And Canceling TRAFFIC at ICANN Were Both Smart Moves — Why Creating

It was a great idea, but ultimately doesn’t work out.

When ICANN disclosed that its Spring meeting would be held in San Francisco, I immediately thought “this would be a great time to hold a domain name conference.” An hour later I received an email from Rick Schwartz saying that TRAFFIC would hold a “retreat” in conjunction with the ICANN meeting. Great idea.

Shortly thereafter I started thinking of a bunch of problems with this idea.

Just this stretch Schwartz disclosed that the conference is a no-go, and I think canceling the event was also smart idea.

The problem is that ICANN meetings are long. Officially the meeting kicks off on Monday, March 14 and runs through Friday, March 18. But the weekend ahead of is also packed with working group sessions and workshops.

So a lot of people will be attending for seven days. Tack on a couple for a domain conference and that’s just too much.

But I still think domainers ought to attend the ICANN meeting. I believe Jothan Frakes is trying to arrange some events for domainers around the meeting (if he’s not, I just volunteered him). And we ought to be sure to wear our professional hats.

Conference details can be found here.