Will ICANN swap Hamburg for Zoom for 69?
ICANN’s board of directors is meeting this week to discuss arrangements for ICANN 69, and I think there’s a reasonable chance it will decide to take the meeting online-only.
The last official word from ICANN was that it is working on the assumption that normality will have resumed by September, and that October’s meeting could go ahead in Hamburg, Germany as planned.
But will it?
Current German coronavirus-related travel restrictions, which have been in place since March, forbid non-citizen incoming travelers from pretty much anywhere, even elsewhere in the EU.
Some travelers are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon entry, which is obviously impractical for conference travel.
However, German is loosening its rules next week for EU travelers and will treat countries on a case-by-case basis, based on how many infections they’re recording at the time.
Americans will still not be allowed to travel to Germany and there’s no word on when the ban will be lifted.
German guidelines also currently prohibit any large gatherings of people, including conferences, until at least the end of August.
ICANN’s obviously going to have to do a bit of crystal ball-gazing, to guess whether business travel is going to be safe and permitted in October.
It’s also going to have to guess whether a large enough number of people will actually want to attend to make an in-person meeting worthwhile.
With many medical experts predicting a third-quarter resurgence of the pandemic, the so-called “second wave”, inviting guests from every continent to gather in the same room might be seen as risky.
Conferences in other industries that had been due to take place in Germany in October have been canceled or postponed.
Notably, Oktoberfest in Munich (which starts in September but runs into October) is not going ahead this year, but I’ve found examples of conventions in publishing, gaming and catering sectors that have also been canceled.
However, some events due to take place in March and April have been postponed UNTIL October, suggesting a level of confidence that the virus will be low-risk by that time.
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