Comments on proposed incremental changes to the ICANN Meeting strategy by Michelle Chaplow
I was privileged to be a member of the ICANN Meetings Strategy Working Group (MSWG) in 2014.
I understand that the purpose of this comment period is focused, and limited, however I would like to make a comment regarding remote participation, that I believe would be of help to the ICANN meetings.
Without doubt attending an ICANN meeting in person is a far superior experience to remote participation, however satellite hub meetings, held at other locations around the world, could offer a cost-effective remote participation solution.
The advantages main of remote hubs in my opinion are:
It´s relatively cost effective, maybe one room for 30-40 people?
It provides local outreach opportunities for all constituencies.
I know myself that with pure remote participation, it’s very difficult to be fully immersed with the distraction of parallel day-to-day business activity; this option would provide a focused environment.
ICANN would have the participation of community members that otherwise would not be able to attend.
Unfortunately The MSWG did not have the time to effectively peruse this idea.
My recommendation is that strategic remote hubs, during ICANN meetings, should be evaluated, then tried and tested.



31 Jan 2018