Introducing a new face to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Rick Silver selected as our new moderator

I love Howard Neu and would never say anything bad about him. I have no negative thoughts. He’s a great guy, honest, passionate, and most importantly loyal to the cause. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is as much of a part of his personality as it is of Rick Schwartz’. They were partners after all and Howard did a lot of the heavy lifting. Their vision is our legacy. We thank them for that.

Everyone who has been to a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show knows who Howard is because he was the moderator that introduced all the panels and asked the questions while the crickets sang sermons in the audience. He has been the face of the domain industry and I’d like to be the first to publicly thank him and nominate him for next year’s domainer’s hall-of-fame for his historical significance and impact.

All of that said, things are different now. I can’t count on Howard and Rick being at all the shows, nor should I expect to. They’ve done their time. It’s my responsibly to bring the show into the second decade of this 21st century and those two have trusted me to do so.

As my first major change to the basic concept that is the industries original and premier trade show, I’d like to officially announce our new moderator. I wanted to find a person that would have the skills to represent all of us, keep the show engaging, entertaining and sophisticated. Deep thought and deliberation was put into the matter.

Fortunately, I’ve been a fan of public speaking for some time. While I’m not that great at it, I’ve read enough books about it, watched enough pros and paid attention to be able to recognize real skills when I saw it. Rick Silver has skills.

My first meeting with him was at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs in Amsterdam. He got on stage to represent and promote .ca names, a sector that he dominates. I was blown away. I thought his stage presence was a skill that transcended his domain portfolio. Seriously, he’s the best public speaker in the industry. He’s a clean-cut, intelligent, professional, industry growth focused, honest, family man that can captivate an audience.

I knew immediately that he was the right guy for the job and after a tough negotiation I’m proud to announce that Rick Silver is the new moderator for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. events.

Not only will he do better at it than I would personally, he’ll be impartial and honest in a way that I hope will show all that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is about promoting the growth of the domain industry, not my personal growth or any one individual’s. I want everyone to know that I will go through great lengths to prove that I’m not in this business for profit. I have profit generating businesses and I licensed from Rick and Howard the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows because I knew that handled impartially, with integrity and with an aggressive global expansion plan, that my other businesses would profit.

Rick Silver is Rick Silver. He’s yet another Rick to confuse the newbies trying to memorize who’s who. I promise to never attempt to influence his opinions.

Here’s a brief bio on him:

Rick Silver has been in the domain space since 2000 and is the founder & CEO of n49 Interactive Inc, a leading Canadian web development agency and online directory publisher. n49 holds the lions share of premium generic .ca domains such as dining.ca, limos.ca, and kitchens.ca. The company has developed a platform for generating vertical market portals that feature user reviews, video and tools to help small businesses establish, manage, and optimize their online presence.

Rick is active in the domain community and serves as president of the Domain Owners Association of Canada. He is a strong proponent of the development of generic domain names into useful websites through effective journalism, social media and mass collaboration.

Previously Rick was the president of Marconi Medical Systems Canada, a global leader in medical imaging technology. He is a graduate of the University of Windsor and resides in Toronto, Canada with his wife Debbie and their 2 children.