ICANN has opened registration for ICANN85, the next Community Forum, scheduled for March 7–12, 2026, at the Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai, India, with hybrid participation available for both online and in-person attendees. The official announcement highlights that ICANN85 will be the final public meeting before the planned April 2026 opening of the next new gTLD application round, making it a crucial checkpoint for registry operators, DNS providers, policy watchers, and domain investors tracking the expansion of the namespace.
The timing matters. If you’re planning to apply for a new gTLD, bid on registry services, or just understand what the next round looks like, ICANN85 is where the final policy discussions, fee structures, and application windows will get their last public airing before things go live. The meeting site has already launched with registration, schedule details, and visa-support information for international delegates, signaling that ICANN expects strong turnout from the global DNS community.
Mumbai is a notable choice as host city. India has been positioning itself as a major player in the DNS ecosystem, with growing internet penetration, a massive domestic market, and increasing participation in ICANN policy development. Hosting ICANN85 in Mumbai puts India front and center in the conversation around namespace expansion, digital identity, and DNS security—all topics that will likely dominate the agenda alongside the new gTLD round itself.
Worth watching at ICANN85 are sessions focused on next-round gTLD rules, application windows, and fees. The last application round in 2012 was chaotic, expensive, and slow, and ICANN has spent years refining the process to avoid repeating those mistakes. Any clarity on pricing, evaluation timelines, or contention-resolution mechanisms will be critical for applicants planning their strategy. The other angle is whether ICANN drops any announcements around digital identity, DNS security, or registry business models that could affect how investors think about new gTLD inventory.
For domain investors, ICANN85 is less about the meeting itself and more about what it signals: the next gTLD round is real, it’s happening soon, and the rules are about to be locked in. If you’re holding premium generic strings in existing extensions or planning to apply for your own registry, this is the meeting where you’ll want eyes on the ground—or at least tuned into the livestream—to catch what’s coming next.
