Re: IETF in July

[Stewart Bryant <[e-mail]>]

> On 23 Mar 2020, at 14:26, Victor Kuarsingh <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 10:12 Adam Roach <[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
> On 3/23/2020 1:28 AM, Carsten Bormann wrote:
> >> Actually, I’m more and more convinced that we can make it without the need of canceling.
> > For those who didn’t see yet that the light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train:
> >
> > The impending postponement of the Olympics (which would have been starting the same week) should lay these thoughts to a final rest.
> 
> 
> More to the point: what might plausibly change in the next four months 
> that would reduce the need to restrict movement?
> 
> Likely not much.  As much as I want to be optimistic, I suspect the reality will be that the current situation will continue for much longer then we had hoped for and even if the primary issues resolve, there will be lingering impacts from the sudden ramp down of the services industry and commercial air travel..
> 
> I also think that many supporting businesses will restrict their employees from travel based on health and safety policies. 
> 
> It’s up to leadership  on timing related to a decision on forgoing an in-person meeting for IETF108, but I think preparing for a remote meeting is the prudent thing to do at this point.  Worst case, we would then have a play book on how to do this in the future.  
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Victor K

I agree, H & S, plus the damage to the economy plus the time taken to spin things up again makes it seem unlikely that we will be meeting in Madrid in person. I am not at all convinced about Bangkok given the expectation of an autumn bounce.

We really do need to work on the assumption that for some time we will be having full scale virtual meetings, and I think they need to be a much closer mirror of a traditional meeting than the mini-meeting we are having this time.

- Stewart