APTLD81 Communique

For the first time in its history, APTLD held its 81^st Members Meeting and AGM in a hybrid format, allowing both online and offline participation, on 23-24 February 2021. Co-hosted by LANIC and TDRA of UAE, co-sponsored by NIXI, GoDaddy Registry, ISOC AP Bureau, and RIPE NCC, APTLD81 became yet another proof of the community’s unwavering commitment to innovation and cooperation.

By drawing over 160 registrations across the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and Australasia onto a dedicated customized platform supported from both New Zealand and Dubai, the hybrid Meeting gathered 40 on-site participants that were able to engage and interact with the online audience, as well as a Meeting hub in Vanuatu in real time, and the technology ran flawlessly.

APTLD81 was traditionally preceded by 2 days of technical and cybersecurity trainings delivered by RIPE NCC and the Oceania Cybersecurity Centre, an inter-university think tank headquartered in Australia. The latter training was also open for stakeholders from Oceania and quite a number of them joined the session, which is the first in a series of South Pacific island ccTLD-focused trainings.

APTLD81 also became the first Members Meeting in 2 years to offer a number of Fellowships, and as many as 7 Members joined the Meeting as APTLD81 Fellows to contribute with their presentations and participation in panel discussions.

The Meeting also offered a range of session formats- from power-point based sessions to panel discussions to lightning talks that became a new format for the community. Throughout the Meeting, the turnout rate remained solid – the average figure for Day 1 was 92, and for Day 2 – 67 participants, with quite a number of them across most of Asia and Pacific keeping their hours really late.

During the Meeting the GoDaddy Registry team inaugurated a fresh unique online multiplayer game for the Names industry actors with an emphasis on cybersecurity, which was played for over 400 times for 2 days, and the top 3 winners will be announced and get prizes for their performance in the game.

While the hybrid format is not conducive to much in-person networking and socializing, the on-site participants benefited from an opportunity to enjoy a reception hosted by NIXI at the end of the Meeting Day 1.

At the APTLD AGM on 24 February, among other things, Members unanimously endorsed the ascending Board and voted to reincorporate APTLD in Singapore, and the reincorporation process should commence shortly.