[governance] Choice of venue for meetings

[Ginger Paque]

I have been wondering how/why venues are chosen for global meetings.
Obviously, a host country must offer, and not every country will be willing
to invest the time, money and energy into the work involved, so options may
be limited. There are so many pros and cons for the topics/principles, the
host and the participants--it is mind-boggling.

A (more or less) recent blog post 'No such thing as bad publicity'
http://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/no-such-thing-bad-publicity#comment-2258 by
Liz Galvez explored this question from a slightly different angle: why
would prospective hosts expose their vulnerabilities to public discussion?
With Azerbaijan on the horizon, I have revisited the topic, and you may
find it interesting as well.

Does the choice of Azerbaijan as the venue for IGF 2012 affect your
decision to attend/not attend?

An excerpt from Liz's post:
"It seems the temptation proves irresistible for the leaders of some
countries which are seldom in the global eye to push ahead with staging a
grand event to showcase their country’s assets. Their population can bask
in an orgy of nationalist sentiment and propaganda while the media will be
so carried away by the spectacular organisation, or the beauty of the
hostesses, or the excitement of the event itself, that they will ignore the
political context and any nasty goings-on beneath the surface.  They hope
the mismatch between official image and reality remains hidden. Or they may
simply underestimate the media’s appetite to ferret out bad news. But in
what world would anyone with even a remote understanding of independent
media expect a high-profile sports or cultural event to be covered purely
for its own  sake, particularly when the host country does its best to
smother controversial stories? Credibility is an essential element in any
image-building endeavour. Where it is missing, it is difficult to regain,
as the US Administration have learnt the hard way."

Ginger


Ginger (Virginia) Paque

VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu
Diplo Foundation
Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme
www.diplomacy.edu/ig
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