Just as the 44th ICANN meeting in Prague ended yesterday, ICANN has opened  registration for the 45th ICANN meeting in Toronto, to be held Oct 14-19th 2012. Even though the site says “Prague is one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world“, I’m pretty sure it’s still in Toronto with CIRA, the .CA registry being the host.

[Hat tip to Frank Lemire for noticing the copied text on the site.]

As announced in a press release published today, Tucows (NYSE AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) has purchased all the shares of German registrar EPAG for approximately US$2.5 Million (€1.5 Million to purchase the shares and the settlement of a working capital adjustment of €0.25 Million) through an all-cash transaction.

EPAG, based in Bonn, Germany, is an ICANN-accredited registrar with over 400,000 domains under management and is notable for offering over 200 Top Level Domains (TLDs). Tucows plans to continue serving EPAG customers and resellers via existing EPAG tools and will also integrate EPAG’s domain services into its own OpenSRS wholesale domain registration service.

“We believe combining the power of OpenSRS’ 12,000 active resellers in over 120 countries with EPAG’s ability to register such a broad range of TLDs will make OpenSRS unique in the industry,” said Tucows President & CEO Elliot Noss. “We expect that the deep expertise in registry integration we gain from EPAG will add invaluable bench-strength to our team as we prepare for ICANN’s roll-out of new TLDs.”

See the full press release after the jump.

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Zak Muscovitch at DomainConvergence 2008

Guest contributor Zak Muscovitch is a domain name lawyer, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been practicing domain name law for over ten years and is now running for the election for a seat on the CIRA Board of Directors. Go to http://www.DNattorney.com and http://zak-for-cira.ca/ for more information. Voting is open to CIRA members until noon ET September 29th, 2010.

Two days ago, on September 21, 2010, CIRA (the Canadian Internet Registration Authority) held its Annual General Meeting and Symposium in Toronto, called, “Canadians Connected”, and it was a world class event.

Integrated into the usual corporate housekeeping involved in annual meetings, the Symposium brought together .CA domain name owners from all over the country and a CIRA attendance record was set. Nearly 500 people  participated in person, and hundreds more online.

Orchestrated by CIRA CEO Byron Holland with the support of a small army of capable and dedicated staff, Canadians Connected presented what can only be considered a visionary, and arguably somewhat miraculous, approach to  reinvigorating the Canadian Internet community.

Continue reading after the jump.

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Tickets for Domain Convergence, which touts itself as Canada’s premier yearly meeting of domain name owners, developers, investors and entrepreneurs, will go up by $100 tomorrow. In order to register for the early bird price of $649 Canadian, participants will have to register tonight.

The conference includes speaker such as the Castello Brothers, who will keynote on “The Future of Domaining – Building Your Brand” and Christian Heilmann, a Developer Evangelist from Yahoo! who will talk about development without reinventing the wheel.

Disclaimer: Frank Michlick is editor at DNN and chairman of the DomainConvergence conference.

Toronto, ON – July 13, 2009 – DNEvents.com has announced that the early-bird registration period has started for Domain Convergence, a two-day domain conference scheduled for August 13 and 14, 2009 at the Radisson Admiral Habourfront Hotel in Toronto, Ontario. By registering before July 20, 2009, conference attendees can save up to $100!

Domain Convergence is the only event in Canada of its kind, giving domainers the opportunity to learn from the best and brightest minds in the industry, build new relationships through networking, and get the tools they need to stay on top of the ever-changing domain landscape.

There will be live training sessions on domain development and monetization as well as a special session about Canadian domains, which will be done in association with the Domain Owners Association of Canada (DOAC). The association will also hold their annual meeting at the event. Furthermore, attendees will be able to participate in an online auction which will accompany the conference.

“Domain Convergence is a must-attend event for everyone who is interested in domaining,” explained Frank Michlick, the Chairman at Domain Convergence. “Not only do attendees get the opportunity to learn from world-renowned industry experts, but they also have the chance to network with other domainers and pursue profitable relationships that would otherwise be impossible to develop.”

Registrations are now taking place at the early-bird special of only $649. This price will increase to $749 on July 20, 2009 and on-site registration will be available for $799.

Register today by calling (800) 614-3780 or by going online to http://www.DomainConvergence.com.

Additionally, there are still spots available for speakers and sponsors to join us. For more information and event details, visit http://www.DomainConvergence.com.

Full Disclosure: Frank Michlick, the chairman of Domain Convergence, is also an editor with DomainNameNews.com.

Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu of TRAFFIC Conference have announced a new partnership with RickLatona.com to take the conference around the world – including an expanded 2010 schedule that will visit Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Toronto, Reykjavik (Iceland), South Florida, and Hong Kong.

“We want to break down the walls of the domain industry and bring in folks from allied industries and we have a formula and a team that can now make that happen,” Rick Schwartz said on RicksBlog.com. “By the end of next year it will be evident how big this change is and everyone reading this will benefit by the reach out program we are about to engage in. Nothing happens overnight, however we have set a new and exciting course and you will become the beneficiary of those changes.”

The aggressive plan will bring TRAFFIC to North America, Europe, and Asia in 2010 and there are other plans in the works to include South America in the near future.

“Together, as a team, we will be presenting six fantastic shows next year,” explained Rick Latona on his blog. “Due to my investment of capital in new auction software (currently under development), sales people who will be working the end-user market and other auction related activities that will bring substantial additional income to domainers over time, I became convinced that the auction company and trade show company need to be closely aligned and essentially partners.

It is our intention to grow upon the brand which started the industry events we know and love today. For that reason, we are doubling the size of the company for maximum exposure on a global scale.”

[via RicksBlog.com]

There are still a few seats left for the 8th Toronto Domainer Dinner which takes place at Spice Route on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009. The event provides a networking environment for domainers. Tickets are $90 + fees and include food and two drinks – to attend visit the registration page.

Disclaimer: Frank Michlick is affiliated with DNN and the organizer of the event.

On Wednesday April 30th, there’s going to be a get-together in London England; visit the thread on the Acorn Domain Forum. Also there will be another DomainerDinner in Toronto on May 8th, for more information please email toronto (at) domainerdinner.com.