Domain Summit

Some domain companies are visible because of big branding.
Others are visible because the industry quietly knows they work.

Gransy is one of those companies.

Today’s Featured Attendee for Domain Summit Europe 2026 is Martin Dlouhý from the Czech Republic 🇨🇿, COO at Gransy s.r.o.

Martin represents a very practical part of the domain industry: registrar operations, wholesale services, reseller systems, domain management, registry connections and the real infrastructure that helps domain businesses work every day.

Gransy is one of the main domain registrars and internet service providers in the Czech Republic.

The company is ICANN-accredited, accredited for .cz, and works across a wide range of ccTLDs and gTLDs worldwide.

One strong milestone: Gransy recently announced that it had reached 1,000,000 domain names under management.

That is serious registrar scale.

Through its ecosystem, including Subreg.cz and Regtons.com, Gransy provides services for end customers, hosting companies, resellers, accredited registrars and domain owners.

Its services include domain registration, DNS administration, DNSSEC support, reseller programmes, white-label registrar systems, drop catching, domain sales and auctions.

That makes Martin especially interesting for Domain Summit Europe 2026.

He understands the systems, partners, resellers, support teams, registry relationships and operational pressure behind a modern registrar business.

For Kempten, this is exactly the kind of attendee we want in the room.

Someone who understands domains not only as assets, but also as infrastructure, service, process and daily business.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Martin 🇨🇿

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Every ccTLD has a public face.
But behind every trusted national domain, there are people who keep the registry working every day.

Kristians Meliņš is one of those people.

We are pleased to feature Kristians Meliņš from Latvia 🇱🇻, System Analyst at NIC.LV - .LV domēna reģistrs, as today’s Featured Attendee & Speaker at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Kristians will join our European ccTLD Discussion Panel - Business Side, alongside already confirmed representatives from DENIC (.de) 🇩🇪 and Регистар националног Интернет домена Србије - РНИДС (.rs) 🇷🇸.

This gives the panel a very strong European ccTLD mix:
Germany 🇩🇪
Serbia 🇷🇸
Latvia 🇱🇻

Different markets.
Different registry models.
Different national internet communities.

But one shared challenge: How do ccTLDs stay trusted, useful and commercially relevant in a changing digital economy?

Kristians brings a perspective that is especially valuable because it is not only strategic, but deeply operational.

He has worked at NIC.LV for more than 20 years, currently as a Systems Analyst in the technical group, and previously as a Senior DNS Administrator with direct contact with .LV registrants and registrars.

That matters.

Because ccTLD business is not only policy, marketing or registration numbers.

It is also:
DNS stability,
registrar cooperation,
registrant support,
security,
data quality,
processes,
technical infrastructure,
and the quiet daily work that keeps a national domain trusted.

Kristians has also been active in the wider European registry community, including CENTR working group discussions where national registries compare operational practices, regulatory updates, DNS abuse prevention, registrant data verification, DNSSEC, cybersecurity and registry-registrar cooperation.

A strong detail: Kristians has also participated in DNS security discussions, including CyberChess in Riga, where experts discussed DNS evolution, DNSSEC, DNS spoofing, DNS tunnelling, multi-factor authentication and security audits.

That is exactly the kind of experience we want in Kempten.

The .LV domain itself has a serious history. Latvia’s ccTLD was delegated in 1993, the .LV zone has been DNSSEC-signed since 2012, and NIC.LV has supported Latvian-language domain names with diacritical marks since 2004.

For Domain Summit Europe 2026, Kristians brings the operational backbone of a national registry into the room.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Kristians 🇱🇻

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Some people buy domains.
Sven builds digital real estate portfolios.

We are delighted to feature Sven Echternach from Germany 🇩🇪, Chairman of EWBCD GmbH, as a Featured Attendee at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Sven (.echternach) is a domain investor, broker, digital asset strategist, marketplace builder and, for me personally, a real-life friend.

Over the past 30 years, Sven has built a diverse domain portfolio of around 160,000 domains across different TLDs and verticals, with a strong interest in .com, .de, .uk, .ch and .li.

And one very cool detail: Sven is one of the rare domain investors who also owns his own first name in .com.

Sven.com

For a domain investor, that is not only personal branding. It is a trophy asset.

Through EWBCD GmbH, Sven works across digital assets, domains, asset management, consulting, trade, international business and platform development.

He is always happy to discuss domain brokerage, domain lending, domain financing, valuation and investment opportunities with professional domain investors and brokers.

Among the marketplaces and domain platforms connected with Sven and EWBCD are Aucdom.com, HQN.uk, SeniorNames.com, SigmaName.com, D99.de, CutNames.com, RXC.com, Nicknames.com, Metaphors.com, Information.fm, Named.cc and HQN.xyz.

Aucdom.com is especially interesting as a reverse-auction marketplace for domain buyers. HQN.uk gives the UK market its own focused platform. SeniorNames.com reflects the .ch and .li side of Sven’s portfolio world.

Sven is also very busy.

If you want to meet him in person, the best chances are usually at serious German domain and internet events: CloudFest Germany, ICANN meetings in Germany, DENIC member events, Domain Pulse in Germany, and now Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten.

For me, this announcement is personal.

Sven and Frieda are long-time friends. At Domain Pulse 2025 in Dresden, they shared part of their exhibitor stand space with me, so I could place a ConsultDomain.de pull-up banner and present the return of the original German domain forum back to the world.

That meant a lot.

Thank you, Sven and Frieda.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Sven 🇩🇪

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Some people build domain companies.
Sebastian has built one, and helps steward one of Europe’s most important ccTLDs.

We are delighted to feature Sebastian Roethler (.roethler) from Austria 🇦🇹, founder and CEO of info.at Internet GmbH, and Executive Board Member of DENIC eG, as a Featured Attendee & Speaker at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Sebastian will represent eG on our European ccTLD Discussion Panel - Business Side, alongside already confirmed representatives from Регистар националног Интернет домена Србије - РНИДС (.rs) and NIC.LV - .LV domēna reģistrs (.lv).

That makes this panel especially strong.

Austria 🇦🇹
Germany 🇩🇪
Serbia 🇷🇸
Latvia 🇱🇻

Different markets, different histories, different ccTLD models, but one shared question:

How do national domain registries continue to grow, stay trusted, and serve their communities in a changing internet?

Sebastian brings a rare perspective because he understands the domain industry from both sides.

On one side, he is the founder and CEO of info.at, an Austrian registrar and internet services company with roots going back to 1996. info.at recognised the potential of the internet early, secured important Austrian domain names, built internet portals, and became deeply involved in domain registration, hosting, consulting and domain services.

On the other side, Sebastian serves on the Executive Board of DENIC, the registry behind .de, one of the largest and most trusted ccTLDs in the world, with more than 17 million registered .de domains.

That combination matters.

He understands the registrar side.
He understands the registry side.
He understands member-based governance.
He understands the business realities of domain registration.
And he understands why national digital identity is not only technical infrastructure, but also trust, stability and responsibility.

A few interesting facts:

info.at was founded in 1996, originally under the name office edv Röthler GmbH.

In 1998, the company was selected among Austria’s TOP-100 young entrepreneurs by the Austrian business magazine Gewinn and the then Minister of Economic Affairs.

From 1996 to 2003, info.at also worked on software solutions for tax and payroll, with Steuerprofi described by the company as a market leader in Austria during that period.

info.at has been a long-time registrar partner of nic.at, an accredited .eu registrar since 2005, an accredited .be registrar since 2008, a SWITCH partner for .ch and .li, a Nominet partner for .uk and .co.uk, and a DENIC member for direct .de registrations.

This is not surface-level domain experience.

This is decades of practical domain infrastructure, registrar business and internet entrepreneurship.

On a personal note, I recently met Sebastian in Seville during ICANN86.

He is calm, professional, friendly, and exactly the kind of person who adds weight to a room without needing to dominate it.

For Domain Summit Europe 2026, Sebastian brings exactly the kind of expertise we want in Kempten:

registry governance,
registrar experience,
ccTLD business perspective,
Austrian and German market knowledge,
DENIC-level responsibility,
and a long memory of how the European domain industry was built.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Sebastian 🇦🇹🇩🇪

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

What a fantastic experience was attending the !! I wish I made more selfies with all the fab dn industry pros I had pleasure meeting in Sevilla ☀️🇪🇸 Thank you for organising these amazing events all around this beautiful world of ours 💪✅

Today's Featured Attendee | Domain Summit Europe 2026

Some people take notes.
Sebastian Krauß takes a selfie every day.

We are pleased to feature Sebastian Krauß from Bremen, Germany 🇩🇪, Sales Engineer at Open-Xchange, as a Featured Attendee at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Sebastian is one of those rare technical people who can move comfortably between engineering and commercial conversations.

At Open-Xchange, he has worked across mobile software development, iOS engineering, team leadership and now sales engineering. That combination matters: he understands the product deeply, but can also help translate that technical reality into customer value, partner conversations and sales support.

For Domain Summit, this is very relevant.

Open-Xchange has been a long-time friend, exhibitor and supporter of Domain Summit events. OX sits in the infrastructure layer around domains: email, collaboration, IMAP server software, DNS solutions, open software, privacy, security and trust.

Sebastian fits that world very well.

He is technical.
He is privacy-minded.
He is practical.
And, when needed, he gladly jumps in to help sales happen.

But there is also one very unusual personal detail.

For the last 12 and a half years, Sebastian has been taking a selfie every single day.

Every day.

Not as a quick social media habit, but as a long-running time-lapse project documenting time, places, travel, work, family, grief, humour, change and life itself.

His time-lapse project started in 2013 and has continued across more than a decade. It has included moments from Open-Xchange, travel, daily life, and yes, Domain Summit Europe 2025 in London and Domain Summit Africa 2025 in Nairobi.

That makes Sebastian’s presence at Domain Summit strangely perfect.

Because our events are also about time.

The people who keep showing up.
The companies that keep supporting.
The relationships that quietly grow year after year.
The moments that look small on the day, but become part of the industry story later.

Sebastian is joining us in Kempten as someone who understands software, privacy, communication infrastructure and people.

And possibly as the only attendee who has already documented more than 4,500 days of his life one frame at a time.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Sebastian 🇩🇪

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Some people discover an industry.
Antonio started building the moment he understood it.

We are pleased to feature Antonio Ilin (.grau.71), based in Germany 🇩🇪, as a Featured Attendee at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Antonio is new to the domain name industry.

But he is not new to digital assets, market thinking, automation, customer acquisition or the logic of online value.

His public profile describes him as a Funded Trader & Digital Investor, while his current work connects strongly with AI, marketing automation and measurable brand experiences. At Useless, Antonio is listed as CMO, focused on connecting marketing automation with real customer relationships and building brand experiences that produce measurable impact.

That makes his arrival into the domain world especially interesting.

Antonio discovered domains after introduced him to Domain Summit, explained the domain name industry, and showed him how domain names work as digital assets: not just web addresses, but names with scarcity, branding power, liquidity, buyer psychology and resale potential.

And Antonio did not treat it as a casual conversation.

He became genuinely excited.

Since then, he has started working on his own version of a domain name valuation tool.

That matters.

Because domain valuation is still one of the most difficult subjects in our industry.

Ask ten domain investors what a name is worth, and you may receive ten different answers. Some will look at comparable sales. Some will look at search demand. Some will look at brandability, length, extension, category, end-user potential, language, geo relevance, commercial intent or liquidity.

And many of the best investors will also rely on instinct.

Antonio is entering that problem from a fresh angle: digital investment logic, market analysis, automation and AI-supported thinking.

That is exactly the kind of fresh perspective the domain industry needs.

Not to replace experience.

But to challenge it.
To test it.
To ask better questions.
To make valuation more explainable for the next generation entering the market.

Antonio represents something important for Domain Summit Europe 2026:
a new type of attendee discovering domains not as an old internet niche, but as a living digital asset class.
And perhaps this is one of the best reasons real events still matter.
MX12 had one conversation with Antonio.

That conversation opened the door to a whole industry.

Now Antonio is building a tool to understand that industry more deeply.

That is how markets grow:
through people,
through curiosity,
through ideas,
through builders entering from the outside and seeing what insiders no longer question.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Antonio 🇩🇪

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany
https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Today's Featured Attendee & Speaker | Domain Summit Europe 2026

Some lawyers know domain disputes.
Peter Müller has spent much of his career inside them.

We are pleased to feature Peter Müller () from Munich, Germany 🇩🇪, founder of pm.legal, as a Featured Attendee & Speaker at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten.

Peter will also join our Legal Discussion Panel: DACH & Europe.

This will be Peter’s first Domain Summit experience. He came highly recommended by Jim Davies and Igor Motsnyi, and I met him at Domain Pulse in St. Gallen.

My first impression was simple: super polite, highly intelligent, calm, and very likeable.

Professionally, Peter is one of the strongest domain-law specialists in Germany.

He has been admitted as a lawyer since 2005 and has held the German specialist title “Fachanwalt für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz” since 2010. His work focuses on IP, trademarks, domain names, internet matters and alternative dispute resolution.

Peter is also a domain-name dispute panelist with FORUM, ADNDRC, CAC, CIIDRC and MFSD.

Public profiles describe his involvement in more than 400 UDRP and ccTLD dispute matters as party representative and panelist. pm.legal also lists experience from more than 700 domain-law mandates, more than 50 court proceedings and more than 170 ADR proceedings.

Peter has been involved in decisions connected with Shopify, Bolloré, Sudocrem and Intact.com.

The Intact.com case is especially interesting for domain investors: the complaint was denied, with the decision noting that non-use alone is not enough to prove bad faith without further evidence.

Peter is based in Munich, only around 100 km from Kempten. Munich is also the suggested airport for many international travellers, so perhaps we have found the perfect Munich tour guide too. :)

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Peter 🇩🇪

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Today's Featured Attendee & Speaker | Domain Summit Europe 2026

Some people build channels.
Alessandro builds durable commercial trust across continents.

We are delighted to feature Alessandro Baruffi from Italy 🇮🇹, Director, Key Partnerships & Business Development at it.com Domains, as a Featured Attendee at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Alessandro is a true veteran of the domain name industry, with experience on both sides of the market: Registry and Registrar.

Over the years, he has worked across domains, web hosting, telco, ISP and website-building technology marketplaces in EMEA, the Americas and Asia Pacific. That kind of range is rare, and it matters.

Because international domain growth is not simply about having a good namespace.

It is about distribution.
Registrar relationships.
Reseller economics.
Local market knowledge.
Commercial patience.
Channel development.
And the ability to build trust across very different business cultures.

Before joining it.com Domains, Alessandro spent nearly five years at Tucows, working as Director, Key Partnerships & Business Development for Latin America. In that role, he was responsible for Tucows’ wholesale business and reseller channel in the region, including the establishment and development of key strategic partnerships.

That experience matters.

Tucows, through OpenSRS, is one of the classic wholesale and reseller-led infrastructures of the domain industry. OpenSRS describes itself as a Tucows brand and a major domain wholesaler, serving thousands of resellers and millions of domains.

So Alessandro’s Tucows years were not just another line on a CV. They gave him deep experience in wholesale distribution, reseller economics, registrar relationships, channel development, regional market entry and the practical patience required to grow domain services through partners.

It also explains why Joe Alagna later credited Alessandro’s Tucows background and Italian market reputation as an important reason it.com Domains was able to bring Italian registrars and resellers on board.

At it.com Domains, Alessandro is now part of the leadership team building the .it.com namespace and wider registry infrastructure. The company has grown quickly, now exceeding 170,000 registrations, and through RSP.it.com also positions itself as an ICANN-evaluated, ISO 27001-certified, GDPR- and NIS2-compliant Registry Service Provider.
There is also a very nice Domain Summit story here.

Alessandro was introduced to it.com Domains by Benjamin Reuss of Open-Xchange, also formerly of Tucows, at the very first London Domain Summit in 2022.

That is exactly why real industry events matter.

One conversation.
One introduction.
One room.
And years later, it becomes part of a company’s growth story.

A little-known fact about Alessandro: by day he is a commercial leader in the domain industry; by night, he is a novelist, writer, poet and translator. His published work includes poetry, short stories, a novel, and English translations of major Italian literary figures including Giovanni Pascoli, Umberto Saba, Eugenio Montale, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Giuseppe Ungaretti.

That explains something about him.

Alessandro is not only commercial.
- He is literary.
- He listens carefully.
- He chooses words carefully.

And as a true Italian, coffee is not merely a drink. It is almost a civic duty.

On a personal note, Alessandro is one of those people I, Helmuts, seem to like more every year.

He is private, thoughtful, very Italian, very much a gentleman, and deeply likeable. We do not agree on everything, including a few core things in life, but even the disagreements stay friendly.

I would call him a friend. Or perhaps more honestly: someone who makes me want to raise my standards for what the word “friend” should mean.

He is also a dedicated family man, which says more about someone than any job title can.

For Domain Summit Europe 2026, Alessandro brings exactly the kind of presence we want in Kempten:
- Registry and Registrar experience,
- Tucows / OpenSRS wholesale channel knowledge,
international commercial depth,
- reseller and registrar partnership discipline,
- European elegance,
- Italian warmth,
- and the quiet credibility that makes business feel human again.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Alessandro 🇮🇹

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890

Today's Featured Attendee | Domain Summit Europe 2026

Some people sell services.
Yatin Shah builds reseller ecosystems.

We are pleased to feature Yatin Shah from India 🇮🇳, Vice President – CloudTech at Vertoz and Business Head at ConnectReseller, as a Featured Attendee at Domain Summit Europe 2026 in Kempten, Germany.

Yatin sits at a very practical and important part of the domain industry: the place where domain registration, reseller infrastructure, hosting, cloud services, email, security and partner growth meet.

At Vertoz, Yatin is part of the CloudTech leadership team. Vertoz is listed on the NSE under the symbol VERTOZ and has expanded from MadTech into a broader AI-powered MadTech and CloudTech platform.

For domain professionals, the especially relevant part of the Vertoz ecosystem is ConnectReseller.

ConnectReseller is connected to the Vertoz group and operates as the reseller arm of OwnRegistrar Inc., an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. Its platform is built for domain resellers, web professionals, agencies, hosting companies and businesses that want to manage domains through control panel, API, WHMCS, Upmind and Blesta integrations.

That is not a small niche.

Vertoz has described ConnectReseller as a globally recognised registrar business with a network of 13,000 resellers and more than 2 million domains under management. QualiSpace, another important CloudTech brand in the Vertoz ecosystem, adds more than 20 years of web, hosting and cloud infrastructure experience.

Yatin’s own profile inside ConnectReseller is very fitting. The company describes him as someone who “connects the dots”, builds bridges between businesses, creates strategic ideas and helps teams deliver value to clients.

That is exactly the kind of person we want in Kempten.

Not only a title.
Not only a logo.
But someone who understands how domain businesses actually grow through resellers, partnerships, infrastructure and trust.

Yatin was also part of Domain Summit Asia 2025 in Hong Kong, where he represented Vertoz CloudTech and ConnectReseller and connected with registries, registrars and domain industry professionals from across Asia.

For Domain Summit Europe 2026, Yatin brings:
domain reseller experience,
CloudTech perspective,
international partner development,
registrar-side knowledge,
and a clear understanding of how digital identity infrastructure is distributed at scale.

Welcome to Domain Summit Europe 2026, Yatin 🇮🇳

17-18 August 2026
Kempten, Germany

https://kempten26.domainsummit.eu/e/2138674890