Dear all,

A reminder that your feedback is required on the below points stemming from the first ICANN85 Kick off call last week, copied here from the email below for your convenience:

REQUEST: We seek your feedback and suggestions on the following questions:

• Community Sessions 1 & 2: Do you support scheduling a session on the Review of Reviews for Community Session 1? What other topics would you like to see discussion at the second Community Session, or would you rather see just the one Community Session on the schedule?
• Do you support holding the Geopolitical Forum virtually as part of Prep Week for ICANN85?

BLOCK SCHEDULE: The block schedule, updated version is attached to this email,  has seen a few changes, coordinated by your SOAC Support staff, focusing only on the time and date of the bilateral sessions with the Board as follows:

• Monday, 09 March 16:30 – 17:30: Change from Joint ICANN Board & GNSO Council to Joint ICANN Board and RSSAC
• Wednesday, 11 March 10:30 – 11:30: Change from Joint ICANN Board & ASO to Joint ICANN Board & GNSO Council
• Wednesday, 11 March 16:30 – 17:30: Change from Joint ICANN Board and RSSAC to Joint ICANN Board and ASO

NEXT PRODUCTION CALL: Has been scheduled for Tuesday 25^th November 2025 at 16:00 UTC. Please let us know if you have not received the calendar invitation.

Thank you!

Nathalie

Dear all,

Thank you to those who joined the ICANN84 Feedback & ICANN85 Kick Off call held earlier today.

For those who could not make it, please find the recording here and the Block Schedule and Production timeline attached to this email.

A second Production call will be scheduled very shortly.

Please find here below a summary of what was said during the call, followed by action items for SOAC leadership:

Feedback on ICANN84:

• A scheduling conflict with a key ICANN org session of direct interest to ccTLD managers was raised by the ccNSO. Further communication and collaboration will be put in place to minimize the risk of this happening again.
• A lack of coffee being served was noted for the last coffee break of the last day of the meeting, this will be relayed to our staff supporting catering.
• A screen in one of the meeting rooms was too small for participants to read in the room, this has been noted by the Production team.
• Appreciation was shared by those on the call for Meetings team and Travel for their efforts to procuring a venue at late notice and making the meeting a success
• Support was shown for the ICANN85 Welcome Reception (gala) and for these taking place offsite when possible.

Review of the proposed draft ICANN85 Block Schedule:

• The new addition of a pilot for a ICANN Board & Community Discussion to the block schedule (as a concrete outcome of the How We Meet project) saw a discussion on its structure and purpose. Several participants were in favour of it being topic-based, rather than open questions to the Board. It was understood that this session will not replace the current joint SOAC meetings with the Board. There was a suggestion to hold this new session at the Policy Forum when there are no bilateral meetings with the Board.
• The addition of a series of 2026 Next Round Info sessions, based on the anticipated timing of the launch of the next round of new gTLDs, was noted without objection.
• The ccNSO raised the issue of set time blocks for Tech Day (Monday), this will be discussed with the ccNSO directly.
• The option of having the Geopolitical Forum take place during Prep Week with a focus on interactive exchanges for the onsite meeting was also discussed.
• Little time was left for the discussion on the Community Sessions (topics and whether to hold one or two) but the suggestion was made to have at least one of the sessions focus on the Review of Reviews.

REQUEST: We seek your feedback and suggestions on the following questions:

• Community Sessions 1 & 2: Do you support scheduling a session on the Review of Reviews for Community Session 1? What other topics would you like to see discussion at the second Community Session, or would you rather see just the one Community Session on the schedule?
• Do you support holding the Geopolitical Forum virtually as part of Prep Week for ICANN85?

We will greatly appreciate your feedback on these questions by Friday 21 November if possible. In addition, if you have suggestions for how we can plan and structure the new Board-Community Discussion session, we will be grateful to receive those as well. Thank you!

Kind regards,

Nathalie, on behalf of the Schedule team