Dear colleagues

It was very fortunate that I mentioned the idea of the Business Summit in Barcelona in 2018... as a result one of our business members approached me to say that there is a wonderful facility that he can look into, that possibly might be just the right space to use for a business summit.  The facility would be without cost, although all other services would be at costs, such as food, Internet connectivity; etc. As I mentioned, if we are interested in exploring this, we could put together a draft outline first for discussion with the Outreach Committee -- at least  initially, we have two very large and influential associations with a few hundred members and in the case of one, country level associations that might be willing to co organize with us. 

My idea is that it would be in partnership with ICANN business engagement but that at least 50% of the program would focus on topics of interest to businesses -- that could be blockchain; IOT; artificial intelligence; something futuristic in focus that would attract business user executives. My suggestion would be that we also invite Joran as a keynote speech, and then have one or two interesting and well done panels about ICANN, what it does, and why it matters to businesses, what the issues are  that are directly relevant to business users.  Perhaps we could end with a reception for the high level government officials; ICANN Board and attendees from our Business Summit. 

It is very difficult to get senior executives to spend a full week with us, but a shortened program of the Business Summit, and the first two days of ICANN could be a reasonable expectation. 

As the high level session always gets some Ministers, that will make it more interesting to senior business officials.

Funding for this could be a collaboration of ICANN, BC budget; and sponsorships from some companies, perhaps, for the social event/dinner.   And if we do it in partnership with ICANN, we can benefit from support from ICANN staff in many other ways. 

To put this into context, the ALAC was given a summit when ICANN traveled to Mexico, and the NCSG has a $100,000 budget for a "summit", approved, but that approval was not even based on a written proposal. By no means am I regretting what any other group receives as support, but we are interested in elevating the visibility of the BC and business engagement, and the high level ICANN session is an excellent place for us to benefit by reaching European businesses/associations. 

This is just a concept at this point, but by planning ahead now, we can figure out how to 

All I ask you for right now is that you give some consideration to this as a concept as it will take extensive coordination and planning. When I coordinated the event for Brussels, we had excellent partner in ETNO, and the staff took on the lion's share of the outreach to the European business community/associations and if we partner with ETNO and Digital Europe, we can perhaps use their staff engagement.  Both have fairly new and dynamic senior leadership -- one man/one woman -- and both are very dynamic speakers. By giving them speaking slots, we will be able to gain the support of their staff to help make the "summit" a success. 

So, I promised you a short conceptual write up.  Please share your thoughts.  Chris Chaplow and Michelle Chaplow and Jorge, from Caixabank are our Spanish members, and have volunteered to be part of a planning group, as they are well experienced with the businesses that may be also new possibilities -- such as attracting the hospitality and banking sectors, etc. -- to join in the business summit. 

Marilyn Cade