ICANN Meeting Venue in Nairobi Faces Direct Threat [updated]
According to a report issued by ICANN yesterday, the upcoming ICANN meeting in Nairobi in March has received a message regarding a direct threat against the conference venue, the Kenyan International Conference Center (KICC). ICANN had canceled a planned meeting in Nairobi last year due to security concerns, but had recently confirmed their commitment to holding holding the 37th ICANN meeting in Kenya.
The ICANN board decided in their meeting on February 4th to move the decision on whether to go ahead with the Expressions of Interest (EOI) concept for new TLDs to the Nairobi meeting.
According to insider sources some companies, such as the Australian registry, LogicBoxes, GoDaddy and Neuleve/Neustar have announced that they will not be sending staff to the event.
Kieren McCarthy thinks these challenges may be a blessing in disguise helping to increase the ability for remote participation. In a letter addressed to the Chairman and the President & CEO of ICANN, GoDaddy proposed holding a connected parallel event should ICANN decide to go ahead with the meeting in Nairobi.