Olga Alexandrova, meeting.cctld.ru: "ICANN representatives come to our conference every year."

From September 10 to 13, 2013, that is, almost a month from now, the 6th International Conference of Administrators and Registrars of National Top-Level Domains of the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe will be held on the Greek island of Crete.meeting.cctld.ru.

This is a fairly successful domain industry conference—numerous guests from all over the world, engaging speakers, and unforgettable afterparties. And the conference probably wouldn't have captured our attention so much if ICANN had been its organizer—we're too accustomed to the high level of Western companies. But this conference is being hosted by our colleagues from Russia—the Coordination Center for TLD RU, also the administrator of the .RU and .РФ domains.

We spoke with Olga Aleksandrova-Myasina, Head of the Information Service at the Coordination Center, to discuss the details of the conference.

Who came up with the idea for the first conference? Why weren't any such events held before 2008?

2008 was a year of explosive growth for the .RU domain. Take a look at these graphs:

Dynamics of domain name growth in the .RU domain (2003-2011):

Annual growth of domain names in the .RU domain (2003-2011):

This clearly shows how the domain has evolved. It was precisely in 2007-2008 that not only large players but also smaller companies began entering the domain business. User interest in .RU domains grew rapidly alongside the growth of the Russian internet, and having a website online ceased to be a novelty. Therefore, domain name registration went from being a rather exotic service to a mandatory one for hosting providers, for example.

The Coordination Center evolved alongside the internet and the domain space. By 2008, we had assembled a large team of like-minded registrars, and we had established relationships with many foreign national registries. It became clear that our colleagues and partners would be interested in meeting in person, discussing pressing issues, exchanging experiences, and, ultimately, getting to know each other. So, when the Coordination Center proposed participation in a conference of registries and registrars, the idea was met with approval. Ultimately, over 90 participants attended the first conference, not only from the CIS and Eastern and Central Europe, but even from the US and Australia. ICANN was also immediately interested, and their representatives attend our conference every year.

<

p>

ICANN Vice President for Stakeholder Engagement in Russia, CIS and
Eastern Europe Veni Markovski (right). Conference in Budva, Montenegro, 2012.

The idea continued, and we'll be holding the event for the sixth time, traditionally in September. There are many topics for discussion, and we strive to ensure that every participant has the opportunity to speak—not just from the podium, but from their seats—and participate in the discussion. Participants also suggest topics themselves, sending us ideas for presentations and roundtable discussions.

Why does meeting.cctld.ru take place in a different country each time? After all, the organizer is a Russian company, and the conference could easily have taken place in Russia.

This conference attracts participants not only from Russia, but also from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Australia, and America. Therefore, we try to choose a location that is convenient for everyone to get to. We also hold conferences in Russia. For example, in 2010, when we launched the .РФ domain, we thought it would be right to invite everyone to Russia—not to Moscow, but to the outback town of Syzran near Samara (where the Volzhsky Utes sanatorium is located). For our foreign partners, visiting such places was somewhat of a revelation; they hadn't encountered some of our realities before. Following the conference, we even released a T-shirt, "I was in Syzran and survived," and gave it to all the participants.

In Syzran, guests were impressed by Russian flavor.
Conference in Samara region, Russia, 2010:

The conference in September will be the sixth. What has changed in these six years? How will this conference differ from the first?

Firstly, it's somewhat shorter in duration – the first conference lasted three days, now it's two. But it's a general trend these days to make all events more compact. People who come to us can't always afford to spend a whole week attending the conference and networking. So we're shortening the time, but at the same time, we're trying to provide more opportunities for discussing relevant topics and connecting with participants.

Secondly, modern technology never stands still. Since 2010, we've been broadcasting the conference live, and if any issues arise, we always post a full video recording of all presentations and discussions.

Thirdly, we now try to combine work and a little relaxation. To achieve this, we always arrange excursions to local attractions for participants, and with the help of our hosts, we try to organize an evening in a national style – this gives our colleagues the opportunity to become more familiar with the cultures and traditions of different countries.

<

p>

Excursion for conference participants to Budva, Montenegro, 2012
Matvey Alekseev.

Can any domain registrar representative participate in the conference, or are there more stringent criteria for selecting participants?

There is no strict selection process; any representative of the domain business, hosting company, or even just an internet company is welcome to attend. We believe that within the scope of the conference's topic, participants will benefit from the opinions of a wide range of people.

But we've noticed that we have a roughly consistent number of participants—around 100. Many participants come every year, present their work, share their ideas, and share their experiences. There are both expected topics and completely new ones.

<

p>

Speech by Andrey Khvetkevich, Director of NIC.UA,
at a conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, 2011

Are any decisions made at the conference that affect the development of domains, or is the goal more to share experiences and discuss common problems faced by administrators and registrars of various domains?

Our main goal is to exchange experiences, discuss pressing issues, and present new products and ideas. The Internet Technical Center, for example, last year introduced the TLD Stat statistical service, designed primarily for registries. The conference doesn't make any official decisions, but I believe it has an impact on the development of the domain space.

Lift the curtain on where next year's conference will be held?

We currently have two countries and one city in Russia in mind. We're currently negotiating and reviewing the terms. As soon as we decide on a location, we'll let everyone know. We'll go wherever the best option is.