Dubai

Day 1 will provide a high-level overview of ICANN as an open, multi-stakeholder environment in which bottom-up, consensus-based policy development process is undertaken. Members of ICANN's various supporting organizations and advisory committees can share their experiences and inform the audience of why they participate in ICANN and how to get engaged in the process. Role of the multi-stakeholder model in promoting security and stability in the global Internet.

After the introduction of the model and sharing of experiences from the various ICANN constituencies, discussions on IDNs will start by a general overview of the protocol revision.

Day 2: Internationalized Domain Names

This is a key area that ICANN together with the Internet technical community have been exploring for the past few years. Over the past couple of years though there has been a lot of work addressing not only the technical aspects of IDNs, but also its policy dimensions and implications. Many stakeholders from all over the world representing the technical community, ccTLD managers, governments, businesses and individuals have been engaged in the work being developed to get IDNs deployed in the root zone. The aim of this meeting is to inform the Internet community of the Arab region of the latest developments in this area both at the technical and policy levels, and to share experiences and knowledge among participants.

Discussions will carry on with regard to the IDN protocol revision including focus on bidirectional solution and other issues specifically related to the Arabic community, followed by a session on IDN deployment experiences by language communities that use the Arabic script. Also, the IDN ccTLD fast track policy and process and the role of governments, as well as the Interim Report of an ICANN working group for the introduction of a limited number of IDNC ccTLDs will be presented.

Day 3: gTLD Experiences and Market Trends

Day 3 will focus on the gTLD space. The sessions will discuss Registry / Registrar operations and best practices, innovation in business models, as well as the introduction of new gTLD from process and business perspectives. There will be speakers from all over the world including the Middle East.

This theme is addressed to Registries and Registrars, and particularly those interested in the Middle East market, as well as IT businesses and service providers interested in learning more about this area and who may potentially become Registries or Registrars in the future.