For the second time, I had the privilege to participate in ICANN meetings through the On-Boarding Community Pilot Program, where I’m working on the ISPs & Connectivity Providers Constituency part; this was in Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar 2017.

Well, it was my fifth ICANN meeting in total, all of them are documented here in my blog so you may refer to them to see how I started, as well as to get introductory information about ICANN and its programs, this time though my experience was “mini”, as I was able to attend two ICANN days only out of the week, due to work commitments.

• Copenhagen arrival, 10-3-2017

I arrived in the morning, headed to Crown Plaza Hotel and wanted to check-in my room, the guy asked me: -> what’s your last name sir?, me: Tamimi, the guy: OMG! , I’ve just received a big order from Amazon for you!, me: really! :$ , sorry dude, it must have arrived tomorrow or something :’).

Actually, I always get advantage of online shopping when travelling abroad, and I’m glad hotels don’t kick me out for the hassle I’m causing!.

After unpacking and verifying all products are good, I want outside to tour Copenhagen for the 1st time and I liked it very much!.

• Day-1 

Started with the On-Boarding Download session, where all program participants meet and share their progress, thoughts and challenges.

For my ISPCP part, I stated that we shared the first version of our draft with the community, and we were waiting their feedback at that time, so we were counting on the next days for further discussion and alignment.

It’s worth mentioning that our draft provides introduction about the ISPCP, its structure with ICANN, role in the community, membership process & benefits, policy development process, the document is still under development, and will be made public when it’s final.

I also shed light on some challenges such as: lack of engagement from my region, surprisingly Wataniya Mobile Palestine is the only member from it!, I also mentioned the Mentor-Mentee relationship which wasn’t clear like the Fellowship program.

Moreover, I advised to activate the social media platforms for the ISPCP constituency, you know all ISPs and telecom operators have excellent online presence which makes it easy to engage them.

In this session, I learned much from our colleagues from other constituencies, some of them were ahead of us –due to various reasons- and provided more rich documents and presentations, however, we have created one common place for our documents and we can get ideas from each other to enhance the overall quality of work in this program, I stayed at the same room and attended the Fellowship program coaches session to provide some insights and support.

At night, we had delicious dinner at a local restaurant, actually it’s always fun with ICANN!, sessions in the morning, socializing at the evening :).

• Day-2

I started the day with the Meet & Greet event, stupidly I took a train and went to AC Bella Sky Hotel in the early morning to catch the event BUT figured out it was in my hotel!.

I joined after like wasting one hour, in my quick talk I welcomed newcomers and encouraged them to get advantage of this opportunity as much as they can, again, as long as you are active, participating and contributing you’d keep coming to ICANN meetings through different kind of programs.

Around the afternoon, I participated in the Newcomers session, at some point of time different groups were split among the room to talk with people, and I was with the GNSO guys, talking about the ISPCP with newcomers and whoever interested.

After that, Esteban and I were able to have an informal meeting with the ISPCP key persons (Tony and Anthony), we updated them about the status of our work in the Community On-Boarding program and agreed on a road-map to follow in the coming few months.

Well, I never get enough of the “DNS Security for Everybody”, so I watched this session again and enjoyed the funny skit :).

The journey this time had come to its end quickly, at the evening I bid farewell to friends and colleagues hoping to meet again real soon ;).

Finally, here are few remarks about the Danish experience:

• Copenhagen is very beautiful, especially the area of Nyhavn which looks like Amsterdam city center.
• It was very cold; I guess visiting in summer would be much better.
• People are friendly!.
• Everyone speaks English, despite the fact they have their own language.
• Excellent transportation system (expected in such Scandinavian country!).
• I bought a SIM from the airport, but wasted my money as I wasn’t able to “activate the data bundle” properly, take care when doing so.
• I flew Brussels Airlines, but didn’t like it!, They don’t provide free meals and my experience wasn’t that pleasant!, Brussels airport is awesome though J.
• Free Wi-Fi and whatever you need is available in Copenhagen (CPH) and Brussels (BRU) airports.

To wrap up; I can say the experience was short, yet wonderful!, I gained more knowledge, reunited with awesome friends and met new ones, made good memories that would never fade ❤ .

Osama Tamimi, Jerusalem-Palestine | 15-4-2017