ICANN picks Madrid for next gTLD industry meeting

ICANN’s Global Domains Division has invited the domain industry to Madrid for next year’s GDD Industry Summit.

The meeting will be held at the drably named NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding hotel from May 8 to 11 2017.

The timing may be fortuitous for intercontinental travelers — it ends just a couple of days before the Domaining Europe event starts in Berlin, which is just a short flight away.

ICANN summits are intersessional meetings dedicated to particular constituencies within the ICANN community. The GDD Industry Summit caters to registries, registrars and others in the business of selling gTLD domains.

They’re less formal that ICANN’s regular public meetings, designed to enable engagement between participants and between participants and ICANN staff.

The 2016 meeting was held in Amsterdam this June, attracting about 400 attendees.

ICANN’s formal public meetings next year are slated for Copenhagen (March), Johannesburg (June) and Abu Dhabi (October).

Domaining Europe heading to Berlin next year

Next year’s Domaining Europe conference will be held in Berlin, organizers announced today.

The three-day event is slated to start May 14, 2016, at the Steigenberger Hotel, covering the usual mix of sales, development and legal issues.

“This time we are going back to the roots,” organizer Dietmar Stefitz said in an email, “the majority of the panels will discuss about monetization and Market-places.”

This year’s Domaining Europe took place in the Netherlands, after taking place for a couple of years in Spain.

Full-price tickets will be €650 (currently about $705) but there’s an early-bird discount to €350 for anyone buying before December 15.

The conference is being managed in cooperation with ECO, the Germany internet industry association.

Domaining Europe moves to the Netherlands

Domaining Europe conference will be held in the Netherlands for the first time in 2016.

Organizers say the venue will be the Grand Hotel Amrâth Kurhaus in The Hague, which is about an hour by train from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport.

Since its inception, Domaining Europe has been held in Valencia, Spain.

The plan for 2016 is to hold the conference May 29 to 31, two days after the TheNextWeb Europe conference ends in Amsterdam.