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ICANN70
Will Be Held as Virtual Community Forum [newsalerts.icann.org]
14 January 2021
LOS ANGELES – 14 January 2021 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that the ICANN Board of Directors has
made the decision [newsalerts.icann.org] to convene ICANN70 as a Virtual Public Meeting due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This meeting was initially planned to be held in Cancún, Mexico. In consultation with community leaders, the ICANN70
Virtual Community Forum dates have been modified and the meeting is now scheduled to be held
22-25 March 2021.
The health and safety of the ICANN community is always a top priority, and as such, holding ICANN70 as an in-person meeting would not be feasible on its scheduled date. Along with
its resolution, the Board details its rationale. A number of challenges to in-person meetings still remain, including uncertainties around the ability and willingness of participants to travel, whether physical distancing requirements are possible to implement,
the impact of a potential case among participants, and the progress of the second wave of the virus across the world.
The Board fully appreciates the importance of face-to-face interaction and looks forward to a return to in-person ICANN Public Meetings as soon as is practical. The Board has directed
ICANN org to work in coordination with the ICANN community to meet the expected outcomes of an ICANN Community Forum and support the community's ongoing priorities, policy advice, and development work in a virtual format.
ICANN70 will be the fourth ICANN Virtual Public Meeting since the pandemic began. ICANN org began a community engagement process in September 2020 to consider lessons learned from
previous virtual meetings and how those learnings can impact future ICANN Public Meetings. ICANN org will implement several community suggestions to enhance the virtual experience for ICANN70.
ICANN thanks our regional partners in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as well as the local host committee in Mexico that worked tirelessly to prepare for this meeting in Cancún.
We appreciate their understanding and we look forward to returning to the LAC region in the coming years.
Those interested in attending ICANN70 must
register [newsalerts.icann.org] to participate. To learn more about the meeting time zone, language interpretation options, and schedule, visit
https://70.schedule.icann.org [newsalerts.icann.org]. You can sign up to receive ICANN announcements in your inbox
here [newsalerts.icann.org].
For more information, visit the
ICANN Meetings website [newsalerts.icann.org].
About ICANN
ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your
computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community
of participants from all over the world.
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