Subject: IETF 112 Plenary Experiment Evaluation

From: IETF Chair <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 12:25:32 +0200

Hi,

following the experiment to schedule the IETF 112 plenary outside the main meeting week (https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/MzzjhF64QWKEee-lZzoIBfWQlb4/), the IESG promised the community an evaluation of the outcomes.

This was just published as a blog post at https://www.ietf.org/blog/ietf112-plenary-experiment-evaluation/.

In summary, the IESG's consensus is that the plenary experiment did coincide with a reduction in scheduling conflicts. However, we also believe that the attendance drop at the IETF 112 plenary was unacceptable, although it might not be a permanent feature of this innovation. We do not believe that the experiment results justify changing standard procedure for fully remote meetings, though we may conduct further experiments to reduce the disparity in attendance. Regardless of this experiment outcome, the IESG fully intends for hybrid meetings, including IETF 113, to hold plenaries during the meeting week.

Lars Eggert
IETF Chair