Moving Puerto Rico meeting to Las Vegas due to Zika virus — ICANN mulls
Meeting will be moved up a week if it is moved to Vegas.
ICANN is considering moving this fall’s meeting in Puerto Rico due to concerns regarding the Zika virus.
At the top of the list: Las Vegas.
Nicholas Tomasso, VP of Meetings for ICANN, explained on a Community Leaders call the prior week that a move to Las Vegas would also mean a change of dates.
The San Juan, Puerto Rico meeting is scheduled for October 29 to November 4, 2016. A Las Vegas meeting would take place October 22-28 at the Bally’s Hotel.
Given the size of ICANN meetings and that October is a busy month for conferences, the only other potential venues ICANN has identified are in Macau and Orlando.
ICANN will face a $1.2 million cancellation penalty if the meeting is moved, but there’s a good chance ICANN can negotiate this number down or use force majeure if the Zika virus is still an issue when the meeting approaches.
On the Community Leaders call, Tomasso acknowledged that the CDC expects the virus to spread to the United States, and that Las Vegas is at the northern edge of the infection zone.
The CDC estimates that a quarter of Puerto Rico’s population will get the virus within a year, and 80% might eventually be infected.
Community leaders on the ICANN call the prior week noted that there are risks with all meeting locations. But they also acknowledged that their concerns would be heightened if they were female or considering having children, and suggested the many community members by now expect the meeting location to be moved.
ICANN’s board was supposed to consider the location change the prior week, but the meeting was postponed.
