Many of the fellows were seen and heard in the hallways, meeting rooms, and at the microphones in workshops, constituency meetings, public forum and Entertainment night.

“We are the World” resonated as the theme song for the fellowship group that evening. Eight of the fellowship were also chosen to participate in the IDN video that was shot on site in the Lotte Hotel, shown at the IDN event and now playing on the ICANN home page.

It helps depict the diversity of this particular set of individuals, representing various countries as well as the GAC, ccNSO members and ccTLD managers, ICTs, NGOs, IGF representatives, an Information Society minister and our first representative from China.

There were 35 candidates originally chosen from a pool of 132 applications that were received for this meeting; the actual number of attendees was 31, due to Rafik Dammak being elected to the GNSO, Gihan Dias choosing to attend as a ccNSO member through their travel support program and two other individuals unable to attend at the last minute for personal reasons.

Within the participating fellows, there were nine alumni of previous fellowship programs, four first time fellowship who had attended at least one ICANN meeting previously, and 18 first time ICANN meeting attendees.

All of the ICANN regions were represented, though the emphasis per the program specifications was on the Asia region, and the following are the countries from which the fellows hailed: Egypt, Somalia, Jordan, Vanuatu, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, Mongolia, Paraguay, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Ghana, Papa New Guinea, China, Iraq, Macedonia, Micronesia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Palau, Indonesia, Bulgaria and first time regional representation from Bhutan.

The focused morning meeting workshops, which are a mainstay of the program and mandatory for all participants to attend, covered the following topics: Alumni historical and look-ahead on the program and its effects on their work, Internet Governance, ICANN Services, including the IANA function and ICANN Policy Development.

KISA, who co-sponsored the ICANN Fellowship program, gave an introductory welcome as well as an informative update on the status and use of the Internet in Korea today. All of the presenters were impressed with the background and professional positions held by the program participants, as well as their thoughtful questions.

The fellows were busy the entire week, attending GAC, ccNSO, ALAC and gNSO meetings, as well as the IDN and new gTLD presentations.

With more emphasis on alumni mentoring and preparation for topics and schedule prioritization prior to the ICANN week even starts, the fellows are becoming more familiar with the process, pace and expectations of the meeting, and therefore becoming more active in the sessions and ready to bring the information and knowledge back home.