AfNOG’s Host Call Strongly Prefers Prior Workshop Familiarity Without Publishing an Equivalent Path

Summary

• The dated call makes prior workshop participation the published route to strongly preferred familiarity.
• It does not publish how a first-time host may prove equivalent operational competence.

AfNOG’s hosting page says final selection rests with AfNOG Convenors and AfriNIC Management. Its strongest experience preference goes to hosts familiar with workshop requirements through participation in earlier AfNOG/AFRINIC workshop events.

Sources

• S1 — AfNOG, “Call for Proposals – Hosting Africa Internet Summit,” sections 16–17 (captured 2026-09-05): https://www.afnog.org/hosting.php

Experience is a reasonable risk signal for a complex event. But participation and competence are not identical. A first-time host might demonstrate equivalent readiness through a tested network plan, named operational leads, venue evidence, supplier commitments, incident procedures and references from comparable events. The reviewed page does not publish such an equivalency route.

The date boundary is essential: the page refers to AIS 2021–2023 and a January 2020 deadline. This is a published governance artifact, not evidence of the current AIS 2026 process. An internal accommodation may exist; this analysis does not allege exclusion, favouritism or newcomer incapacity.

A compact equivalency clause could preserve the experience preference while listing alternative evidence and who evaluates it. That would make the published readiness standard demonstrable through more than one route.