It seems to me that if we're going to be talking about sponsorship, we should also be talking about whether it's time for ICANN to start charging a registration fee to attend the meetings.  I was dumbstruck when I attended my first ICANN meeting and found out that there's no charge to attend.  Every other meeting I attend has a registration fee and some are quite high ($750+). 
 
Let me be clear:  I'm NOT suggesting that ICANN should start charging a registration fee so that the meetings are revenue generators.  I do think, though, that it's time to examine whether the costs of the meetings are high enough so that it makes sense to charge some fee that can be used to offset those costs.  In addition, the more ICANN can recover through registration fees, the less money it needs from sponsors. 
 
As to the sponsorship fee, the prices and "benefits" are at the point where there's an optics issue, IMHO.
 
K

From: owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Stéphane Van Gelder
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 3:40 AM
To: Adrian Kinderis
Cc: council@gnso.icann.org
Subject: Re: [council] Sponsorship of the ICANN Meetings

I see no reason why this could not be discussed here.

Is there anyone from Staff that can address Adrian's questions?

As far as the Council taking a position on this, what do others think? Is there a desire to work on drafting a letter on this topic?

Stéphane

Le 23 janv. 2011 à 09:49, Adrian Kinderis a écrit :

Stephane,
I am not sure of the correct forum to bring this up however I do so here…
I have been contacted by a number of my constituents regarding the severe raising of pricing of the sponsorship packages for the upcoming San Francisco meeting.
In most cases prices within the different levels of sponsorship packages have doubled and it seem that ICANN is trying to secure a few sponsors at $500,000. This seems, to me at least, just plain crazy!
My organization has sponsored on a number of occasions and are potentially again this time. However I am concerned of these changes and the impact they may have.
The reason I bring it up in this forum is because I wonder if this is something the Council could take a position of. We all benefit from a healthy participation of sponsors. Without them the meetings would not exist. However, I believe ICANN is being just plain greedy and this could potentially harm future meetings.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Regards,
Adrian Kinderis