timing for venue contracting

["[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>]

Hi Jay,

I wanted to raise this point in the plenary yesterday, but I had to leave a bit earlier.

If I recall correctly, this is the 2nd time in the last few years (Brisbane was the other one), that a venue is announced extremely late.

May be this is not being realized, but it creates for some participants that pay traveling from their own pocket a very high penalty even inability to actually make it. Yes, they can still participate remotely, but we all know is not the same. On-site conversations, not just the WG meetings are very important, in addition to the difference of being in the same time zone for the meeting itself.

I’m not sure how many people can/prefers planning ahead, but I’m sure others can take advantage of that, and doing so doesn’t create any trouble for the rest of the participants. In my own case, the difference is quite significative. If I get my flights 11-12 months in advance, I can use my miles and just pay 250 euros or so (just taxes) to travel to KL. An alternative is to pay around 1.000 euros and get upgraded for free (because my status in the airline), or using my miles as well. Instead now, as checked yesterday, it will cost me over 5.000 euros for the same trip/cabin (seats or upgrades with miles aren’t anymore available).

I fully understand that many participants are funded by their employers, and may be the employers don’t care too much (or not at all) about that, but I’m sure I’m not alone with this and it doesn’t make any sense that even if is a small set of people being affected, not being considerate to them.

If I understood correctly, from you yesterday in the plenary, now you start working on contracts for meetings after 2027. I really don’t understand the need to hold that, and instead, considering that our meeting dates are set for at least 6-7 years in advance, work already in all the possible venues for the next 5 years in advance, contract and announce them at least 1-2 years in advance, but *never* later than 1 year in advance.

This will also give us the advantage, that in case of any venue failure (I recall we had that happening at some point in Canada some years ago), we have more time to react, possibly even with several options. Just consider if for whatever reason KL was not fixed a few days ago and time passes and we don’t have suitable alternatives or we need to pay much more for one of them. I don’t think we can take that risk.

I understand that doing this now means a lot of extra workload for a few months, but after that, when you have already contracted 4-5 years, you only need to take care of the 6th following year, and so on. I also understand that this may look difficult for new venues because the time required for on-site surveys, but there is a simple solution for that: for the next 3-4 years, just consider venues that we already had used before (we have several of them in every region, so not a problem).

In fact, I’ve been very surprised when I’ve asked in the last 3 meetings, if we are coming back to Madrid and if is already fixed, and the answer was NO, first possible slot is summer 2030. How come, if we know the participants were so happy (according to the survey and all conversations we had), we have not even started to talk with the venue again. Why we don’t start working with the venue immediately and fix it in a few months, even if it is 4 years in advance?

It doesn’t make any sense to me. I could only imagine, that if you try to negotiate with the hotel now for 2030 they will give you a higher price (I don’t think so, I actually think it will be lower, and you reduce the risk of not being available on our preferred dates by fixing it now, or even it can be negotiated with a price difference considering life cost increase, etc.). However, if this is the issue, you are moving the price difference to the traveling cost of the participants (in additional to other planing they may wish to do, such vacations or business side-by-side the meeting).

I used Madrid as a clear example, but of course, the same can be done, at least for the next 4-5 years, with venues that have been very well rated, as I think it was Berlin, BKK, Singapore, etc., and that may keep offering sufficiently good conditions for IETF.

Regards,
Jordi

@jordipalet

> El 21 jul 2026, a las 15:07, IETF Executive Director <[e-mail]> escribió:
> 
> The IETF Administration LLC is pleased to announce Kuala Lumpur as the location for the IETF 128 meeting, scheduled for 6-12 March 2027.
> 
> The support and commitment of our Global Hosts and meeting sponsors ensures that IETF participants can meet and collaborate in the highly productive environment of an onsite meeting. To find out more about these opportunities to support the IETF, please see:
> 
> 	https://www.ietf.org/support-us/sponsorship/
> 
> I look forward to seeing many of you there.
> 
> -- 
> Jay Daley
> IETF Executive Director
> [e-mail]
> 
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