Summary

  • South Asia’s 2029 stand-alone APNIC conference is the first under the updated process. Every bid must pass travel, venue and local-support minimums before scoring.
  • The Executive Council keeps the selection decision after the Secretariat evaluates bids and recommends preferred and backup locations.

APNIC’s next host race has a gate before the scoreboard. South Asia’s 2029 stand-alone conference is the first to use the updated Expression of Interest (EoI). A local team can bring a polished city pitch and still fail to reach comparison: its submission must clear every minimum viability test before its strengths earn points.

The guide makes three gates mandatory: location and accessibility, venue suitability, and a feasible plan for host and community support. The travel test rules out locations under Smartraveller advice to reconsider travel or not travel, limits the route to no more than two flight connections from an international transit hub, and requires visas for most Asia-Pacific nationalities. The venue must meet minimum capacity, layout, accessibility, accommodation, connectivity and infrastructure needs; the local plan must show workable coordination and support.

Passing opens the comparison. Location and accessibility carry 25%; venue suitability, 25%; technical capability, 20%; strategic alignment, 15%; community, 10%; and proposal quality, 5% where relevant. The scorecard gives access and venue five times the weight of the community category. Local support still comes before the spreadsheet: miss that gate and the comparative score never starts.

The venue requirements are concrete: space for about 400–500 delegates, at least 1 Gbps symmetric Internet with native IPv4 and IPv6, and two separate providers that both support IPv6 transit. A city name and a polished deck cannot supply those operating conditions.

The APNIC Secretariat evaluates eligible bids and recommends preferred and backup locations. The APNIC Executive Council selects them; its decision is recorded in meeting minutes, and APNIC signs a host agreement before announcing the location. The guide gives no point allocation for subcriteria; a published scoring sheet would show how reviewers turn each category into a ranking.

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