The 37th Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was officially opened Monday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya in spite of previous issues on potential terrorist attacks.

ICANN CEO and President Rod Beckstrom and ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush officially opened the meeting to the public, as everyone looks forward to discussing updates on the new generic top level domains (gTLD) program, Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), as well as measures being undertaken for the security and stability of the Domain Name System (DNS).

Doug Brent, chief operating officer at ICANN, said the ICANN Board agreed to push through with the conference after receiving information and assurance on additional security measures. Brent also mentioned during the Welcome Ceremony that the Internet community can anticipate the release of the new applicant guidebook for the new gTLD by the time of ICANN"s 38th Meeting, to be held in Brussels, Belgium in June.

For his part, Sammy Buruchara, chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre (Kenic), which is the host of the event, said, “The government and all parties involved have stepped up their security preparations for the event and we are confident that all will go on smoothly.”

Meanwhile, Nick Tomasso, General Manager of Meetings and Conferences for ICANN has told the community that the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will be holding a meeting also at KICC on Monday and Tuesday.

IGAD is made up of six member nations (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda), all of which will be represented by their leaders on March 9. Tomasso says this means a more elevated security procedures will be done to ensure the safety of everyone at the KICC.