The 74th ICANN meeting concluded in The Hague. For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were able to attend in person, which was a big event in itself. According to the Domain Incite, citing official ICANN data, 917 people personally attended the conference events.
The number doesn't look impressive. For comparison, we can recall that the last “pre-pandemic” ICANN meeting, held in November 2019 in Montreal, was attended by 1894 people. Truth be told, another 900 people attended ICANN 74 online, bringing the total number of participants to 1,817. However, even before the pandemic, many representatives of the domain community also did not attend meetings in person, limiting themselves to online participation. And at the same Montreal meeting, the number of online participants was 1752, and the total number, respectively, was 3646. So, any method of calculation leads to the conclusion that the first ICANN meeting after the pandemic had half as many people as the last meeting before start of quarantine restrictions.
Of course, it should be taken into account that the 66th conference in Montreal was the final conference of the year, which always takes longer and attracts a larger number of participants. In addition, fears of contracting a formidable virus are still strong, and ICANN's harsh warnings, which required participants to waive all claims in advance in case of possible infection while attending the event, also certainly did not add enthusiasm. Therefore, conclusions about whether ICANN meetings are losing popularity should not be rushed yet.
