ICANN selects Los Angeles for the ICANN 51 meeting held on 12-17 October 2014

ICANN selected Los Angeles, California for its 3rd 2014 meeting (ICANN 51). The North America meeting is going to be held on 12-17 October 2014. The 2014 Los Angeles ICANN Public meeting is designated as ICANN’s 2014 Annual Meeting.

ICANN just published the agenda of the Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board that was held last Saturday and said that it completed a thorough review of all available meeting venues in North America and found the one in Los Angeles, California to be the most suitable.

Three times a year ICANN hosts a Public meeting in a different geographic region (as defined in the ICANN Bylaws) of the world. ICANN 51, scheduled for 12-17 October 2014, is to occur in the North America geographic region. Staff identified available and suitable locations, and conducted a thorough analysis of those venues to ensure that they meet the Meeting Selection Criteria. Based on that analysis, Staff recommended that ICANN 51 be held in Los Angeles, California. The Board reviewed Staff’s recommendation for hosting the meeting in Los Angeles, California and determined that the proposal met the significant factors of the Meeting Selection Criteria used to guide site selection. The process for selection of this site does not call for public consultation, as the staff assessment of the feasibility of any site is the primary consideration.

Meeting locations for the March 2014 in Singapore (ICANN 49) and June 2014 in London (ICANN 50) meetings were approved by the Board on 20 December 2012.

For comparative information, the meeting facilities and production budget of the Singapore meeting is not to exceed US$885,000, the meeting facilities and production budget of the London meeting is not to exceed US$734,000; and the Los Angeles meeting has a meeting facilities and production budget not to exceed US$568,000. These numbers are exclusive of other meeting-related costs. There will be a financial impact on ICANN in hosting the meeting and providing travel support as necessary, as well as on the community in incurring costs to travel to the meeting. But such impact would be faced regardless of the location of the meeting.