Summary

  • AFRINIC is seeking hosts for eight meetings between 2027 and 2030. Four June summits are paired with AFRINIC meetings; four stand-alone meetings begin in November.
  • The stand-alone dates each span three calendar days, while the invitation describes six. The published call and guide also leave application and selection deadlines unspecified; neither omission proves that internal arrangements are absent.

Before booking the room

A conference can be described in a sentence. Booking it takes more precision. A prospective AFRINIC host can find the preferred hotel size, the minimum number of meeting rooms and even the maximum journey from the airport in the organisation's hosting guide. But how many days should those rooms be available?

The public invitation describes a stand-alone meeting as a six-day programme. Its calendar gives each of the four such meetings a window covering three dates. The 2026 hosting guide repeats those dates without explaining the difference.

There may be a straightforward explanation. The published material does not establish whether the description needs updating, the calendar is incomplete or additional activities fall outside the listed window. It certainly does not establish that three days have been cancelled. For a host seeking quotations, however, an unexplained difference still needs an answer.

Eight opportunities, not eight chosen cities

The timetable runs through 2030. June brings the Africa Internet Summit, or AIS, alongside an AFRINIC meeting. The other meeting starts in November, sometimes ending in December.

Eight opportunities, not eight chosen cities
Year June summit and meeting Stand-alone meeting
2027 AIS / AFRINIC-39: 21–25 June AFRINIC-40: 29 November–1 December
2028 AIS / AFRINIC-41: 19–23 June AFRINIC-42: 29 November–1 December
2029 AIS / AFRINIC-43: 18–22 June AFRINIC-44: 28–30 November
2030 AIS / AFRINIC-45: 17–21 June AFRINIC-46: 27–29 November

These are hosting opportunities. The two documents do not name selected cities, and a four-year calendar is not evidence that one organisation must take on the whole series.

The physical brief is more detailed. The guide prefers a four- or five-star hotel with at least 150 guest rooms. It specifies at least nine meeting rooms, including a plenary room for more than 350 people, and a journey from an international airport of no more than an hour. The venue must allow cables and wireless access points in meeting rooms and shared areas. A hotel's ordinary guest Wi-Fi is not the whole assignment.

The guide describes at least three local connectivity sponsors and bandwidth typically above 100 Mbps, with detailed requirements supplied by AFRINIC's infrastructure team. That is not a promise of 100 Mbps to every delegate. Nor does the document show that sponsors have already signed up.

The work behind the welcome

The local contribution stretches from staff and transport to potential help with visas, publicity, procurement and equipment import and re-export. Hosts also introduce AFRINIC to potential sponsors. Meetings are free to attend; sponsorship helps cover their costs, and hosts may contribute financially. That does not mean the host automatically pays every bill.

There is something in return: visibility, speaking opportunities and a chance to help shape the programme and meeting concept. Programme input should not be mistaken for authority to decide AFRINIC policy. The guide says specific operational responsibilities will be set out in a memorandum of understanding once hosting arrangements are agreed.

The invitation is less exact about when an organisation should commit. It asks for proposals well in advance; the guide urges early expressions of interest at meeting@afrinic.net. Neither gives a closing date, selection stages or an announcement date. Those are gaps in the published instructions, not findings about what AFRINIC may be doing internally.

An extra day can change room hire, staff cover and network support; it need not change every cost in the same proportion. Before a candidate turns the invitation into bookings, the simplest useful clarification is also the most basic: which dates need to be covered, and what happens on each of them?