Summary

  • APNIC’s Executive Council supported a revised conference-host selection process: a six-month open expression-of-interest window starting roughly 30 months before a meeting, followed by viability checks and weighted assessment.
  • The 2028 choices are to receive the new assessment but no open invitation. Full use begins with the 2029 cycle; the directors still make the venue choice.

An Internet meeting can call itself regional while leaving the choice of city to a small circle. APNIC’s own host-selection page describes that circle plainly. At least two years ahead of a standalone meeting, Executive Council members, community members and would-be hosts may suggest locations within the scheduled sub-region. Staff investigate flights, visas, infrastructure, safety, venues, budgets and sponsorship, often after informal talks with possible hosts. The council picks a city and a backup.

The September council minutes, adopted on 19 October, put a different front door on the table. Staff proposed an open expression-of-interest period lasting six months, beginning about 30 months ahead. Mandatory viability checks would precede a weighted comparison that includes financial and risk factors. Staff would present a preferred location, a backup and any departure from the normal process to the council. The council expressed support; the minutes record no separate adoption resolution or published scoring weights.

The calendar supplies the sting. Recommendations for the 2028 conferences are due to the council in November 2026. Those recommendations will use the revised evaluation, but not the open invitation. The complete process starts in 2029. APNIC’s current standalone rotation points to Oceania in 2028 and South Asia in 2029. The organization has already named Ulaanbaatar for its 2027 standalone meeting. No 2028 or 2029 host is named in the minutes.

The council also asked that economies which have never hosted receive consideration. Staff said equity is part of the assessment and that competing candidates would be compared for directors. A six-month door matters here: it can bring an unfamiliar local host into the pool before the familiar hosts and travel calculations narrow it. The public page still explains the older suggestion-and-informal-discussion route. A prospective 2029 host looking there today cannot find an opening date, weights or an application route for the proposed process.

APNIC’s first annual meeting is co-located with APRICOT, whose site is chosen by the APNOG Board under APNIC’s public page. The new minutes do not explain how the proposed assessment would meet that separate authority. That missing boundary needs a published rule before anyone can call the process uniform across both annual meetings.

Sources: Executive Council minutes; current host-selection rules; 2027 APNIC 64 announcement.