Good evening:

Domain Name Wire editor, Andrew Alleman is lobbying for an in-person ICANN72 in Seattle, next October:

https://domainnamewire.com/2021/07/14/icanns-board-should-go-forward-with-in-person-seattle-meeting/
May I say that I think this is a rather bad idea. It would be premature visà vis Covid 19 and extremely difficult to obtain balanced participation with present travel funding policies.

1. Covid 19 : irrespective of more generalized vaccinations and testing, it is likely that many participants will have to quarantine for several days on arrival and/or on returning home. At present this is typically 10 days for some countries.
   
   Who knows what the situation will be world-wide in October?
   
   

2. Balanced participation: Apparently in support of their case, their blurb notes that “Seattle is home to a large (and growing) number of domain name companies”. So be it, but there are also an even larger number of domain name companies which are NOT in Seattle.
   
   

3. US Visas : most non-US participants will have to get a new ESTA travel permit ;
   e.g. mine has certainly expired.
   
   ALAC and CPWG may reach their own conclusions about achieving balanced AC/SO participation in these circumstances. In my view, an in-person ICANN72 dominated by local domain name companies hardly inspires confidence in the light of At Large's declared objectives for the future.

   
   
   CW, Xàbia, July 2021