Hamburg to host ICANN69 from October 13-22, 2020

9 October 2020

AGM goes virtual - focus on future of internet

Registrations are now being accepted for the free upcoming Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from October 13-20, 2020. The non-profit organisation, ICANN, co-ordinates domain names and IP addresses across the globe. This year’s annual meeting is going virtual and will be hosted by the City of Hamburg, Eco - Verband der Internetwirtschaft e. V. and Denic eG, the operator of the .de domain extension. The 69th ICANN meeting was originally scheduled as an on-site event in Hamburg with around 2,500 delegates from over 120 countries.

European data protection laws and development of internet

This year's ICANN meeting goes ahead in two stages beginning with the Community Days from October 13-15 followed by the Plenary Week from October 19-22. A one-hour show on Hamburg will be presented by U.S. journalist David Patrician, who has made Hamburg his home. The event also features a pub quiz and live music straight from clubs on St. Pauli. "The personal dialogue between different groups, as facilitated by ICANN, is invaluable for finding practicable ways of developing the internet and its different interests," said Dr. Jörg Schweiger, Board Member of Denic eG. European data protection laws, assigning new extensions are just some of 100 items on the agenda.

Managing names and addresses on the Internet

For the internet to function, domain names and IP addresses must be unique worldwide. Founded in 1998 in California, ICANN co-operates with the global internet community to achieve and uphold this objective. The organisation co-ordinates domain endings, such as .com, .uk and .de. For some years now, ICANN has also made local domain extensions such as .hamburg possible, the registration of which was backed by the City of Hamburg. Registering internet addresses ending in .hamburg have been possible since 2014.
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