A Preview of the ICANN81 Annual General MeetingNathalie Peregrine

We will soon convene for the ICANN81 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Istanbul for the first-ever ICANN Public Meeting in the Republic of Türkiye. Highlights from the schedule include:

• The ICANN community will continue its work preparing for the New gTLD Program: Next Round, including discussions about Internationalized Domain Names and Universal Acceptance.
• An ICANN community-organized plenary session about Shifting Paradigms: Multistakeholderism, Geopolitics, and New Internet Infrastructures aims to enhance dialogue about the future of multistakeholder Internet governance in light of emerging technologies.
• The ICANN Board will meet with nine ICANN community groups, host the Public Forum, and conduct the 26th AGM.
• There will be learning opportunities during the How It Works sessions, Tech Day, and the Domain Name System Security Extensions and Security Workshop.
• Together, we will honor the recipient of the Dr. Tarek Kamel Award for Capacity Building and recognize ICANN community leaders finishing terms of service.

As we approach the start of this AGM, I encourage you to visit the ICANN81 website. Here, you can register, check the schedule, and find important information about travel, hotels, transportation, health, and safety. You can also review the materials from Prep Week, which featured nine webinars to help the ICANN community and public prepare for work sessions. I also recommend reading the ICANN81 Policy Outlook Report.

A global community of stakeholders and participants with different backgrounds and points of view help coordinate and support the unique identifiers of the Internet. The Internet functions for everyone because everyone is invited to help make it work. Consensus policies developed through the multistakeholder governance are highly effective and have the greatest legitimacy.

Thank you to all of you for making the considerable commitment of time and effort to attend this ICANN Public Meeting. Whether you are an ICANN regular, an occasional participant, or a newcomer, I encourage you to actively engage in this AGM.