[Internal-cg] Room availability for Sept meeting

[Alissa Cooper]

The ICANN staff has been busily trying to find a place for us to meet in
Istanbul, and this is proving rather difficult.

Currently, the only day when there is both a room available in which we
can meet and when the translation service is available is Friday,
September 5, which is the last day of the IGF. The ICANN staff are still
investigating possibilities for September 6, but there are public holidays
in Turkey this week, which means it may take a few more days before we
have any more information about room availability for September 6. (On
Sept 1 there is room availability but the translation service is not
available — I do not think we can meet without translation, but if you
disagree, please say so.)

At this point I think we have three options:

1. Decide that we will not meet in Istanbul.
With this option, people who need to urgently make travel arrangements for
the IGF can do so immediately. The ICANN staff is still checking on room
availability in Los Angeles around the ICANN 51 meeting time, so we could
aim to schedule our next face-to-face meeting around ICANN 51 by the end
of this week or early next week (and perhaps schedule a couple of
conference calls between now and then as well). We could also try to put
together an informal “get to know each other” gathering in Istanbul even
if we don’t meet formally.

2. Decide that we will meet on September 5.
Some ICG participants will certainly have conflicts at various points
during the day on September 5, but we could meet anyway, or perhaps meet
for part of the day. There is a plenary session about IANA on the IGF
schedule from 9:30 to 11:00 that day; we could plan to meet from 11:30 to
18:00, for example. I have also reached out to a contact involved with the
IGF organizing to see if that IANA session could be moved to a different
day so that the ICG could meet for the full day, and she is checking on
that. Note: The room that is available to us on September 5 is near the
IGF venue (it’s at the Grand Hyatt), but not at the IGF venue, so people
transferring back and forth between the two venues will need a little bit
of time to do that.

3. Wait until we get more information about September 6 to decide.
Hopefully by the end of this week we will know more about room
availability on September 6, so we could wait for that information before
deciding.

What are your thoughts about how to proceed? Do people have drop-dead
dates by which they absolutely must book their travel?

Thanks,
Alissa