Subject: [87all] IETF 87 Berlin Meeting Review

From: Ray Pelletier <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:04:05 -0400

All;

I wanted to give you some feedback on the meeting in Berlin.

IETF 87 Brings Record Number of Attendees! 

Congratulations!  With 1,435 attendees (1,381 paid and 54 comped) in Berlin, including 199 from Germany!, IETF 87 is the most attended meeting since 1,450 attended IETF 63 in Paris in 2005.  The IETF is now even more global with representatives from 62 countries attending, a new high.  See <http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/IETF-Regional-Attendance-00.pdf>.

Rock-Solid Meeting Network!

Once again attendees enjoyed a rock-solid network throughout the week.  There were very few tickets and only some early v6 failures that were quickly resolved.

The network team of Verilan and the IETF Volunteers (Vols) began arriving Tuesday, 23 August to configure equipment and set up.  Upon finding that one of the Juniper routers had been damaged in transit, an emergency call to Juniper resulted in two routers delivered immediately to the site.  Thank you Juniper.

Thanks also to Deutsche Telekom (DT) for their early delivery of the circuits and Clemens Schrimpe for getting the links up and tested in advance, which significantly shortened the setup time.  

The Team was able to get the InterContinental guest rooms Internet supported by the IETF shortly after noon on Friday, an event that usually occurs Saturday or even Sunday.  Great job.

A pilot of the NAT64 network was set up and feedback is that it worked reasonably well.

Thanks to the IETF Vols and Verilan for another great meeting network.

Value Added Tax (VAT)

This was the first meeting the IAOC encountered the Value Added Tax (VAT) and its impact on revenues and expenses.  Upon advice of tax experts the IAOC found that the IETF was required to charge a 19% VAT on meeting fees in Germany.  Instead of adding the VAT charge on top of the base registration fee, the IAOC elected to include the VAT within the existing fee structure.  This means that registration revenues are lower than previously expected, creating a shortfall of $137,000 USD.  

Employers may be be able to recover their employee's VAT on registration, lodging and food and beverage.  Additional details can be found at the VAT FAQ:  <https://www.ietf.org/meeting/87/vat.html>  This impact to the budget will be offset somewhat by our ability to recover VAT of about $65,000 USD on meeting expenses.  

We are not yet certain how VAT may apply to future meetings, and are currently investigating the tax regulations for both Vancouver and London. When VAT charges do apply, the IAOC will review each situation and may choose to implement the VAT differently than it was handled for IETF 87.  

Overbooking of InterContinental

We were notified by the InterContinental that they were overbooked for Sunday, 28 July and that they would be arranging and paying for accommodations at a nearby five star hotel for 30 IETFers for that evening.  We requested that each affected attendee be notified in advance and also that the InterContinental work to minimize the number who needed to be moved.  In the end there were 16 who stayed at the Hotel Palace and only one who showed up at the InterContinental not having received the notice prior to arrival.  

Onsite Issues

There were a few glitches in the operations during the week, but improvements were made quickly, such as the Grab-N-Go experience on Monday and ensuring enough of the right kinds of soft drinks.
The Secretariat reports that it was very pleased with the responsiveness and professionalism of the InterContinental staff.  

Remote Participation

In response to feedback from remote participants a new section called Remote Participation was added to the meeting home page to assist those offsite with finding information they need in one location.  It will remain and be enhanced from community input.  

Bits-n-Bites

Bits-N-Bites turned out to be a popular event again with good exhibits, a great turnout and lots of food.  Problems with shipping, customs and electrical power created some anxiety before the event, but with quick work by John Brzozowski and staff adaptations were made, and with these lessons learned we anticipate such issues will not recur. 

I've listed all of the Berlin meeting and Bit-N-Bites sponsors below.  Thanks for your support.  We could not have successful meetings without you.  Thanks again to DENIC for stepping up when we had no Host and arranging for the social at the German Museum of Technology.  It was grand.  

IETF 88 in Vancouver begins on 3 November, just 3 months from now.  We hope to see you there!

Ray 
IETF Administrative Director

PS:  See also IETF Chair, Jari Arkko, blog:  http://www.ietf.org/blog/2013/08/meeting-summary/

IETF 87 Sponsors

Platinum				DENIC
Gold				EURid
Gold				DTAG
Bronze				Dyn
Bronze				eco

Connectivity			DTAG

Welcome Reception		EURid

Ice Cream Social		ADVA Optical Networking

Bits-N-Bites
 A10 Networks
 Comcast
 Dyn
 Huawei
 ICANN
 Internet Society
 nominum