QSS brings together 90 carefully selected delegates from 9 universities across Canada and places them on teams to develop forward thinking ideas in several different industries, such as green technology, food ordering, and even real estate. After 54 hours, the results are judged by leading VCs in the country.
To kick off the hackathon, each attendee grabbed an XYZ t-shirt (or 30). And by day 2, everyone had switched out of their formal gear and into their comfortable (and stylish) XYZ threads. They also got free .xyz domains to build out sites for their projects. Several participants even registered their FirstNameLastName.xyz on the spot! Congratulations to Sprout, who took home the $5,000 in prize money for their indoor vertical farming solution. Sprout is currently in the process of building out their website on SproutIndoor.xyz, so stay tuned for an announcement when the site is officially launched!
@xyz teams here at #qss2017 still going strong!! WE LOVE YOU ❤️?? pic.twitter.com/OLqpI5aLXp
— Queen’s Startup (@Startup_Queens) January 29, 2017
Now that the whole team is back home, we are planning out which events to go to next. Got any ideas? Let us know through a tweet or Facebook message!
Team XYZ is back home after very successful trips to Arizona and Iowa for the 2017 GoDaddy Road Show! Our first RV adventure out to GoDaddy’s offices was back in 2014, just one week after .xyz entered general availability. Last week, we rode again into the desert, but this time with a bigger RV (coined the XYZmobile) packed with over 5,000 GoDaddy.xyz tshirts and millions of .xyz use cases to share.
After the 10 hour drive in heavy LA traffic, our first stop was Scottsdale, Arizona. We got right to work unpacking shirts for every GoDaddy employee in the building. We had the pleasure of sharing the stories of notable GoDaddy customers like MIT’s startup accelerator, Engine.xyz, Deloitte’s leadership communities, like GoInnovate.xyz and Exponentials.xyz, and the cofounders of Skype’s new venture, Starship.xyz, among many others (fun fact: they’re all GoDaddy customers too!).
After Scottsdale, it was on to our next stop: Tempe. We had heard that GoDaddy’s newest office would be filled with fun activities, and we weren’t disappointed. We even got to take the slide down to lunch! But this trip wasn’t all just fun and games – we met with over 1,000 employees that day to talk about why .xyz is the new go-to domain ending and how their customers could take advantage of GoDaddy’s $0.99 .xyz sale. And as the home of Premier Services, we also had a chance to meet with the team about our trio of automotive domains, .Cars/.Car/.Auto.
Our last stop in the XYZmobile was Gilbert. By now, word had spread across Phoenix that the XYZ Team was in town. And with 2 long days of experience now under our belts, we were able to incorporate some of the success stories from the other offices into our training. We were even lucky enough to meet many of C3’s newest faces and welcomed them with their very own GoDaddy.xyz tshirts and other XYZ swag.
For some of the XYZ Team, Gilbert was a great end to our time in Arizona and a trip we won’t soon forget. But for a few others, there was still one last day at the office where it all began: Hiawatha, Iowa. This was originally the office of Parsons Technology, which was acquired by Intuit in 1994. Years later, as we were told by someone in the know, GoDaddy moved back into this office when they first began selling domain names. The rest was history.
After seeing 4 cities and speaking to thousands of GoDaddy employees about the innovators in the #GenXYZ community, we settled back into our Santa Monica home and closed out the 2017 GoDaddy Road Show. In the 2.5 years since the last Road Show, .xyz has been adopted in over 230 countries to become the most popular new domain in the world. And thanks to our valued partners like GoDaddy, XYZ has leveraged its success to welcome nine more domain extensions to the family to create innovation and choice on the internet.
View the full Road Show album!
Do you work at GoDaddy? Be sure to check out our useful tools below or contact us with your questions!
Live .xyz sites
99¢ premium .xyz domains
CNOX tool
.xyz flyer
If you haven’t yet registered your .xyz domains, head to GoDaddy.xyz or ask them about their 99¢ .xyz domain sale!
The XYZ Team partnered with Teens Exploring Technology (TXT) earlier this month to bring 300 inner-city youths together in South Los Angeles. Ranging from 12 to 17 years old, these bright students spent their weekend at the 4th annual Hustle N’ Code Hackathon to learn how coding could solve everyday problems in their communities. Among the participants was Los Angeles’ own Mayor, Eric Garcetti, who spoke to the students about the importance of making a positive impact on their communities through science and technology.
The objective of Hustle N’ Code is to help the next generation develop solutions to problems that their communities face everyday. Some of these issues include violence, drugs, difficulties in school, stray animals, and homelessness. The participants broke out into groups, where they discussed what issues they wanted to tackle, and how they could be addressed. Each group got to register a free .xyz domain and website builder, then got to work on learning and coding their new websites.
At the end of the day, the projects developed by these young old aspiring coders were evaluated by a panel of 5 judges, which included our very own Project Manager, Jana! PawAlert, a website to report and help find lost pets, took first place at the event. Another favorite developed that day was CodeBreakers.xyz, an online platform to manage supplies students borrow from classrooms – the site even emails the teacher when an item is checked out! KTwonHackers.xyz also received fanfare for its thoughtful “Walk4Homeless” solution to bring awareness to the plight of the homeless throughout Los Angeles.
Although these and the other websites developed at Hustle N’ Code are still works in progress, they are great starts to meaningful solutions for problems that communities in Los Angeles face today. The XYZ Team is thrilled to see our future leaders innovating on .xyz domains at such an early age, and we can’t wait to see the completed projects. We had a great time at the Hustle N’ Code hackathon, and we really appreciate the work that TXT is doing. We look forward to attending again to continue fostering the next generation of internet users!
