[At-Large] ICANN68 to be a virtual meeting

Sat Apr 11 08:30:13 UTC 2020

+1, Erich
You put it in very nice language, Olivier.

Am 11.04.2020 10:18 schrieb Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com>:
Dear Wolfgang,

whilst I'd like to think we can get by with only having two face to face meetings per year, I am not convinced as I am already seeing the limitations of such meetings.
First, I believe that this is likely to negatively impact on our community. The ALAC and Regional Leaders are a Team that is supposed to work together towards a common goal. A vital component of a Team is for them to work well together and a synergy to come out of this collaboration. This is impossible by doing meetings online only. You need the essential human face to face element. You need people to be able to talk to each other during a break. You need bilaterals.
Second, one thing which I have noticed over years of involvement at ICANN, when the going gets tough, these moments in particularly tough working groups where there is no consensus and we are a hair away from a trench war, having a face to face meeting with the corridor discussions, with other people around, with the possibility of speaking separately with the person or group of people that do not agree on a consensus, is a vital component part of finding the elusive consensus. For reasons of confidentiality I cannot explain specific examples, but I can think of dozens of times when, during a break, a deadlock has been resolved by opposing parties meeting quickly in a corner of the room and understanding what is the problem, off the record, to find a solution and not end up with a failure in the process. I have personally experienced this at many meetings, whether at ITU, United Nations, WIPO, WEF... and of course at ICANN.
With less face to face meeting opportunities, I can foresee that some ICANN processes are going to be delayed. I can foresee that some ICANN processes might result in deadlock, because there is no opportunity to meet face to face and reach a deal. Now that everyone speaks on the record and nobody sees the facial expression, yet the white of the eye and body language of the other persons they are speaking with, participants end up speaking to a blank screen and rhetoric wins over reason. In a top-down system where one person makes the decision, this doesn't matter so much. But in a bottom-up system where everyone has to work towards a common goal, the human touch is a vital component, as we are not machines and never will be.
Kindest regards,

Olivier

On 10/04/2020 11:21, Wolfgang Kleinwächter wrote:
I did this proposed already after virtuel at Cancun67: Lets reform the ICANN Meeting Strategy: One Spring and one Fall ICANN Meeting F2F, and one virtual meeting in the summer. This would also save travel money and be good for the environment.  :-)))

wolfgang

Kaili Kan <kankaili at gmail.com><mailto:kankaili at gmail.com> hat am 10. April 2020 um 02:32 geschrieben:

If this works well, it may become the norm from now on.

However, still feeling that nothing can replace F2F.  Already missing everybody.   : (

Kaili
[https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif]

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 2:50 AM Ali Almeshal < dralialmeshal at gmail.com<mailto:dralialmeshal at gmail.com>> wrote:
Right decision.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 9, 2020, at 9:30 PM, Maureen Hilyard < maureen.hilyard at gmail.com<mailto:maureen.hilyard at gmail.com>> wrote:

https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2020-04-09-en
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--
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html
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