Subject: Updated potential meeting location list

From: IETF Executive Director <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:34:28 -0800

The IETF Administration LLC has updated the list of locations (cities) that have been assessed for their suitability to hold an IETF meeting [1]. This follows extensive assessment of each city including the solicitation and analysis of community feedback. This update adds 29 cities to the list of those assessed as suitable and 2 to those assessed as unsuitable while 8 are still being assessed. 

This update is long overdue, for which we apologise, particularly to those that took the time to provide feedback and particularly as some of those cities only now listed as suitable have already been selected for IETF meetings.

The cities that have been added to those assessed as suitable are:

	Austin
	Athens
	Barcelona
	Boston
	Calgary
	Chiba
	Denver
	Dublin
	Edinburgh
	Fukuoka
	Glasgow
	Houston
	Kobe
	Kyoto
	Malta
	Nagoya
	New Orleans
	Niigata
	Osaka
	Ottawa
	Philadelphia
	San Francisco
	Sapporo
	Singapore
	Stockholm
	Tokyo
	Toronto
	Vancouver
	Washington DC

The cities that have been added to those assessed as unsuitable are:

	Nassau, due to concerns about corporate travel approval
	Macau, due to concerns about corporate travel approval

The cities that are still being assessed are:

	Busan
	Helsinki
	Hyderabad
	Kolkata
	Marrakesh
	New Delhi
	Panama City
	Tel Aviv

Please note the following important information on the meeting location selection process:

* The meeting policy [2] is for an annual rotation between Asia, Europe and North America (the "1-1-1" policy).  

* The final selection of meeting location is based on a complex set of criteria and so multiple cities are assessed and then multiple cities and venues are visited in each region before a selection is made.  This process generally takes some years to complete.

* The cities on the list have not yet been chosen to host an IETF meeting, this is an early stage in a long process.

* Inclusion on the list as a suitable location does not mean that an IETF meeting will be held in that location, only that it is now a location that we can explore further.

* We are working on a mechanism for the community to recommend specific cities, which will involve much more than just nominating a city, and until then we will not be accepting any recommendations.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have questions or comments

[1] https://ietf.org/how/meetings/admin/meeting-location-input/
[2] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-mtgvenue-meeting-policy/?include_text=1

-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[email-masked]