To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

ICANN Annual Meeting will be internationally held on 3 times per year after 1999.
(However In 1999/2001/2002, The meeting held totally 4 times) and The region congress is going to open one time per year.
ICANN Annual meetings, Originally opened by each year with different continents (e.g. North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asian-Pacific).
This 36th ICANN Annual meeting finally hold in Seoul, Korea for the first time.

※ The regular meeting schedule which had been opened in the past can be found in the following website.
     http://public.icann.org/meetingarchives