-
Calendar
More
-
ICANN Meeting Agendas
More
-
ICANN Meeting Minutes
More
ICANN85 Mumbai Agenda
Agenda
Mumbai, India 07 March 2026 - 12 March 2026
Introduction
Preparation Information for GAC Members
GAC Hybrid Meeting at ICANN85
Mumbai, India
(GAC Members login recommended)
The ICANN85 Community Forum will be held in Mumbai, India from Saturday 7 March through Thursday 12 March 2026. The 6-day meeting will be conducted as a hybrid event to accommodate both in-person and virtual attendance. The associated GAC meeting schedule has been developed by the committee to leverage that hybrid format.
The Annual General Meeting will present many opportunities for government attendee discussions and deliberations with time for the committee’s various policy and advice priorities, and bandwidth for attendees to participate in important cross-community endeavors. During the meeting, member representatives will continue their work on several key topics that have attracted priority attention from governments throughout the last several years. These topics will include (1) discussions regarding the program for the next round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs); (2) registration information and data protection policies; (3) DNS abuse mitigation measures; and (4) Universal Acceptance adoption.
As the committee continues to evolve its growing emphasis on capacity development for GAC delegates, the Mumbai meeting will incorporate informational and knowledge building sessions during the meeting. During the sessions on the 7th of March (Saturday afternoon), the meeting agenda will feature two capacity development sessions focused on the New gTLDs Next Round. These sessions will help prepare GAC members for substantive discussions during the plenary session that will follow the next day.
Much of the GAC’s remaining program later in the week will be devoted to the drafting and preparations of the ICANN85 GAC Communiqué.
GAC Meeting Schedule:
- The GAC ICANN85 block schedule
- The Overall ICANN85 block schedule
- The complete schedule of ICANN85 Meeting "Prep Week" Webinars is available at: https://icann85.sched.com/
Health and Safety
ICANN org monitors local health and safety risks in addition to relevant advisories and guidance from governmental and related public agencies. ICANN also works closely with local partners supporting the event to develop and implement comprehensive event safety plans and procedures for a safe, healthy and productive meeting. More details on health and safety measures for ICANN85 are available at:
https://meetings.icann.org/en/meetings/icann85/#faq
This information will be updated as events warrant.
Event Registration - (required for in-person attendees)
Any GAC delegates planning to attend ICANN85 in-person will be required to pre-register for the meeting until 6 March 2026. This will allow the ICANN Meetings Team to allocate on-site resources effectively, provides attendee access to extra Policy forum program news and facilitates attendance-taking by GAC Support staff. Registration for the meeting is now open.
- Sign into Your ICANN Account or create an account here.
- Register by selecting the Meeting Registration tile.
- Click on the Registration link.(The meeting registration can also be accomplished by accessing this page directly - https://meetings.icann.org/en/meetings/icann85/)
GAC Support staff will reach out regularly to the full GAC mailing list to remind all potential delegate attendees (both in-person and remote) to register for the meeting. Your meeting registration will also help us to keep accurate attendance records during the Mumbai meeting.
At the bottom of this page, GAC Support staff has created individual web links to each GAC plenary session during ICANN85 to enable attendees to access session connection information and supporting documentation as they are made available.
Calendar Invitations:
It has become standard GAC practice to directly email calendar invitations to all GAC participants for all individual GAC sessions, community plenary (cross-community) sessions and notable community working group sessions. This will be done again for the hybrid format ICANN85 Community Forum.
The initial emailed calendar invitations for individual sessions are typically transmitted to GAC representatives and delegates a week or so before each public meeting. Calendar invitations will include the link to each official ICANN85 session web page. Participants will need to click on the link to view the connection details for the session.
For ICANN85, invitations are expected to be sent during the ICANN Prep Week (23, 24, and 25 February).
GAC Briefings
[Until the start of the ICANN85 meeting, this content section will be updated from time to time with web links as various pre-session written briefings and other materials become available.]
In preparation for GAC Public Meetings, GAC topic leads and Support Staff have traditionally prepared a number of written topical briefings for GAC members that provide (1) information about the objectives for each session topic, (2) updates on recent developments regarding the topic, (3) previews of the proposed session agendas and (4) links to other resources of information about the session subject matter. These briefings are supported by other ICANN org staff, as appropriate, to ensure factual accuracy.
Pre-ICANN85 GAC Webinars
Prior to the ICANN85 Community Forum, GAC participants will have the opportunity to attend two (2) onboarding webinars dedicated to informing new participants about GAC operational basics and preparing attendees for their first ICANN meeting.
The first webinar scheduled, on Monday, 16 February, is designed to help new GAC participants understand the basic operational functions of the committee.
The second webinar, scheduled for Wednesday, 18 February, will share with new committee participants the key pieces of information that they might find helpful for them to prepare for the ICANN meeting and to participate effectively.
Both webinars will offer basic informational foundations useful for all participants. Links to both webinar events can be found below in the “agenda” section of this GAC ICANN85 Meeting page.
Other Pre-meeting Calls and Meetings:
GAC Webinar with foundational information in preparation for GAC sessions at ICANN85 pertaining to the New gTLD Program 2026 Round. The webinar will include a GAC member-led segment, drawing on experiences from the 2012 round and a ‘’101’’ overview of the New gTLD Program (Next Round). The purpose of the webinar is preparatory: to establish common context ahead of the in-person sessions in Mumbai. Recording of this webinar is available at here.
Final Bilateral Prep Call for GAC on Monday, 2nd March at 12:00UTC; link to call recording to be provided.
Written Briefings
Applicable individual briefings for each of the scheduled GAC sessions at ICANN85 may be accessed via links provided below on this page in the “Materials” section of each session link.
Briefings are typically circulated to the GAC Membership about two weeks prior to the start of the public meeting and are planned to be made available on or about 17 February for the ICANN85 Public Meeting:
- Applicable individual Briefings for each of the scheduled GAC plenary sessions can be accessed via links provided on this page in the “Materials” section of each session link.
- All written briefings for each of the scheduled sessions may also be downloaded directly from this page. Watch this space for links to be posted approximately two weeks prior to the start of the public meeting:
- All ICANN85 written briefings together as a ZIP file - V1
- Individual ICANN85 written briefings as a single PDF file - V1
As developments warrant, GAC Support staff will provide updated materials to various session links on this web page right up until the start of the ICANN85 Community Forum.
Other Resource Briefing Documents:
In addition to the resources on this web page, GAC Support staff is compiling preparation materials to help attendees fully utilize the remote connection services and resources that are being provided by ICANN org for the ICANN85 Community Forum. That documentation is developed for every GAC meeting in the form of a “one-stop” reference manual that consolidates various notices and reminders about meeting planning and logistics. A web link to the ICANN org document will be posted on this page after an email notice is made to GAC Members and Observers.
As they become available, this web page section will also provide links to preview and briefing documents prepared by the GNSO Support staff and the ICANN org Policy Development Support team.
- GAC ICANN85 Community Forum Logistics Details
- ICANN85 Policy Outlook Report
- GNSO Policy Briefing ICANN85
For each ICANN Public Meeting, ICANN org also publishes a general meeting guide for meeting attendees. You may find more details at the following link:
Please contact GAC Support Staff at gac-staff@icann.org if you have questions about accessing any of these briefing documents.
Individual GAC ICANN85 Agenda Sessions:
All GAC plenary session entries below reflect the time of the session in the “UTC” time zone.
Where appropriate, and as they become available, each GAC session link below is accompanied by links to a preparatory session briefing and other materials that are associated with the session. After the ICANN85 Meeting concludes, links to meeting session recordings will also be added to each session page link.
Please contact GAC Support Staff at gac-staff@icann.org if you have questions regarding any of these session preparations or arrangements.
