IETF Plenary Meeting Venue Selection
Process
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General
Meeting Venue Working Group
Meeting Venues
Meeting selection process
IASA
The IETF Administration Support Activity (IASA) is responsible
for arranging the selection and operation of the IETF plenary meeting
venue. This memo specifies IETF community
requirements for meeting venues, including hotels and meeting
space. It also directs the IASA to make available additional
process documents that describe the current meeting
selection process.
The IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) is
responsible for arranging the selection and operation of the IETF
plenary meeting venue. The purpose of this document is to
guide the IASA in their selection of regions, cities,
facilities, and hotels. The IASA should apply this guidance at
different points in the process in an attempt to faithfully
meet the requirements of the IETF community. We specify a set
of general criteria for venue selection and several requirements for
transparency and community consultation.
It remains the responsibility of the IASA to apply their best judgment. The
IASA accepts input and feedback during the consultation process and later (for
instance, when there are changes in the situation at a chosen location).
The community is encouraged to provide direct feedback about the IASA's
performance to the IETF Administration LLC, the Nominations Committee (NOMCOM),
or the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Any reviews of IASA
decisions remain subject to the provisions of (BCP 101).
The following four terms describe the places for which the IETF contracts
services:
- Venue:
- An umbrella term for the
city, meeting resources, and guest room resources.
- Facility:
- The building that houses
meeting rooms and associated resources. It may also
house an IETF Hotel.
- IETF Hotels:
- One or more hotels, in close
proximity to the Facility, where the IETF guest room block
allocations are
negotiated and where network services managed by the IASA
(e.g., the "IETF" SSID) are in use.
- Overflow Hotels:
- One or more
hotels, usually in close proximity to the Facility,
where the IETF has negotiated a group room rate for the purposes of
the meeting. Of particular note is that Overflow Hotels
are not usually connected to the IETF network and do not
use network services managed by the IASA.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED",
"MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as
described in BCP 14
when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
Some IETF values pervade the selection process. These are often
applicable to multiple requirements listed in this document. At a
minimum, they include the following:
- Why we meet:
- We meet to pursue the IETF's
mission . This is partly done by
advancing the development of Internet-Drafts and RFCs. We also seek to
facilitate attendee participation in multiple topics and to enable
cross-pollination of ideas and technologies.
- Inclusiveness:
- We would like to facilitate
the on-site or remote participation of anyone who wants to be
involved. Widespread participation contributes to the
diversity of perspectives represented in the
working sessions.
Every country has limits on who it will permit within its
borders. However, the IETF seeks to:
- Minimize situations in which onerous entry regulations
inhibit, discourage, or prevent participants from
attending meetings; failing that, meeting locations are to
be distributed such that onerous entry
regulations are not always experienced by the same
attendees; and
- Avoid meeting in countries with laws that effectively exclude
people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual
orientation, national origin, citizenship, or gender
identity.
- Where we meet:
- We meet in different
global locations, in order to spread the difficulty and cost of
travel among active participants, balancing travel time and
expense across participants based in various regions. Our
regional location policy is articulated in
.
- Internet Access:
- As an organization, we
write specifications for the Internet, and we use it heavily.
Meeting attendees need unfiltered access to the general Internet
and their corporate networks. "Unfiltered access", in this
case, means that all forms of communication are allowed.
This includes, but is not limited to, access to corporate networks
via encrypted VPNs from the meeting Facility and Hotels, including
Overflow Hotels. We also need open network access available at
high enough data rates, at the meeting Facility, to support our
work, which includes support of remote
participation. Beyond this, we are the first users of
our own technology. Any filtering may cause a problem
with that technology development. In some cases,
local laws may require some filtering. We seek to
avoid such locales without reducing the
pool of cities to an unacceptable level by stating a
number of criteria below, one mandatory and others
important, to allow for the case where local laws may
require filtering in some circumstances.
- Focus:
- We meet to have focused
technical discussions. These are not limited to
scheduled breakout sessions, although of course those
are important. They also happen over meals or drinks,
through a specific type of non-session that we call a
"Bar BOF", or in side meetings. Environments that are
noisy or distracting prevent or reduce the
effectiveness of these sessions and are therefore less desirable as a
meeting Facility .
- Economics:
- Meeting attendees participate as
individuals. While many are underwritten by employers or sponsors,
many are self-funded. In order to reduce participation costs and
travel effort, we therefore seek locations that provide convenient
budget alternatives for food and lodging, and that minimize
travel segments from major airports to the Venue. Within reason,
one's budget should not be a barrier to accommodation.
- Least Astonishment and Openness:
- Regular participants
should not be surprised by meeting Venue selections, particularly
when it comes to locales. To avoid surprise, the venue
selection process, as with all other IETF processes,
should be as open as practicable. It should be possible
for the community to engage in discussion early to express its views
on prospective selections, so that the community and the
IASA can exchange views as to appropriateness long
before a venue contract is considered.
IETF meeting Venues are not selected or declined with the explicit
purposes of:
- Politics:
- Endorsing or condemning
particular countries, political paradigms, laws, regulations, or
policies.
- Maximal attendance:
- While the IETF strives to be as inclusive as possible,
both online and in person, maximal
meeting attendance in and of itself is not a goal. It
would defeat a key goal of meeting if
active contributors with differing
points of view did not have the opportunity to resolve their
disagreements, no matter how full the rooms.
- Tourism:
- Variety in site-seeing
experiences.
This section contains the criteria for IETF meetings. It is
broken down into three subsections: mandatory criteria,
important criteria , and other considerations, each as explained
below.
If criteria in this subsection cannot be met, a particular
location is unacceptable for selection, and the IASA MUST NOT
enter into a contract. Should the IASA learn that a location
can no longer meet a mandatory requirement after having entered
into a contract, it will inform the community and address the
matter on a case-by-case basis.
- The Facility MUST provide sufficient
space in an appropriate layout to accommodate the
number of participants, leadership, and support staff expected to
attend that meeting.
- The Facility and IETF Hotels MUST provide wheelchair access
to accommodate the number of people who are anticipated to
require it.
- It MUST be possible to provision
Internet Access to the Facility and IETF Hotels that allows
those attending in person to utilize the Internet for all their IETF,
business, and day-to-day needs; in addition, there must be sufficient
bandwidth and access for remote attendees.
Provisions include, but are not
limited to, native and unmodified IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity,
and global reachability; there may be no additional limitation that would
materially impact their Internet use. To ensure availability,
it MUST be possible to provision redundant paths to the
Internet.
The criteria in this subsection are not mandatory,
but they are still highly significant. It may be necessary to
trade-off one or more of these criteria against others.
A Venue that meets more of these criteria is, on the
whole, preferable to another that meets fewer of
these criteria. Requirements classed as Important can
also be balanced across Venue selections for multiple
meetings. When a particular requirement in this section
cannot be met but the Venue is selected anyway, the IASA MUST notify the community at the
time of the venue announcement. Furthermore, it may be
appropriate for the IASA to assist those who, as a
result, have been inconvenienced in some way.
The following requirements relate to the Venue city.
- Travel to the Venue is acceptable based on cost, time, and burden
for participants traveling from multiple regions. It is anticipated
that the burden borne will generally be shared over the course of
multiple years.
- The Venue is assessed as favorable for obtaining a host and
sponsors. That is, the Meeting is in a location in which
it is possible and probable to find a host and sponsors.
- Travel barriers to entry, including visa requirements, are
likely to be such that an overwhelming majority of
participants who wish to do so can attend. The term "travel
barriers" is to be read
broadly by the IASA in the context of whether a
successful meeting can be had.
- Economic, safety, and health risks associated with this Venue are
acceptable.
- The selection of the venue comports with the practices described in
.
The following requirements relate to the Venue and Facilities.
The IETF operates internationally and adjusts to
local requirements. Facilities selected for IETF meetings SHALL
have provided written assurance that they are in compliance with
local health, safety, and accessibility laws and regulations,
and that they will remain in compliance throughout our stay.
In addition:
- There are sufficient places (e.g., a mix of hallways, bars, meeting
rooms, and restaurants) for people to hold ad hoc
conversations and group discussions in the combination of
spaces offered by the facilities, hotels, and
bars/restaurants in the surrounding area, within walking
distance (5-10 minutes).
- The cost of guest rooms, meeting space, meeting food and beverage
is affordable, within the norms of business travel.
- The Facility is accessible, or
reasonable accommodations can be made to allow access, by people with
disabilities.
The following criteria relate to technical meeting needs.
- The Facility's support technologies and services -- network,
audio-video, etc. -- are sufficient for the anticipated activities
at the meeting, or the Facility is willing to add such
infrastructure, or these support technologies and services might be
provided by a third party, all at no -- or at an acceptable -- cost
to the IETF.
- The IETF Hotels directly provide, or else permit and facilitate,
the delivery of a high performance, robust, unfiltered, and
unmodified Internet service for the public areas and guest
rooms; this service is to be included in the cost of
the room.
The following criteria relate to IETF Hotels.
- The IETF Hotels are within close proximity to each other and the
Facility.
- The guest rooms at the IETF Hotels are sufficient in number to
house one-third or more of projected meeting attendees.
- Overflow Hotels can be placed under contract, within convenient
travel time to and from the Facility and at a variety of guest room
rates.
- The Facility environs include budget hotels within convenient travel
time, cost, and effort.
- The IETF Hotels are accessible by people with disabilities.
While we mandate wheelchair accessibility, other forms are
important and should be provided for to the extent possible
based on anticipated needs of the community.
- At least one IETF Hotel or the Facility has a space for use as a
lounge, conducive to planned and ad hoc meetings and chatting, as well
as a space for working online. There are tables with seating, convenient for
small meetings with laptops. These can be at an open bar or casual
restaurant. Preferably the lounge area is centrally
located, permitting easy access to participants.
The following criteria relate to food and
beverage.
- The Facility environs, which include both on-site as well as areas
within a reasonable walking distance or conveniently
accessible by a short taxi ride or by local
public transportation, have convenient and inexpensive
choices for meals that can accommodate a wide range of dietary
requirements.
- A range of attendees' health-related and religion-related dietary
requirements can be satisfied with robust and flexible on-site
service or through access to an adequate grocery store.
- The Facility environs include grocery shopping that will accommodate a
wide range of dietary requirements, within a reasonable walking
distance or conveniently accessible by a short taxi, bus, or subway
ride from the Facility and IETF Hotels.
The following considerations are desirable, but they are not as
important as the preceding requirements and thus should not be
traded-off for them.
- We have something of a preference for an IETF meeting to
be under "One Roof"; that is, qualified meeting space and guest rooms are available in the
same facility.
- It is desirable for Overflow Hotels to provide reasonable,
reliable, unfiltered Internet service for the public areas
and guest rooms, and for this service be included in the
cost of the room.
- It is desirable to enter into a multi-event contract with the
Facility and IETF Hotels or associated hotel chains in
case such a contract will reduce
administrative costs, reduce direct attendee costs, or both.
- When we are considering a city for the first
time, it is particularly desirable to have someone familiar with
both the locale and the IETF participate in the site
visit. Such a person can provide guidance
regarding safety, location of local services,
the best ways to get to and from the Venue, and
local customs, as well as how our requirements are
met.
The IETF Community works best when it is well informed. This
memo does not specify processes nor who has responsibility for
fulfilling our requirements for meetings. Nevertheless, both of
these aspects are important. Therefore, the IASA SHALL publicly
document and keep current both a list of roles and
responsibilities relating to IETF meetings, as well as the
selection processes they use in order to fulfill the
requirements of the community.
This document has no IANA actions.
This note proposes no protocols and therefore introduces no new protocol
insecurities.
Different places have different constraints on individual
privacy. The requirements in this memo are intended to
provide for some limited protections.
As meetings are announced, the IASA SHALL inform the IETF of
any limitations to privacy they have become aware of in their
investigations. For example, participants would be informed
of any regulatory authentication or logging requirements.
High-Level Guidance for the Meeting Policy of the IETF
Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity,
Version 2.0
Contributions came from , ,
, , , , and other participants in the MTGVENUE Working
Group. Those listed in this section or as contributors may or
may not agree with the content of this memo.
The following people provided substantial text contributions
to this memo. Specifically, Fred Baker originated this work.
fred.ietf@gmail.com
Rpelletier13@gmail.com
Association Management Solutions
lnugent@amsl.com
LabN Consulting, L.L.C.
lberger@labn.net
The Internet Protocol Journal
olejacobsen@me.com
INOC
jim@inoc.com