[Venue-selection] Beijing and Shenzhen

[Spencer Dawkins at IETF <[e-mail]>]

It will surprise literally no one that I have no concerns for myself about
attending IETF meetings in Beijing or Shenzhen. I have worked for Chinese
employers since 2005, and have traveled to those two cities more frequently
than any other cities in China.

I was working for Futurewei when the IETF met previously in China, and
although Huawei wasn't the local host, we were involved in a number of
discussions about the IETF's expectations for a Chinese meeting venue.

Other people may remember differently, but (this was pre-public venue
selection, remember) my memory is that the most consistent concerns
expressed by IETF participants, especially those involved in planning, were
about air quality/pollution and access to an unfiltered Internet.

   - Air quality in Beijing in 2005 was amazingly bad. I haven't seen
   measurements, but I'm glad that the evaluation says air quality has been
   acceptable since 2017.
   - Access to an unfiltered Internet was more complicated. As others have
   observed, we DID have unfiltered access to the Internet, but IIRC, no one
   in China would guarantee that in writing. The IETF took a deep breath and
   booked the meeting venue, based on verbal assurances, and those assurances
   turned out to be accurate.

Given that experience, and the experience of both IEEE 802 and 3GPP with
meetings in China over nearly two decades, I wouldn't disqualify either
venue at this time. Keeping them as eligible alternatives seems wise.

Editorial Note: there is a special place in hell for people who are
presented with consensus venue criteria and asked for input, but who
respond by either

   - providing input and commenting on the selection criteria, or
   - by just commenting on the selection criteria.

I apologize in advance for fitting into the first group of people.

ISTM that one of the unforeseen consequences of our determination to make
hybrid meetings work that the remote participation experience at IETF now
is far superior to either what that experience was, even as recently as
2019, and also far superior to the experience I had as a local attendee in
3GPP hybrid meetings last week in Berlin.

I would paraphrase our attitude since our hybrid meetings started, as "if
this venue isn't good for you, Do The Right Thing and attend remotely". I
absolutely understand the value of in-person participation, but none of us
are guaranteed that. The last in-person meeting I missed was in Montreal
when my wife had just been diagnosed with cancer, and I was able to do my
work as an AD effectively, even attending remotely.

I'm not sure if the venue selection process considers that or not, but if
it doesn't, maybe that's worth thinking about.

Do The Right Thing, of course.

Best,

Spencer