[Resending with corrected address for Akram Atallah] Marilyn, I think we can all understand and empathize with you and everyone who was affected by the hotel's pre-emptory movement of people. It would definitely aggravate me too. That said, it's a bit unfair to escalate this in to questioning confidence in ICANN. We have all been to many, many conferences and know the difference between having the conference organizers negotiate a rate with a hotel and having the conference organizers actually handle the booking. Except for the people ICANN is paying for, i.e. the staff and the Board, ICANN does not handle the booking for attendees and has never represented that it does so. If we were to do, we would have to expand the meetings staff substantially and go into the travel business. Nick's team does a first rate job of planning and following through. As you have seen, he was on top of this as quickly as he heard about it, and I am sure he is doing whatever can be done to resolve the problem. Steve On Jun 2, 2012, at 12:26 PM, Marilyn Cade wrote:
Nick, thanks for the immediate followup to my urgent notification to you that Business participants who used the ICANN link to the Hilton Prague were "walked" beginning Friday, to remote hotels, w/out ICANN notice. We do not expect such actions from venue hotels.
As I alerted you and others on staff, at the insistent concerns of affected BC attendees, I appreciate that the Meetings staff - you and others - were responsive to our calls for information.
I will advise my members of your commitment to advise me, as chair of one of the constituencies of the assurance to return our reservations on Monday. I cannot assure of confidence in ICANN, as we were not notified by ICANN of change, although we all used the ICANN link to Hotel to book. As you can imagine, and implicated by ecperiences in Dakar, confidence in ICANN is low.
However, - I will update daily of ICANN's response and work closely w you, and the most senior staff Rod and Akram.
In the meantime, we will gather affected parties, and will continue to advance collaboration w the meeting staff as they restore reservations.
I am of course reachable at the usual email and number: marilynscade@ hotmail.com. 1 202 251 6787 Marilyn Cade BC Chair Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T