I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the ICANN85 Community Forum, which took place 7–12 March in Mumbai, India. In total, 1,517 people attended ICANN85 in person, including 332 first-time attendees, and 678 people participated virtually.
Because of travel disruptions, some who were planning to attend this meeting in person had to join remotely, highlighting the importance of robust virtual participation.
Despite these challenges, ICANN85 resulted in meaningful progress on several priority areas of our work. The ICANN organization team led a series of informational sessions to prepare for the launch of the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round next month, and the Board adopted the 2026 Base Registry Agreement.
The Universal Acceptance (UA) Working Group shared its Draft Guidelines for Advancing UA Adoption, which have been published for Public Comment, and a representative from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization gave a presentation on the agency's work with ICANN to promote a multilingual Internet.
The Generic Names Supporting Organization began work on the first of two new policy development processes to help combat Domain Name System Abuse, and the wider community continued to advance the discussions on the next steps for registration data policy and the future of ICANN reviews.
I was happy for the opportunity to hear from ICANN community members from across the region and the world, especially the fellows and newcomers to ICANN. ICANN85 participants hailed from 112 countries and territories, and all regions were represented. Here's the regional breakdown of the in-person attendees:
- Africa – 103 (6.8 percent)
- Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands – 876 (57.7 percent)
- Europe – 221 (14.6 percent)
- Latin America and the Caribbean – 48 (3.2 percent)
- North America – 269 (17.7 percent)
Detailed statistics will be available in the ICANN85 By the Numbers Report to be published in the coming weeks. If you missed anything during the meeting, please visit the ICANN85 website for session recordings and transcripts.
