The IGF is coming home
After 10 years of meetings all over the world, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is coming home: in 2017 the annual meeting will take place in Geneva, the home of the IGF Secretariat. The announcement of Switzerland’s offer to host the 2017 meeting was made in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the closing session of the 11th IGF meeting on 9 December 2016.
The proposed dates are 18-21 December 2017 and the venue will be the Palais des Nations in Geneva. This will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the role of Geneva as the host city of many relevant organizations dealing with Internet governance related issues, ranging from the ITU, UNCTAD, WIPO, and the WTO to the European Broadcasting Union and the Geneva Internet Platform.
The Guadalajara meeting has again shown that the IGF continues to mature and evolve. New themes came to the fore, such as trade and the Internet, artificial intelligence, fake news, or cyber bullying. Holding the meeting in Geneva will facilitate the participation of top experts from the relevant organizations and help create synergies between the IGF and other organizations.
By Markus Kummer, Vice-Chair for Internal Affairs
