The TRAFFIC East 2006 domain conference started at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida yesterday. About 500 Internet industry professionals are attending the event, making this year’s October conference the largest TRAFFIC show ever. This is the sixth show since Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu, the TRAFFIC organizers, held the first show in Florida in 2004. Since that time there have been lots of highlights, including TRAFFIC West shows in Las Vegas and a show in Silicon Valley, two live domain auctions and fabulous cocktail parties.

The conference schedule includes a keynote address by Tom Gardner (co-founder of the Motley Fool), discussions about ICANN issues, panel discussions about the domain aftermarket and domain monetization, the introduction of the new non-profit Internet Commerce Association and lots of other interesting talks, presentations and, of course, cocktail parties. There will also be two large domain auctions for the world’s very best generic domains on the market (a silent auction from October 26-28 and the world’s largest live domain auction on Friday, October 27). The TRAFFIC organizers expect several million dollars of high-end domain names to change hands. HighEndWebNames.com got some premium names into the auction, too.