My First ICANN Meeting
Although I wasn’t able to stay for the entire week, I wanted to post a few thoughts about my first experience covering a global gathering of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in person.
Since meetings are typically held in far-flung locales like Portugal, Morocco and New Zealand, I usually follow key sessions via webcast. When I heard that the fall meeting would be held in Los Angeles, I knew I had to attend.
My first observation is that members of the ICANN community are extremely committed. They wake up early for pre-meeting meetings; engage in heated discussions all day long; and continue those debates over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Some even engage in late-night strategy sessions to prep for the next day.
Secondly, ICANN meeting participants are scarily smart. They eat, sleep and breathe the World Wide Web -- and it shows. Their knowledge of all things Internet-related was demonstrated at each session I attended and in every conversation I had with them -- both on and off-the-record.
It's worth noting that the group is truly a multi-stakeholder entity with participants from nearly every corner of the world. That was illustrated by the row of translation booths in the back of the main conference hall that made large sessions immediately available in a variety of languages.
I also want to point out that ICANN, as a conference-planning body, had its ducks in a row. There was plenty of coffee, a relatively fast wireless Internet connection and copious power strips to fuel attendees' laptops.
ICANN's next meeting is in New Delhi, India and unless I can come up with a really good case to fly halfway across the world on my company's dime, I'll be watching the webcast once again. But the LA experience was a great one and I'm thankful to have had the chance to spend a few days with the folks who help keep the Internet on.
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