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Request for Proposals to Host an ICANN Meeting
June 2006
Each year ICANN holds three meetings in different regions around the world. These meetings constitute an essential part of ICANN's global consensus-building and outreach efforts. The ICANN Meetings Committee sets the regions in which ICANN will hold its meetings. Proposals are then solicited from organizations interested in hosting the ICANN Meeting. The Meetings Committee then evaluates the proposals and selects the host for each meeting. Regional support for a particular proposal is an important consideration.
The specifications outlined in this document detail the estimated minimum required elements of an ICANN meeting and the minimum responsibilities of the hosting organization. These elements should be seen as requirements and not just recommendations. If the hosts are going to provide anything less than the minimum level required by the specification, please state these changes in your proposal. The host is not responsible for the provision or cost of any services not listed in this specification document. The host should disclose to ICANN any local laws or customs which might conflict with this specification.
The Committee will consider all elements of a proposal in making its decision but will pay special attention to the provision of basic/minimum requirements as specified in this document. It is preferred that the meetings be held in the main hotel where the delegates reside. This will minimize time and expenses spent on local transportation. Under exceptional circumstances, ICANN will consider a separate meeting and hotel location if no alternative is available.
Elements such as convenience to international airports, personal safety of meeting participants, meeting space, network infrastructure, and ability of local hosts to meet their financial responsibilities will be considered by the Meetings Committee in making its selection. Local hosts must document in their proposal how their financial obligations will be funded.
Proposals may be submitted by e-mail to meetings@icann.org. Organizations wishing to submit paper copies of their proposal should contact ICANN at meetings@icann.org to obtain details regarding where those copies should be sent.
Contents of this Document
Typical Schedule for a Meeting
- Day 1-Pre-Meeting Day & GAC Working Groups
- Day 2-Meetings of ICANN GNSO Constituency Groups, CCNSO, GAC Plenary & At-Large Advisory Committee
- Day 3-Workshops & GNSO Public Forum & CCNSO Members Meetings
- Day 4- GNSO & CCNSO Council Meetings & ICANN Public Forum
- Day 5-ICANN Public Forum
- Day 6-ICANN Board Meeting
The schedule above is an example of the most recent meeting structure, but this schedule is subject to change.
The local organizers must provide meeting rooms for the ICANN Meetings on these days. Supporting organizations may choose to meet on days either before or after the main ICANN meeting. If there are costs associated with providing meeting rooms other than those detailed in the specification, ICANN will be responsible for the costs. These costs must be approved by ICANN before they are incurred.
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The ICANN meeting is traditionally held in a hotel with large conference facilities. We try to maintain this structure because it is advantageous to the meeting. By having the meeting in the hotel, we eliminate local transportation costs for the attendees, but also having the participants in the meeting venue promotes attendance, punctuality, and gives people the opportunity to casually meet in the hotel lobby, etc. without having to make formal appointments. The meeting Hotel/Venue should be conveniently located in a metropolitan area close to other hotels, restaurants, banks, public transit and shopping areas.
The venue must permit the installation of cables and wireless access points in hallways, meeting rooms, and open areas. The ICANN staff and Board workrooms must be available for use 24 hours per day. The rooms being used for the GAC and the main meeting room must not be used for evening events during the ICANN meeting, as this will incur additional costs for the local hosts as the equipment being used for the meetings in these rooms will need to be dismantled, stored and reassembled.
The venue should have at least one restaurant open from 7am to midnight, which is able to serve rapid meals and refreshments. It is particularly important that a restaurant that can serve lunch to large numbers of people in a quick fashion be available in the venue.
If possible, the venue should have meeting rooms where GPRS mobile phones can function effectively.
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Accessibility to international airports and convenience of travel to and from the meeting venue will be considered by the Meetings Committee when selecting a location for the meeting. Information regarding number and frequency of international flights to the meeting location must be provided, along with specific schedules when available.
The Proposal must indicate any restrictions on any individuals traveling from specific countries. It is important that any participant, who is financially able to attend an ICANN meeting, be able to obtain the required documentation from the host country. Where problems exist, the local host must indicate how these difficulties will be addressed to ensure the widest participation possible. Local hosts must indicate the assistance that will be provided to those who do not have access to the host country's consulates. It is recommended that consulates worldwide be informed of the meeting to expedite the processing of any necessary documentation. A list of the countries requiring visas for entry into the host country, as well as locations offering visa services on behalf of the host country should be provided.
Local hosts must be prepared to assist meeting participants with local customs issues. Many participants will be traveling with electronic equipment. Additional equipment may need to be shipped to the meeting. Assistance must be provided to participants to minimize costs and delays with customs.
Whenever possible, it would be helpful for the local host to provide a welcome desk at the airport to assist the meeting participants. When practicable, local transportation from the airport to the meeting venue would be helpful.
Basic Requirements the Local Host Must Meet (Please note that these elements are required to hold a successful meeting and are not simply recommendations). If the local host finds a need to modify these arrangements, the changes must be approved by ICANN before the meeting.
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- Main Meeting Room
The Main Meeting Room will house the workshops, the GNSO Public Forum and Council Meeting, the ICANN Public Forum and the ICANN Board Meeting. It may also be used for other large meetings on prior days if necessary. This room must remain fully available for equipment installation and for testing the entire day on Day 1.
Size of Room: This room is the largest of the meeting rooms and is usually the Grand Ballroom. It must be large enough to have a stage with technical/staff area off to the side (seating for 6), a table for the two scribes in front of the stage, and still accommodate a minimum of 400 persons theater style with a large center aisle.
The ceiling must be at least 12 feet (3.7 meters) high.
For technical setup, which is more time consuming than the seating setup, the main room can be divided into two areas. The Audience Area and the Stage Area. The drawings included in this document are available as Visio and PDF documents, which allow more detailed study and can be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.icann.org/meetings/.
The main meeting room should provide sufficient lighting to allow webcast cameras to operate effectively. Alternately, the venue should be able to provide additional spot light to the stage area.
Stage Area
The Stage Area includes the following equipment distributed as shown in the diagram:
- Power sockets and necessary extensions: 80
- 10/100Mb Internet connections and cabling: 30
- Table Microphones: 11
- Standing Microphones: 3 (at least 1 wireless)
- 19" LCD Monitors: 23
- VGA splitters/amps (10 port): 2
- VGA Switch (4+ ports): 1
- VGA extension cables (15'): 26
- VGA Projectors: 2
- Projection Screens(12'+): 2
- Tables (5'x 18"): 10
- Tables (5' x 30"): 5
- Podium/Lectern: 1
- Chairs: 34
- Telephone and telephone line: 1
- HP4100N Laser Printer (comparable HP model): 1
- Table for coffee and water set up - available to Board members and ICANN staff members only
Diagram of Main Stage Area (PDF) (The Visio diagram can be downloaded here).
Audience Area
The audience area should be set up in theater style with ample space between rows. There should be a center aisle of approx. 6' in width. The entire main room should have ample wireless connectivity and the audience area should be set up with at least 60 connections of wired connectivity and 100 power sockets for laptop users in the seating area. The power and internet cables should be run in the front-center seating area. Any refreshments for the audience should be provided outside the main meeting room to minimize the noise in the room.
GNSO-Related Rooms
The GNSO constituencies hold a full day of meetings on Day 2. These meetings must be held on the same day. The local host will be responsible for providing adequate meeting rooms for these individual groups.
Constituency Group Name
Number of Persons
Registrars
100 ( U-shape 60-80, 30 extra chairs)
gTLD Registries
35 (U-shape 35, 20 extra chairs)
Non Commercial
25 (Theater style, head table of 4)
Business
100 (Theater style, head table of 8)
Intellectual Property
25 (Theater style, head table of 4)
ISP
25 (Theater style, head table of 4)
Each constituency meeting room must be capable of accommodating the specified number of persons listed in the table above. In addition, each room should be equipped with a projector, screen, microphone with adequate amplification, and fresh water. The room should have a telephone line with international access and a Polycom (conference telephone) for conference calls. Wireless connectivity and ample power (power sockets for laptops) should also be provided to these meeting rooms.
In addition, the GNSO Council requires a meeting room for use on days 1, 3, 4, and 5. This room should be able to accommodate a U-Shape table for 35 and shall contain the above listed equipment. On Day 2, this room may be used for the gTLD Registries Constituency.
CCNSO Meeting Room
The CCNSO Room should be available for 5 days beginning on Day 0. The CCNSO holds its meetings on 2 consecutive days of the ICANN meeting. Prior to the CCNSO meeting, this room is used to hold the meeting of the local Regional TLD Managers Meeting and the wwwTLD meeting (if needed). The CCNSO Room should accommodate a minimum of 60 people classroom style with a head table for 6 and extra chairs to fill the remainder of the room. AV equipment should include a projector, screen, mics on the head table, one wireless lapel microphone, one wireless audience microphone, and a flipchart.
GAC Meeting Room
The Governmental Advisory Committee meets for 4-5 days in Plenary, special session or large working group sessions. These meetings will take place in the GAC Meeting Room. Additional smaller working group meetings may take place, normally in separate meeting rooms. These involve up to four half-day sessions in rooms accommodating approximately 20 people. These rooms should have a VGA/Video projector, screen, and Polycom (when requested). The GAC Secretariat will identify the need for these additional rooms at least one month before the meeting. The GAC Meeting Room shall be available for five days, starting two days before Day 1 of the meeting.
Main GAC Meeting Room
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The meeting room needs to be approximately 15x20 meters with seating for approximately 120 delegations at tables. Table microphones should be placed one per two or three persons at all tables with adequate amplification. Internet connectivity, power for laptops, wireless and ISDN LAN should be provided.
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OPTION 1: Room furnished end-on/lengthways. Four long tables, each with 25 seats. Head table for the Chair forming an inner horseshoe, equipped with three large video monitors replicating the video screens, and a smaller, separate table for the Secretariat (4 places). (See sketch plan 1.)
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OPTION 2: Room furnished broadside on. Three rows of tables in "seagull" format. Separate head table on a low podium (50 cm. maximum) for the Chair (5 places), equipped with three large video monitors replicating the two video screens, and a smaller, separate table for the Secretariat (4 places). (See sketch plan 2.)
The Option will be decided nearer the time, partly based on the numbers of registrations and expected participants.
Two large VGA/Video screens and projectors/computers in the North West and North East corners of the room. The screens must be visible from all parts of the room.
Space for about 50 additional chairs for use during open/public sessions, and overflow.
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Additional GAC Facilities
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Outside the meeting room: a small room or lobby equipped with computer, printer and high capacity photocopier. 20 reams of photocopy paper and printer toner cassettes should be provided for the use of the GAC secretariat.
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Near to the main GAC meeting room when possible, a small meeting room for use of the secretariat on all meeting days. The room should contain a table and six chairs and have network connection.
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ICANN Staff Workroom
The staff requires a working environment from which they can organize and facilitate the meeting. This room should be fully operational at least 48 hours prior to day 1 and remain operational for at least 24 hours after the ICANN Board Meeting.
The Staff Workroom should be large enough to contain the following required equipment and furnishings:
- Two large tables and chairs capable of comfortably seating 25 persons each.
- A telephone connected to a line capable of making and receiving international phone calls.
- A copy machine capable of large volume copying. The copier should be capable of duplex copying (double sided), collating (sorting), and stapling.
- A HP4100N Laser printer (or comparable HP model) connected to the network. Apple Talk ability is requested.
- All equipment must have English language user instructions
- Adequate toner and paper (at least two boxes) for the fax, printer, and copier.
- Fully functional network connectivity with at least 48 ports per table on the table and 802.11(b or g) of wireless connectivity in the room. For each port there must be a 3m Cat5 cable available.
- Adequate power and power points: at least 50 power sockets distributed on the tables to power laptops and cell phones.
- An additional table for the placement of refreshments and small buffet.
- A medium-sized refrigerator (filled with various cold beverages). ICANN is responsible for the cost of beverages.
- 2 White Boards with erasable pens or 2 paper flip charts.
- The room must be capable of being locked - five keys will be provided to the ICANN staff.
Diagram of Staff Room (PDF) - (A Visio Diagram can be found here).
ICANN Board Workroom
The Board requires a working area separate from the Staff workroom. Preferably the room should be next to the Staff Workroom. The room should be fully operational at least 24 hours prior to Day 1 and remain operational at least 24 hours after the ICANN Board Meeting.
The Board Workroom should have ample space and must contain the following:
- A worktable U-shape table and chairs capable of comfortably seating at least 30 people.
- Fully functional network connectivity with at least 48 ports per table on the table and 802.11(b or g) of wireless connectivity in the room. For each port there must be a 3m Cat5 cable available.
- Adequate power and power points: at least 25 distributed on the table to power laptops and cell phones.
- At least 1 terminal installed with an English version of Mac OS X (or later), Windows 2000, or Windows XP (or later), Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and an SSH capable client such as PuTTY. This terminal shall be placed on a separate table.
- The room must be capable of being locked - three keys will be provided to the ICANN staff.
Diagram of Board Room (PDF) - (A Visio Diagram can be found here).
ICANN Committee Meeting Room & Breakout Room
ICANN staff requires two small meeting rooms, preferably located near the ICANN staff workroom. These should accommodate 12-16 people and have network and wireless connectivity. The Committee room should have a telephone line capable of making international calls. These rooms will be required for Day 1 through Day 5. The rooms must be capable of being locked - three keys will be provided to the ICANN staff.
Technical Room
A small room must be available for the placement of servers and other technical equipment, where the local technical staff can work. Requirements for set up of the room will be defined by the local host.
Press Room
A small room must be available to provide members of the press a quiet work environment. This room shall contain the following:
- A worktable and chairs capable of comfortably seating at least 6 persons.
- A telephone connected to a line capable of making outgoing local calls.
- Fully functional network connectivity with at least 8 ports available on the table and 802.11(b or g) wireless connectivity in the room. For each port there shall be a 3m Cat5 cable available.
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Adequate power and power points: at least 6 distributed on the table to power laptops and cell phones.
ALAC Room
A meeting room sufficient for 16 people at a conference table, or 50 people theater-style is needed for the ALAC on Day 2 through Day 6 of the meeting. The room should have fully functional network connectivity. Adequate power must be provided for laptops. A projector, screen, and telephone line with a Polycom should also be set up in this room.
Terminal Facilities
A room or area must be provided for the placement of terminals for public use. Common areas within the meeting venue are often used for this purpose. The Terminal Facilities area must contain the following:
- Adequate table workspace for at least 25 people, with at least 16 ports available and 802.11(b or g). For each port there must be a 3m Cat5 cable. There must be adequate power for 50 persons.
- Fully functional network connectivity with at least 8 PCs installed with an English language version of Windows 2000 or XP and an SSH capable client such as PuTTY.
- 24/7 access to terminal facilities.
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When possible, a printer should be available for public use in the terminal facility area.
- Main Meeting Room
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Due to the nature of the conference and its attendees the Network infrastructure is an essential and critical aspect of the planning. Attendees MUST be able to reliably send and receive both encrypted and unencrypted data freely. The importance of adequate and reliable systems cannot be expressed enough.
External bandwidth must be in the form of dedicated circuits of at least 10Mbps capacity and must include redundant paths. Preference may be given to proposals that contain higher capacity and more detailed redundancy planning. As most attendees are reliant on the use of a network during the meeting, the Network Infrastructure must contain the following:
- Please provide a network diagram (Visio, JPEG, or PDF) to the ICANN technical staff at least one month prior to the meeting.
- Addressing and DHCP: At least a /22 (1024 addresses) of IPv4 address space must be made available for use during the conference. The addresses must be routable on their own and /or as part of a larger routable block from the upstream provider. Using RFC1918 space and/or NAT (Network Address Translation) is strongly discouraged but if you feel that it is the only way to facilitate this solution, a letter explaining IN DETAIL why you would require Private Address Space/NAT is mandatory and must be approved by the ICANN technical staff at least one month prior to the meeting.
- Though not required, offering IPv6 addressing would also be desired. (in addition to IPv4, not in replacement)
- All addressing of attendees hosts must, where possible, be accomplished through DHCP.
- A small range of IP addresses must remain available to make static assignments to servers, printers and any special cases as necessary (to be determined by ICANN technical staff).
- SMTP: An SMTP server is required to allow the participants to send e-mail. E-mail relay must be allowed from the IP address range(s) of the conference and any IP address ranges further specified by the ICANN staff.
- DNS: At least two recursive DNS servers must be available. At least one of these must be in or topologically close to the conference network. Reverse delegation (in-addr.arpa) must also be used on the network block(s) being used at the meeting.
- Wireless (802.11(b or g): Wireless connectivity must be available throughout the meeting venue. This includes the main meeting room, board and staff workrooms, smaller meeting rooms, terminal area, common areas, hotel lobby, etc. Where possible, wireless or high-speed access should also be offered in guest rooms.
- Routers/Gateways: The conference routers/gateways must be configured with a minimum of filters so as not to affect tunneling software used by the participants. Only filters that are required to protect the network must be in place. ICANN reserves the right to approve or disapprove any filters used at the conference. Please describe any known filtering that will occur at the meeting in you proposal.
- Monitoring of traffic must be restricted to only that necessary for network maintenance and diagnostics and must be made available to ICANN technical staff upon request.
- Proxy Services: ICANN requires that the host not use proxies in any form. If you feel that are unable to provide services without a proxy, please send us a detailed explanation stating reasons why. Proxies must be approved by the ICANN technical staff at least one month prior to the meeting.
- Staffing: The local hosts shall provide adequate qualified staffing for the setup, running and teardown of the network infrastructure. A technical representative of the IT department/subcontractor must be available 24 hours a day to assist in any problems arising regarding the network infrastructure. When requested, the representative must be able to be at the meeting venue no later than 30min. after being contacted.
- Replaceable backups of critical services should be standing by (DHCP, DNS, router, etc.). You must have the ability to replace critical equipment within one hour of the problem being detected.
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Keep it simple: Keeping the network infrastructure as a simple, straightforward network increases the probability of network uptime and reliance.
Representatives from the local host and its subcontractors must be able to be reached on a 24-hour basis. A dedicated representative from each department (host, hotel, IT, AV, Copy Machine, etc.) must be able to respond immediately to help resolve issues that may arise. It is essential to the success of the meeting that all systems are functional, reliable, and have back up equipment and service. We would like to emphasize the importance of this element of the requirements. When one element is not working properly, it affects the productivity and success of the entire meeting.
The local host will provide ICANN with 5 l ocal mobile phones for use during the meeting. These phones must be capable of making and receiving international phone calls. The primary purpose of these phones is for local contact with the host, staff, and contractors. This has proved essential for the facilitation of the meeting. ICANN will pay the costs of these phones.
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Accommodations must be available for 500 participants. Hotels should be available in a variety of price ranges to accommodate those traveling on a limited budget. These hotels should be located close to the meeting hotel. The attendees must be able to make their reservations directly with the hotels, not with a central service. We have found that centralized reservations do not fit the needs of our community.
The main hotel must be priced reasonably. This is difficult to define as costs vary from city to city, but past hotels have ranged from USD$100.00 to USD$190.00 . The local host should consult with ICANN before negotiating with the hotels. ICANN will offer assistance in negotiating special non-commissionable rates for all attendees and have the hotel guarantee the lowest possible price. ICANN will help to arrange that guests may reserve directly with the hotel and be eligible for the ICANN rate. A minimum of 80 rooms must be available for ICANN to hold as a block (for board, staff, etc.)
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The host will arrange for an Emergency Contact. This must be a telephone number with a representative available 24 hours to assist in the event of an emergency. The emergency contact can be one person or several persons working in shifts. The person responsible should be someone local and familiar with the city, speak fluent English as well as the local language, and be familiar with and be able to assist in obtaining medical, police, legal, or other types of emergency assistance. This information should be included on the back of the badges provided to all registrants.
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The host will provide badges for all attendees. An example of the badge format will be provided and the host is required to present a layout of their badge to ICANN for approval. ICANN will provide the host with a list of all registered participants 5 days prior to the beginning of the meeting. The badges must contain required information as well as pertinent meeting information and the Emergency Contact number. ICANN will assist in obtaining nametags and holders should they be unavailable to the host.
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The local hosts will provide a registration desk at the meeting venue, staffed by a minimum of 3 people to prepare badges and distribute registration packets and meeting information to the participants. The registration desk should be staffed from 07:00-18:00 all 6 days of the meeting. Registration should be set-up and available the afternoon before Day 1. It is recommended that on Day 1 and Day 2, the registration desk be staffed by at least 5 persons. ICANN will setup and manage the registration website and provide registration information to the host. All registration data will be turned over to ICANN at the end of the meeting. It is not permissible to use the registration data from the ICANN meeting for any purpose other than to predict attendance at the ICANN meeting.
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The personal safety of the participants in the ICANN meeting will be considered when selecting the meeting location. Steps that the local organizers plan to take to assure the safety of the participants must be detailed in the proposal. The equipment, which is used for the ICANN meeting, also needs to be secured. New locks may be required on rooms containing computer equipment. 24-hour security may also be required in certain locations to assure the owners of the equipment that it will be protected from theft and vandalism.
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Local hosts may solicit local sponsors to meet their financial responsibilities. They must, however, submit the names of their sponsors to ICANN to ensure that the mission and activities of sponsors does not conflict with ICANN policies. Additional sponsorship to offset meeting expenses may be available through ICANN. ICANN will assist the local hosts in contacting potential sponsors where possible.
Sponsorship acknowledgment will be prominently displayed at the venue as well as on the host website. Designated space may be provided for sponsors to distribute company materials, depending upon the amount of their sponsorship. Since this meeting is not a trade show, an organization that is not a sponsor will not be permitted to distribute commercial materials in the meeting area itself outside of the designated space. ICANN reserves the right not to accept sponsorships from organizations whose missions and activities conflict with ICANN policies.
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Local hosts will provide a website which will be linked to the ICANN meeting site. The local website should provide information for travelers, such as currency rates, weather, visa and customs requirements, and local transportation. To eliminate confusion, the schedule of meeting events and the registration of attendees will be handled on the ICANN meeting website, not on the local host site. ICANN reserves the right to review and request deletion of any posting, which does not conform to ICANN policies. The local host will present the website to ICANN for approval before going live. The local host should not use www.icann [country code] as the URL for the website. An example of an acceptable URL is that used by the Morocco local host ¡V http://www.icannmarrakech.org.
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ICANN encourages participation of the local Internet community in the ICANN meetings. Please detail your plans to achieve regional outreach to the local community to encourage attendance at the ICANN meeting.
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Location Costs: The hosts are responsible for all room and equipment costs that are specified within this RFP, unless otherwise stated. Those requesting rooms or equipment not specified in this RFP will be responsible for the additional costs.
Catering : The local host is responsible for catering of coffee breaks. Minimum required catering is two coffee breaks on full meeting days and one on the day of the board meeting. Based on the experience of past meetings, it is beneficial to have coffee available the entire day if possible. Participants are generally left to provide for their own breakfasts, lunches and evening meals. Catering to the staff and board rooms and the stage area of the main meeting room are financed and organized directly by the ICANN staff. Any additional requests for catering are the responsibility of the requesting party.
Some third parties may have specific catering requests. In these cases the organization of the catering and payment for it must be arranged directly between the third party and the local provider of those services.
ICANN must approve any such services to ensure that they do not conflict with the requirements of the main meeting.
Travel & Accommodation: All participants, or their respective sponsors, are responsible for arranging and financing their own travel and accommodations.
Changes: The ICANN staff may request changes to the above specifications. The changes will be the responsibility of ICANN, unless they are of de minimis cost to the host.
Cancellation: To date, an ICANN meeting has never been canceled. Cancellation costs and penalties for cancellation for any meeting costs including the meeting location and hotels should be detailed in the proposal. Should the circumstances arise where ICANN Board cancels the meeting, ICANN will be responsible only for cancellation costs that are detailed in the proposal.
Insurance: ICANN will require Host to obtain insurance for the ICANN Meeting. Specific requirements can be discussed with ICANN staff as these vary from location to location.
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The creation of this specification does not create any obligation on ICANN to select the recipient or any applicant/host for an ICANN Meeting. ICANN's selection will be based upon pricing, location, pricing, and other factors that may or may not be disclosed to the applicants. All decisions relating to the location and selection of hosts of any ICANN meeting remain at all times solely within ICANN's discretion.