Dear community leaders and representatives,

As approved by this group, a major component of the proposed plenary session on Governmental Regulatory Developments was to feature speakers from the United States (US) government and the European Commission. Unfortunately, the community members who had volunteered to reach out to the US government have just informed the organizing group that they have not been able to confirm a speaker for this role. The organizing group – including representatives from the ALAC, CSG, GAC, NCSG and RySG – have agreed that as a result the session should be postponed to ICANN71, when it may be possible to run the session as envisioned and to facilitate community dialogue on the topic.

Based on this agreement, ICANN org staff that support you in organizing the plenary sessions for ICANN Public Meetings would like to confirm the following:

• By custom, a previously-agreed plenary session that is postponed to the next (or other subsequent) meeting does not require re-vetting or re-voting; in other words, that session is automatically deemed accepted for the next (or other subsequent) meeting and thus accounts for one plenary slot at that meeting.
• The postponement of this particular ICANN70 session leaves that slot empty. Although there is no clear historical practice in this regard, staff respectfully suggests that, as ICANN70 is due to begin in ten days’ time, there is simply not enough time to organize a new plenary session. As such, please let us know if you wish to reposition that slot in any particular way, such as:
  • Leave it “as is” (i.e. unfilled);
  • Allow each SO and AC (and their constituent groups) to use the slot as necessary – subject to available staff and technical support;
  • Organize a second Public Forum – again, subject to available staff and technical support as well as (in such a case) ICANN Board and Executives’ availability.

We would like to thank the organizing group for their time and collaboration, and Mr. Oliver Bringer (European Commission) for having graciously agreed previously to speak on behalf of the Commission if the session were to proceed. We also acknowledge the GAC’s suggestion that, for future planning, groups submitting plenary proposals that include suggestions for specific speakers reach out to those speakers (or the community group in question, as applicable) prior to submitting the proposal. We will add this suggestion to the plenary and meeting planning guidelines accordingly.

Best regards,

Mary (on behalf of ICANN org and the staff team supporting the ICANN Public Meeting plenary sessions)