Big spending continues: ICANN meetings 67, 68 & 69 will be at Mexico, Malaysia & Germany

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the locations for the 2020 ICANN Public Meetings. Cancun, Mexico, has been selected as the location in the Latin America and Caribbean region to host ICANN’s 67^th Public Meeting, from 7–12 March 2020. The Community Forum will be held at the Cancun International Convention Center.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has been selected as the location in the Asia Pacific region to host ICANN’s 68^th Public Meeting, from 22–25 June 2020. The Policy Forum will be hosted by Dr. Suhaidi Hassan of the Internet Society Malaysia Chapter at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

Hamburg, Germany, has been selected as the location in the European region to host ICANN’s 69^th Public Meeting, from 23–28 October 2020. The Annual General Meeting will be hosted by eco association, DENIC and the City of Hamburg at the Congress Center Hamburg.

“ICANN holds three Public Meetings each calendar year in different regions of the globe. ICANN Public Meetings are a central principle of ICANN’s multistakeholder model because they provide a venue for progressing policy work, conducting outreach, exchanging best practices, conducting business deals, and interacting with other members of the ICANN community, Board, and organization. Usually comprising more than 400 different sessions, these meetings are the focal point for individuals and representatives of the different ICANN stakeholder groups to introduce and discuss issues related to ICANN policy development. Participants may attend in person or remotely. Meetings are open to everyone and registration is free.”

This practically translates to ICANN has too many meetings, many times to expensive locations, and has little to no work done there. One meeting per year would have been enough and this would be saving many million of dollars. Apparently ICANN has created an ecosystem that resolves and feeds off these frequent meetings.

ICANN people think they are rock stars spending millions on meetings around the world! ICANN is spending $17.2 million on travel and meetings in 2018.

ICANN must lower its overall budget ASAP!