On 4 October, CENTR held its 58th General Assembly and on the 5th its first Leaders Meeting in Brussels, Belgium. While the General Assembly was focused on a joint meeting with the European Commission High Level Group in Internet Governance (HLIG) group, ccTLD policy changes and content liability, the Leaders' Meeting was a unique opportunity for C-suite executives to exchange on strategic goals and challenges.
For the first time, CENTR held a one-day General Assembly, breaking with the traditional two-day agenda. This allowed for a more focused approached and a well-defined agenda. The morning was dedicated to a joint meeting with the European Commission's HLIG, which included thorough updates from Akram Atallah, President GDD, ICANN and Pearse O'Donohue, Director, EU Commission, DG CNECT. There were also lively discussions on the regulatory trends in intermediary liability, the NIS implementation and the involvement of ccTLDs in internet governance.
The GA also discussed ICANN policy issues relevant to ccTLDs, with an update on WS2 and the PDP on ccTLD retirement, as well as a discussion leading to a CENTR position on the use of country and territory names as TLDs. The afternoon sessions were split between presentations on CENTR's 2018 budget and strategy, looking into valuable and exciting projects based on a restricted but stable budget. The day ended with several updates from registries on a range of key topics, such as acquisitions, new services, price changes and legal procedures related to online content control.
The following day, more than 30 registry leaders met to discuss strategic goals, priorities and challenges in their respective organisations, but also common ways to tackle evolving markets and the importance of defining the core business of registries, as well as consequential objectives.
