IP: Is ICANN a trade show?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

  >From: "Andrew McLaughlin" <mclaughlin () pobox com>
  >To: <declan () well com>
  >Subject: RE: ACLU protests ICANN demand of $5,000 to leaflet at
meeting
 > ...
  >The complaint is mistaken. ICANN holds open meetings, free to attend,
with
  >open mike sessions for public comment. People have always been
allowed to
  >distribute policy drafts, proposals, RFCs, resolutions, etc. The
meeting is
  >not, however, a trade show, and we don't want companies to use it for
  >marketing purposes. So the distribution of commercial literature is
  >restricted to sponsors. That's SOP for meetings like this.
 >
What this tells me is that ICANN is a new tradeshow.

As the former Director of Technology for NetWorld+Interop (a data networks
tradeshow), I can tell you that all tradeshows start with a conference.
You try to get the very best speakers and leaders in their field to be
at your conference. Andrew says ICANN has open sessions that are free
to attend. Well NetWorld+Interop has that too. The keynotes are usually
free and open to all. They have open mike sessions in many forms as well.
(They also have the conference tracks you have to pay for.)

All the successful tradeshows started as conferences and they tend to
lose money in the beginning. Then, slowly they get sponsors, and then
ultimately exhibitors. The conference expenses are very high and best
case is break even. Soon the organizers figure out that the big money
is in the sponsorships and booth space. Selling the booth space is the
most lucrative. Most tradeshow companies would love to get rid of the
conference portion, but it is the conference that brings the attendees,
and without the attendees you cannot sell the sponsorships and booth
space.

So, ICANN is moving right along this path. They have invited speakers for
their conference, and they have sponsors. All the elements comprising the
definition of a tradeshow are there. The fact that you have to pay $5,000
to distribute commerical information clearly makes them a tradeshow.
If they were truly acting as a non-profit, they could just ask those
distributing commercial leaflets for a small sum to defray the expense
of renting the table, pipe and drape at the venue... maybe $100 max. Of
course,
if certain parties could review the financial statements and ICANN was
open with their accounting of costs for their tradeshow/meeting, then
it would be an easy matter to pro-rate the expense and a satisfactory,
fair win-win soluion for ICANN, the participants, and those with leaflets
could be attained.



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