ICANN Opens 26th International Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco

25th June, 2006

ICANN's 26th International meeting officially opens in Marrakech, Morocco today. The meeting, which runs until June 30th, sees stakeholders from the technical community, business and government and civil society, participate in over 30 meetings and workshops. They will discuss the most important issues relating to the ongoing stability, security and growth of the Internet. These meetings constitute an essential part of ICANN's global consensus-development and outreach efforts.

Some of the highlights of the Marrakech meeting will be:

Commenting on this week's meeting, Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, said:

"We expect this week's meeting to see significant developments, particularly in relation to IDNs and improved relations with the Governmental Advisory Committee.

"ICANN encourages governments to participate in its model and processes so that they can ensure their voice is heard in our processes and we expect the Marrakech meeting will see real developments in this area.

"ICANN is continuing to evolve as an organization. The Marrakech meeting is the last one before the MoU with the Department of Commerce expires in September and there will be discussions about the way ahead for ICANN post September. ICANN encourages the Internet community to participate fully in discussions relating to the organizations' future."

The complete schedule for ICANN's Marrakech meeting, as well as links to webcast sessions, can be found at: http://www.icann.org/meetings/marrakech/

About ICANN:

ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit responsible for coordinating Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Media Contacts:

Andrew Robertson, Edelman (London) (Ph: +44 7921 588 770)
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com

Tanzanica King, ICANN (USA) (Ph: +1 310 301 5804)
E: tanzanica.king@icann.org