Convention Centre Dublin Extends Warm Welcome To ICANN 54

When Dublin was announced as the venue of the ICANN 54 meeting this October I posted some details about the venue and the meeting itself.

Last week ICANN’s meeting team were in town for some advance preparatory work so I dropped over to say “hi”.

The venue is a fantastic building:

You can also find more photos of the venue over on Stephane’s blog.

Earlier today the venue issued an official press release about the upcoming event and have a few quotes from ICANN about it:

Between 18-22 October this year, Dublin will be buzzing as the global Internet community descends on it in full force. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in partnership with the local Ireland host, the Internet Neutral Exchange Association Limited (INEX), will hold its 54th public meeting, ICANN 54, at The Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD), which is expected to attract 2,200 delegates.

“The CCD is a landmark building on Dublin’s skyline and, since its inauguration in 2010, has become known for its world-class facilities and services,” said Nancy C. Lupiano, Director Meetings, ICANN. “The location of the event at The CCD is ideal. Situated right in the heart of Dublin, ICANN 54 participants will have the opportunity to experience all the city has to offer. The CCD is ideally located within walking distance of all the hotels and great amenities, guaranteeing delegates a real feel for Dublin.”

The ICANN public meetings provide the platform where global DNS (domain name system) policies and procedures get agreed, as well as the opportunity for plenty of business to be done in the margins. Ireland has become an increasingly popular location in Europe for Internet-oriented businesses. Many of the largest Internet companies in the world are building significant teams and infrastructure within the country. This is partly due to the commendable ongoing efforts, commitment and investments from the Government and other agencies.

“We’re very excited about our ICANN meeting in Dublin for many reasons. One of which is that it will be taking place at a pivotal moment in the history of both ICANN and Internet Governance. This autumn is the target date for the US Government transition of its stewardship of the so-called IANA functions, and we would then be on our way towards an independent ICANN with the Internet’s global multi-stakeholder community directly in charge of the growth and sustainability of the Internet’s underlying architecture,” said Jean-Jacques Sahel, VP Europe Stakeholder Engagement, ICANN, further adding, “It will also have been two years exactly since the release of the new gTLD programme and ICANN 54 will be the first real opportunity to get a tangible assessment of progress on the introduction of these new names.”

ICANN 54 will bring together a diverse international Internet community with their local counterparts to explore and discuss a broad range of Internet-related topics; Internet Governance issues, ICANN’s accountability and globalisation strategies, the role of ICANN in the global Internet ecosystem, the new generic Top-Level Domain Program, and initiatives for increasing competition on the Internet domain name space.

 

I’ll be posting more information about the meeting and what delegates might find useful closer to the date.