APTLD69 Communique

A Message from Down Under

APTLD69 in many ways proved a remarkable event. With 64 participants, including APTLD members and domain names industry representatives, it well outnumbered the 2015 Meetings in Fukuoka and Jakarta.

Some sessions were truly groundbreaking, including a crowdsourcing one to ponder on future strategic line of action for members and a registrars panel engaged in a direct dialogue with the APTLD members in order to ensure meaningful collaboration between them.

The community welcomed forts-timers – .am. and .vu – as well as .tl and .np for whom this Meeting became the second in a row. Not only did they attend, but delivered insightful and spirited presentations on their recent developments and obtained first-hand information of others’ best practices and success stories.

At the Annual General Meeting, members elected new Board members who now represent all the sub-regions in Asia Pacific.

This time, as many as 4 sponsors, including .nz, IUSN Foundation, ISOC and ICANN, contributed to the Meeting being a success. The Delta Team helped further promote the solid record of cooperation between ICANN and APTLD by providing an intense 2-day training for the members and having unveiled a joint Training Trainers initiative for the APTLD community to be launched soon.

The APTLD logo was for the first time ever proudly displayed in the conference room and, coupled with some other minor branding items, indicated the long-lasting legacy and helped capture APTLD’s unique identity.

The social event hosted by .nz in a most exquisite venue in Auckland allowed members and guests more informal networking and socializing.

What’s up next? For now, “Tena Koe moo u Manaakitanga mo tou awhi” (“Thank you for your kind hospitality” in the Maori language), the Meting participants watched a short welcome video by THNIC inviting us for APTLD70 to be held in the ancient Siam, or modern Thailand, whichever you prefer, on 14 -15 September 2016. See you in Bangkok!