ICANN Meetings

ICANN Meetings are held three times a year in various regions around the world in compliance with the ICANN Bylaws, which mandate that the ICANN Board maintain transparency in managing the Internet and to provide opportunity for international participation and discussion regarding policy developments that impact the Domain Name System (DNS) and the global Internet community.

ICANN Meetings are organized and coordinated by at least 100 volunteers from the ICANN's Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs). A general meeting is held annually to give newly elected members their seats.

Participants

ICANN Meetings are open to everyone who is interested and openly affected by the organization's activities and work. Individuals attending ICANN Meetings include:

• Government Representatives
• Registries
• Registrars
• ISPs
• Business Managers
• IT Managers and Consultants
• DNS Industry Managers and Experts
• Intellectual Property Managers
• Academics
• ICANN Fellows

Activities

A wide range of topics regarding the many aspects of the Internet and its governance are discussed during the meetings, including the stability and security of the DNS, intellectual property issues, policies affecting the growth and development of the Internet, creation of new top level domains, and many other issues. During ICANN Meetings, workshops, open forums, and remote participation are conducted using different tools, such as live audio streaming, video, chat rooms and online question boxes.

ICANN Meetings are free and are normally held for five days. An outline of the entire week's activities and agenda are provided in the morning of the opening day of every ICANN Meeting.

All of ICANN's constituencies hold their own meetings and sessions to discuss their concerns and issues. A day is dedicated for the internal review of the ICANN Structure and for the SO's and AC's councils to make decisions on issues raised during the meetings. Workshops are also held to provide the latest information and upcoming issues regarding the internet industry.

Annual elections of officers are also held during the meetings and reports from the different constituencies of working group are also submitted.

Meeting Schedule

The first ICANN Meeting lasted only three days, while more contemporary meetings have all lasted just over a week. Monday through Friday has generally been the busiest time of the conference, but certain meetings and working groups often take place the weekend prior to the official start. The schedule also features a number of specialized networking events, provided by various sponsors. These include a Welcoming Reception, a Gala Night, and the Rod Beckstrom-introduced Music Night.

The meetings themselves are a mix of closed and open door sessions between the stakeholder groups, constituencies, and other bodies. The meetings always conclude on Friday with an open board meeting where the week's final resolutions are discussed and voted upon, and time is made to hear from any member of the community via an open mic.

It was announced several months before ICANN 44 in Prague that the Board planned to restructure the meetings so that they ended on Thursday instead of Friday. Friday morning meetings, which have traditionally been the AC/SO committee reports, Board committee reports, and the public Board meeting, had been removed. The committee reports are instead to be published on the ICANN website, and the Public Board Meeting has been replaced by a one hour session following the Public Forum, during which the Board will outline what they heard during the week from their meetings with AC/SOs, and identify what matters they expect to be dealing with before the next meeting. The Board will then begin the following meeting with another community session, where it outlines what has been done since the last meeting. Following this announcement, the ICANN community expressed concerns over the loss of transparency that this change brings.

The Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting is required by the ICANN Bylaws to happen at least every 14 months in order to conduct important voting procedures and other structural processes. The last ICANN Meeting of the year is generally designated as the Annual Meeting. The conclusion of the Annual Meeting is when new members of most bodies within ICANN take their seats, most notably the directors of the ICANN Board. It is also a meeting where many bodies within ICANN request full attendance from their members.

Meeting Location Criteria

Since ICANN Meetings are held annually in different countries across the globe, a criteria has been set to serve as guideline to evaluate if the locations identified by the Internet governing body and/or recommended by the Internet community are suitable to accommodate the activities, participants and technical requirements of the meetings. The primary factors considered in selecting the locations for the ICANN Meetings include: costs, accessibility, convenience, visa restrictions, availability and affordability of local transportation, proximity of hotel accommodations to the venue of the meetings, excellent space and meeting facilities, installation of networks infrastructures in meeting venues, safety and security.

Sponsorship

Over the years, a variety of sponsorship schemes have been used with relation to ICANN meetings. It has been noted that the initial operation and the first meetings of the organization were made possible through loans from major industry companies, such as MCI, Cisco, and others. Currently, they have a 6 tiered sponsorship scheme, offering plans ranging in price from $7,500 to $250,000. There is also now the opportunity to spsonor individual "networking events", such as a lunch, coffee break, Music Night, etc. It seems that at one time the top tier, Diamond, cost as much as $500,000; though current pricing for ICANN 42 is listed at topping out at $250,000, though combining sponsorship opportunities is possible.

Highly active, and reliable ICANN sponsors include Verisign, Afilias, and Neustar, and others. It is common for regional corporations to step up their ICANN participation and sponsorship when ICANN's rotating meeting schedule takes them into their territory.

Full sponsorship info can be found here.

Past and Future ICANN Meetings

The first ICANN Meetings was held in Singapore on March 2-4, 1999 to comply with Article III, Section 3(b)(iii) of the organization's Bylaws. The issues discussed during the meeting include:

• Proposals for the Domain Name Supporting Organization
• Test bed guidelines for Shared Registration System
• Policies regarding ICANN conflict of interest
• The recommendation from the WIPO regarding Domain Name System and the report from Francis Gurry
• ICANN actions about the policies and procedures for internal reconsideration set forth by Article III, Section 4(a) of the ICANN bylaws.
• Reports and discussions from the different Advisory Committees such as the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), DNS Root Server System and from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

List of ICANN Meetings

Below is the list of past and future ICANN Meetings that was held in different countries worldwide:

• ICANN 1 - Singapore, Singapore-March 2-4, 1999
• ICANN 2 - Berlin, Germany- May 25-27, 1999
• ICANN 3 - Santiago, Chile- August 23-26, 1999
• ICANN 4 - Los Angeles, CA, USA- November 1-4, 1999
• ICANN 5 - Cairo, Egypt- March 7-10, 2000
• ICANN 6 - Yokohama Japan- July 13-17, 2000
• ICANN 7 - Marina del Rey, CA, USA- November 13-16, 2000
• ICANN 8 - Melbourne, Australia- March 9-13, 2001
• ICANN 9 - Stockholm, Sweden- June 1-4, 2001
• ICANN 10 - Montevideo, Uruguay- September 7-10, 2001
• ICANN 11 - Marina del Rey, CA, USA- November 12-15, 2001
• ICANN 12 - Accra, Ghana- March 10-14, 2002
• ICANN 13 - Bucharest, Romania- June 24-28, 2002
• ICANN 14 - Shanghai, China- October 27-31, 2002
• ICANN 15 - Amsterdam, Netherlands- December 14-15, 2002
• ICANN 16 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- March 23-27, 2003
• ICANN 17 - Montreal, Canada- June 22-26, 2003
• ICANN 18 - Carthage, Tunisia- October 27-31, 2003
• ICANN 19 - Rome, Italy- March 2-6, 2003
• ICANN 20 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia- July 19-23, 2003
• ICANN 21 - Cape Town, South Africa- December 1-5, 2004
• ICANN 22 - Mar del Plata, Argentina- April 4-8, 2005
• ICANN 23 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg- July 11-15, 2005
• ICANN 24 - Vancouver, Canada- November 20-December 4, 2005
• ICANN 25 - Wellington, New Zealand- March 25-31, 2006
• ICANN 26 - Marrakesh, Morocco- June 26-30, 2006
• ICANN 27 - Sao Paulo, Brazil- December 2-8, 2006
• ICANN 28 - Lisbon, Potugal- March 26-30, 2007
• ICANN 29 - San Juan, Puerto Rico- June 25-29, 2007
• ICANN 30 - Los Angeles, CA, USA- October 29-November 2, 2007
• ICANN 31 - New Delhi, India- February 10-15, 2008
• ICANN 32 - Paris, France- June 22-26, 2008
• ICANN 33 - Cairo, Egypt- November 2-7, 2008
• ICANN 34 - Mexico City, Mexico- March 1-6, 2009
• ICANN 35 - Sydney, Australia- June 21-26, 2009
• ICANN 36 - Seoul, Korea- October 25-30, 2009
• ICANN 37 - Nairobi, Kenya- March 7-12, 2010
• ICANN 38 - Brussels, Belgium- June 20-25, 2010
• ICANN 39 - Cartagena de Indias, Colombia- December 5-10, 2010
• ICANN 40 - San Francisco, CA, USA- March 13-18, 2011
• ICANN 41 - Singapore, Singapore- June 19-24, 2011
• ICANN 42 - Dakar, Senegal- October 23-28, 2011
• ICANN 43 - San Jose, Costa Rica- March 11-16, 2012
• ICANN 44 - Prague, Czech Republic June 24-29, 2012
• ICANN 45 - Toronto, Canada- October 14-19, 2012