The ICANN Board has determined the format of ICANN73. The conference was originally planned to take place in Puerto Rico on March 5-10, 2022. During the past few months, ICANN representatives repeatedly expressed hope that the coronavirus pandemic would improve or at least stabilize, and that they would be able to hold the first meeting next year in the hybrid format, which would involve online broadcasts and a face-to-face component for a limited number of participants.
Domain Incite reports that unfortunately these hopes did not materialize. According to an ICANN Board resolution, the pandemic-related risks and uncertainties are still too high for in-person meetings. The resolution mentions such reasons as inequity in vaccine availability across the world and problems with national authorities recognizing vaccines made by different producers. Therefore, ICANN73 will take place in an online-only format again. This is bad news not only for the members of the domain community who dreamt of combining business with pleasure and spending time at famous local beaches, but also for the Puerto Rican government, which hoped to bring in $8-10 million from hosting the conference. That said, this is good news for the ICANN budget because it is much less expensive to hold an online conference. Now the ICANN Board is considering the possibility of holding the 74th conference in The Hague next June in the hybrid format.
