John R. Levine wrote:
If it were up to me, I'd say have it in Toronto, and if you don't like the weather, use all the nice heated tunnels among all the downtown buildings and you'll never have to go outside. If cold weather is just too scarey, have it in Los Angeles at ICANN HQ and save money, or have it somewhere in Texas which is central and warm. The compromise I've been suggesting is to ask ICANN to have its North American meeting in June so northeast/midwest locations could be suitable. Toronto (or Montreal or Boston or Ottawa) can be quite nice that time of year.
Nobody I know that attended the LA meeting would want to have another one there. I also thought that New Orleans would be a good idea but I don't know of any local partners who could help with logistics/sponsors *and* it's not a hub for any airline. Dallas and Houston could work in February, and they're hubs, but again I don't know of any potential local partners who could help on a bid. Compare that to the greater Toronto area which hosts three ALSs, a high-profile registrar (Tucows), a major development centre for Affilias, numerous ISPs including Canada's two biggest telcos, eight universities, potential sponsors such as IBM and RIM, and plenty of business/IPC interests. AND it has a major airline hub that's served nonstop from Hong Kong, Istanbul, Buenos Aires and LaGuardia(*). (We just started getting A380 service from Dubai this summer, boy those suckers are big.) Also... in the back of my mind ... I also have a concern about the difficulty of international At-Large reps getting US visas. Canada isn't enormously better but it's not quite as bad. - Evan (*) US-bound passengers from cross American customs at the Toronto airport, allowing service to US domestic airports without customs facilities. Toronto is the only international destination available from Laguardia and a number of small airports such as Dayton and Manchester.