With ICANN61 now well behind us, the ICANN Board is getting ready for our next workshop, which will be held from 11-13 May in Vancouver, Canada, ahead of the GDD Industry Summit. With so many important activities and discussions happening within ICANN org and the community, this is sure to be a constructive three days. We will hold several public sessions, and you can find out how to dial-in to these listen-only sessions here.
On the first day of the workshop, Friday, 11 May, we’ll begin in the morning by meeting with the Root Server Security Advisory Committee (RSSAC) Co-Chairs to get a better understanding of what they’re currently working on, and then we will spend most of the day in sessions preparing for engagements with the community in Panama on the development of ICANN’s new Five-Year Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2025.
On Saturday morning, 12 May, Göran Marby, ICANN President and CEO, will be leading a discussion regarding his current priorities and efforts, followed by a public session where we will review the Board’s responses to the Governmental Advisory Committee’s (GAC) Puerto Rico communiqué, led by Maarten Botterman. After that, Avri Doria will be leading a session on new generic top-level domain (gTLD) subsequent procedures, which will give the Board an opportunity to provide input on preliminary ideas for the next round of new gTLDs.
On Saturday afternoon, Göran and Becky Burr will lead a session regarding the European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where we will discuss the way forward in light of the guidance we received from the Article 29 Working Party. After that, Ram Mohan and Kaveh Ranjbar will lead a session on how to increase the resilience of the L-Root server. Then, Becky will be leading a session on the status of new Independent Review Process (IRP) system and the implications of the IRP’s decisions. In the final session of the day, Akram Atallah will be holding a public session on the Trademark Clearinghouse regarding an ongoing discussion with the Registries Stakeholder Group.
On the morning of Sunday, 13 May, the Board will be holding a public meeting, which I encourage you to attend. Maarten will then lead a public session on the progress made against the Board’s operational priorities for FY18. Then, the Board will have a working session on developing its priorities for the next fiscal year, FY19. After lunch, we’ll be diving into a review of the final FY19 budget, including a summary of the various public comments the ICANN org received and related changes to the final version.
Becky and Maarten will lead a session on Auction Proceeds, where we will be reviewing the various disbursement mechanisms under consideration by the Cross-Community Working Group on Auction Proceeds (CCWG AP). Then, on behalf of the Board Risk Committee, Ram and Lito Ibarra will review with the Board the key risks facing ICANN, as well as the corresponding mitigating actions. Lastly, Matthew Shears will run the final session, where he will guide us through a brief review of the workshop. This gives us an opportunity to identify ways to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of our workshops.
I’m looking forward to what I’m sure will be a productive workshop, and I hope you will be able to join us for our public sessions.