Over three days, from April 26–28, ICANN's Regional Latin American Stakeholder Engagement team held the virtual meeting, LAC Domain Names Week 2022, in partnership with the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACTLD), the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), Internet Society (ISOC), and the Public Interest Registry (PIR). The focus of this year's event was "Shaping the future of a secure and resilient Domain Name System (DNS)."
Over four hundred people participated in the three-day virtual meeting. Speakers included members of ICANN's Executive team such as Sally Costerton, the Senior Vice President, Global Stakeholder Engagement, members of ICANN's Board of Directors, as well as industry, Internet policy, technical, international, and regional experts and professionals.
There were four tracks to the meeting including the topics of engagement, technical operations, policy development, and business or commercial enterprises. Topics within these tracts also addressed both international and regional issues.
During one of the sessions, the Universal Access (UA) Steering Group Chair, Dr. Ajay Data, answered a straightforward question, "Why does UA matter to the LAC region?" Dr. Data provided evidence-based answers about the socio-economic benefits of adopting UA. This worked in concert with the previous session's efforts, which was dedicated to regional UA capacity building by the Latin American and Caribbean Islands Regional At-Large Organization (LACRALO) and the Center for Advanced Studies in Broadband for Development (CEABAD).
ICANN's Regional Technical Engagement Manager, Nicolás Antoniello, led a panel discussion called, "The journey to DNS resiliency: where we're at and where we're heading." This panel was innovative because it included both regional and international experts who spoke on DNS management layers, offering a mature perspective to Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
We would like to express our gratitude to all speakers and to our partners who made the LAC Domain Name Week a meaningful opportunity to understand several new perspectives and the latest advancements related to the DNS. Important announcements were presented in detail such as the availability of Quad9 DNS resolvers in the region and brand new initiatives like the LACTLD's Unified Domain Name Search Engine. Discussions on novel concepts for mitigating DNS security threats and an engaging panel on ongoing regulatory policies gave us an accurate sense of where we will need to focus our collaborative efforts.
If you want to learn more about this meeting after reading this last paragraph, make sure to visit the event's website to access the materials and recordings.
We look forward to seeing you again in 2023!
