[apnic-talk] Reflection on APNIC28 in Beijing
Hi,
Just a quick word to say that I think the APNIC meeting went well, I
have the privilege of going to a number of conferences a year and I
would think that the APNIC OPM is on par in organisation and execution
terms with others.
Something that I thought was especially well handled by the staff and
the session chairs/co-chairs was the 'satellite' rooms in Malaysia and
Bangladesh.
I wonder why this idea isn't expanded for APNIC29 to "policy hubs" at
the APNIC head office (Australia), A location in New Zealand, Each of
the NIR offices, as well as the locations that have previously hosted
a room.
Looking at the APNIC figures (272 delegates) and guessing there were
about 20 APNIC staff at the meeting, if one were to take a simplistic
delegate/staff ratio (*), it's about 13 delegates for each staff
member. So if APNIC were to send a staff member to each location to
facilitate a mini registration, consensus clarification, mini-newcomer
session, discussion, and perhaps even 'on-site' voting - the break
even point might be about 13 'satellite' delegates.
(*) Yes, I know its not that simple, but humour me for the discussion.
Clearly additional organisation and hardware is required for those
locations, and probably for the 'central' meeting site as well.
However I think every new or fresh idea that comes into the policy
process is invaluable, especially those that might not normally attend
an OPM in a distant land..
eg 'Bandwidth $500, Catering $300, Benefits of a new solution to a
policy problem - priceless'
Since we (collectively) have built this internet, lets make use of it.
(hey you might even run the video stream over _JUST_ v6 ;)
Some off the cuff benefits for it are:
* reduce participant's costs
* reduce carbon emission footprints attributed to airline flights
* create outreach opportunities
* foster local networking
* introduce more minds to the policy process
* allow remote on-site voting?..
* less intimidating way to introduce newcomers..
..anyways, food for thought
Just a further note to highlight 3 people that were always willing to
help, regardless of the request. Thanks to Frank Salanitri, Sam
Dickinson , and Louise Flynn of the secretariat.
Cheers,
Terry