RE: [bc-gnso] report from Toronto session: proposal to consolidate meeting locations

["Marie Pattullo" <marie.pattullo@xxxxxx>]

Thanks for the information. Clearly AIM would advocate a regular meeting in 
Europe, on a personal level because it would maximise participation by our 
members (European branded consumer goods manufacturers) and on a more general 
outreach basis given the level of industry involved in all things 
Internet-related in Europe. Although picking up on Mike’s fourth bullet, while 
we can guarantee the local interest/history/culture, those of us from the north 
make no promises about the weather.

 

Marie

 

From: owner-bc-gnso@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Mike Roberts
Sent: jeudi 18 octobre 2012 16:41
To: Steve DelBianco
Cc: bc - GNSO list
Subject: Re: [bc-gnso] report from Toronto session: proposal to consolidate 
meeting locations

 

I think the BC should file comments on this.  

 

The purpose of the rotating meetings evolves as the organization grows.  Need 
to be sensitive to why people come.   In early days, mostly to help stand up 
ICANN, and to protect perceived organizational interests.  Today, more 
commercial, business flavor.  Tomorrow?

 

Comments on site thus far are good and suggest more staff work is needed.  
Particularly in assessing overall attractiveness/efficiency of sites.  Example 
matrix:

 

- Visa availability

- Low (lower?) airfares

- Hotel/conf venue and guaranteed discount rates

- weather/local interest etc

- burden on staff to support (current arrangements are terrific drain on scarce 
staff time)

 

Recently, an American networking organization I have been involved with that 
draws 800-1000 attendees decided to have one major policy oriented meeting a 
year near Washington DC (home of policy for us whether we like it or not!), and 
a second meeting that moves around and also tailors its agenda to current items 
of major attendee interest/concern.  May be some lesson here for ICANN.  Do we 
really need to visit every topic every meeting?

 

- Mike

 

 

 

 

On Oct 18, 2012, at 10:18 AM, Steve DelBianco wrote:





ICANN's Public Comment page for the proposed strategy is here 
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/meetings-proposal-2012-02oct12-en.htm>
 .   

The "RATIONALE FOR CONSOLIDATED MEETINGS STRATEGY PROPOSAL" is here 
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/trademark-clearinghouse/matching-rules-24sep12-en.pdf>
 .

 

Summary of the proposal for ICANN meetings in 2014, 2015, and 2016: 

Asia/Pacific gets 1st meeting of each year 

Europe gets 2nd meeting of each year

North America/Africa/Latin America alternate for the 3rd meeting.

 

Discussion:

 

Kieren McCarthy: over half of ICANN participants come from North America.  It's 
more pragmatic to make North America one of the regular annual locations.       
 Chris Disspain asked, and Nick confirmed that North America has the best 
availability of suitable venues.  But Chris argued against using North America 
as a regular annual venue because of ICANN's global outreach priority.

 

Avri Doria: VISA availability is key.    Nick: If we pick a facility for 
re-use, we do better negotiating visas there.   Avri: “A good reason not to use 
North America is that  North America is not nice about visas”

 

DelBianco (NetChoice):  The title “Consolidated Meetings” implies fewer ICANN 
meetings.  I don’t see how we can get our work done with just 2 meetings 
instead of 3.   Asked if this 3-year plan is actually a transition plan to cut 
the meetings.

Chris said no.  Nick Tomaso said “Consolidated” was a term with respect to the 
meeting locations.   Chris agreed. 

 

Euralo secretariat said that those who were denied a Canadian Visa will be on a 
list that could deny them future visas. (Is this even remotely true?!)

 

Hungary GAC rep: the South Africa GAC rep said they were not consulted about 
Durban location selection.   Chris disagreed.

 

Marguerite (Chilean participant): some countries don’t have venues large enough 
to meet ICANN’s big-meeting requirements.  Asked for flexibility.  Chris said 
it doesn’t work so well if participants have 20-minute bus rides to the 
meetings.

 

-- 

Steve DelBianco

Executive Director

NetChoice

http://www.NetChoice.org and http://blog.netchoice.org 

+1.202.420.7482