Dear ICANN,
I have been attending your meetings for a few years. Up until now, my attendance was primarily for commercial purposes but ICANN 58 was my first as an active participant into policy. Thank you for welcoming me and my colleagues to Copenhagen. We met wonderful people, ate incredible food, and enjoyed the beautiful city, when not sitting in your meetings. Though having us race between sessions due to scheduling overlap was a nice touch to keep us active and prevent us from nodding off. Good job!
Your hospitality was wonderful. It is always nice to see the hundreds of millions of our revenue dollars at work. I particularly liked the fact that your staff looked so rested and comfortable. It is important to take care of your staff. Having them all stay at the venue hotel, filling it up first, while many attendees taxied or illegally Ubered kilometers away must have helped your staff out tremendously. But probably not as much as the comfy ‘ICANN Staff Only’ lounge in the conference center. I especially liked where it was situated, in a glass room overlooking the main area where attendees congregated and could glance up or walk by and get a firsthand experience into your transparency policy. It truly looked amazing inside, especially the all-day pile of fresh snacks and refreshments. The three snack tables you provided at timed intervals for the thousands of other attendees must have been delicious because the snacks certainly didn’t last long and the staff dismantled the stations efficiently and effectively precisely when snack time adjourned.
While I was there I did hear a few negative things about you that concerned me. One was your overuse of acronyms. To be honest, I am not sure where this was coming from. When I heard, “…the GAC asked the ICANN GSNO about the NOM-COMM while the IGO in the PDP who filed an UDRP/URS, found that groups in the BC violated the RRA changes proposed by the RySG and supported by the RrSG…” I wasn’t confused but gravely concerned. I am sure I was not alone.
I also overheard an attendee compare you to another non-profit organization, FIFA (I love football!). But don’t worry, I had your back. I told that person it was totally unfair because not only has FIFA been corrupted, but you only have $400,000,000 in assets and made $200,000,000 in revenue last year, both of which are reasonable for a non-profit, right? And as for diversity, I think the person who said you are not diverse obviously did not see the 4 women on your Board of Director’s web page of 20 people.
Thanks again, ICANN. If you would like some feedback on what I think can be improved for ICANN59 in Johannesburg please let me know and I will put some thought behind it for you.
Yours truly,
ICANN Attendee
Don Ruiz 