National Product Launch & Customer Networking | 40-City Campaign
November 7, 2025ICANN85 Mumbai | Local Execution for a Hybrid Global Conference
The Challenge
ICANN85 Mumbai was a six-day hybrid global public meeting held at Jio World Convention Centre from 7-12 March 2026, with both in-person and virtual participation. The meeting brought together the international ICANN community for working sessions, public discussions, stakeholder engagement, and board-level interactions in a format that required high operational discipline across delegate services, venue management, sponsor support, transport, exhibition, and hospitality.
ICE India worked as the local execution partner on the ground in Mumbai. Our role was not limited to one operational stream. We supported front-of-house conference delivery, managed hotel-venue movement, handled delegate kits and staffing, coordinated sponsor hospitality requirements, delivered venue branding and back-of-house controls, and fabricated the sponsor exhibition environment within an active international conference setup.
Hybrid Conference Complexity
ICANN85 was not a standard ballroom conference. It was a multi-day, hybrid international forum with global delegates, structured registration controls, official hotel movement, sponsor requirements, board meetings, and public-facing sessions running on a fixed agenda. In-person delivery had to be precise, while the broader event also served a virtual audience, which increased the need for venue readiness, disciplined crowd flow, and dependable support staffing.
For ICE India, this meant building an operational model that could support registration throughput, delegate assistance, shuttle coordination, sponsor servicing, dining reservations, booth fabrication, and venue operations in parallel, without allowing one stream to interrupt another.
Scale of Local Operations
The local delivery scope was extensive. We deployed and managed more than 45 staff across registration, delegate kit distribution, ushering, and transport supervision. We handled more than 300 airport arrival and departure transfer requests, ran daily shuttles between Grand Hyatt Mumbai and Jio World Convention Centre, coordinated restaurant reservations for sponsor C-suite and board meetings, and delivered gifting for 2,500 participants.
Alongside delegate-facing operations, we managed printing of more than 20 brochures, venue branding, fire safety, licensing, security, and housekeeping for Lotus and Jasmine ballrooms, and fabricated around 30 sponsor exhibition booths. The work required coordination across vendors, venue teams, transport partners, printers, hospitality contacts, and sponsor stakeholders within one live conference environment.
Event Highlights
Our Strategic Solution
Integrated Local Execution
ICE India approached ICANN85 as an integrated conference operations project rather than a set of disconnected vendor tasks. Registration, staffing, transport, sponsor support, gifting, print production, housekeeping, and venue readiness were managed as linked workstreams. This reduced response time on site and ensured that delegate-facing experience, sponsor servicing, and ballroom operations moved on one coordinated schedule.
Staffing & Delegate Services
We provided and managed 45+ operational staff across registration desks, delegate kit distribution, ushering, and transport supervision. Staffing plans were built around arrival peaks, session movement patterns, delegate support requirements, and ballroom traffic flows. The objective was to keep registration and movement efficient while ensuring delegates, sponsors, and senior stakeholders had visible support across the venue footprint.
Delegate kit handling was treated as a controlled logistics task, not a last-minute desk activity. Kits, printed materials, and gift items were organized for structured distribution, helping the registration process stay orderly even at higher arrival volumes.
Transport & Hotel Movement
Transport was one of the most sensitive parts of the project. ICE India managed more than 300 arrival and departure transfer requests and ran daily shuttle services from Grand Hyatt Mumbai to Jio World Convention Centre. This required accurate scheduling, live coordination with transport supervisors, hotel-side communication, and constant reconciliation between delegate movement and conference timing.
Airport transfers and hotel shuttles had to work without creating friction for international attendees. Our team monitored transport requests, supervised execution on the ground, and ensured that movement between airport, hotel, and venue remained dependable across the conference dates.
Sponsor & Executive Hospitality
ICANN85 included sponsor-facing hospitality requirements that sat outside the main plenary and meeting-room schedule. ICE India managed restaurant reservations for sponsor C-suite meetings and board-level dinners, ensuring that these smaller but high-importance engagements were handled with the same level of control as the larger conference operations.
This work required close timing, dependable venue knowledge, and practical coordination between sponsor stakeholders, local hospitality partners, and transport arrangements. The emphasis was on reliability, privacy, and efficient execution rather than visible showmanship.
Gifting, Printing & Delegate Materials
We managed gifting for 2,500 people, combining practical and locally relevant items. This included sustainable jute fabric laptop bags as the core giveaway, supported by local curios such as ethnic-design tea cups, coasters, fridge magnets, and key chains, alongside sponsor-supplied technology products handled separately. The gifting program had to be well packed, consistently presented, and operationally easy to distribute at scale.
ICE India also managed printing of more than 20 brochures and related conference materials. Print execution was handled as part of the wider delegate communications and venue-readiness workflow, with attention to quantity control, delivery timing, and on-site availability.
Venue Operations & Ballroom Readiness
For Lotus and Jasmine ballrooms, ICE India managed venue branding, fire safety, licensing, security, and housekeeping. This meant controlling both visible presentation and back-of-house compliance. Branding needed to be clean and conference-appropriate, while safety, access, housekeeping, and licensed operations had to remain dependable throughout a live international event schedule.
In high-complexity conference environments, ballroom readiness is never just about appearance. It depends on disciplined housekeeping cycles, coordinated security presence, licensed execution, vendor timing, and clear ownership of on-ground responsibilities. Our role was to keep those systems aligned while the conference remained active.
Exhibition Build & Sponsor Booths
ICE India fabricated around 30 exhibition booths for sponsors as part of the conference’s sponsor and engagement environment. Booth delivery involved production coordination, setup sequencing, finish quality, and alignment with the wider venue layout. Because exhibition areas interact directly with registration flows, sponsor schedules, and public footfall, booth work had to be timed carefully within the larger conference setup plan.
The sponsor exhibition layer added another level of complexity to ICANN85. It required balancing sponsor visibility and practical access with the operational needs of a global public meeting.
Operational Highlights
ICANN85 Mumbai demonstrated ICE India’s ability to manage multiple conference logistics streams at the same time while maintaining control across front-of-house, back-of-house, transport, sponsor servicing, and venue operations.
Delegate Operations
- 45+ staff managed across registration, delegate kit distribution, ushers, and transport supervision.
- 300+ transfer requests handled for arrivals and departures.
- Daily shuttle services operated between Grand Hyatt Mumbai and Jio World Convention Centre.
- Structured delegate support maintained across venue touchpoints and session movement periods.
Venue & Sponsor Delivery
- Lotus and Jasmine ballrooms managed for branding, fire safety, licensing, security, and housekeeping.
- 30 sponsor booths fabricated and delivered within the active conference setup.
- Restaurant reservations managed for sponsor C-suite and board meetings.
- Integrated coordination maintained across venue teams, sponsors, and operational vendors.
Materials, Gifting & Print
- 2,500 gifts managed, packed, and distributed for attendees and stakeholders.
- Sustainable jute laptop bags used as the primary gift item.
- Local gifting layer included ethnic-design tea cups, coasters, fridge magnets, and key chains.
- 20+ brochures printed and delivered as part of conference support materials.
What Made This Project Successful
One Operational View Across Multiple Workstreams
ICANN85 required several logistics streams to run together: registration, kits, staffing, transport, sponsor hospitality, printing, gifting, venue compliance, and exhibition setup. The project worked because these were managed as one operating system rather than isolated vendor tasks.
Strong Local Control for a Global Meeting
Hybrid international conferences depend on local execution being predictable. Delegates may only see registration counters, shuttles, booths, and ballrooms, but those visible pieces rely on strong backend coordination. ICE India’s role was to provide that local control without creating noise for the client team or delegates.
Detail Management at Volume
Handling 2,500 gift sets, 300+ transport requests, 20+ printed brochures, and 30 sponsor booths at one event is a detail-management exercise as much as a conference-management exercise. Success depended on sequencing, reconciliation, vendor follow-up, and clear on-site ownership.
Sponsor & Executive Requirements Handled Alongside Main Conference Delivery
High-level sponsor hospitality and board-related reservations often fail when they are treated as side requests. At ICANN85, those needs were integrated into the main operating plan, allowing sponsor and executive requirements to be delivered without affecting registration, transport, or venue readiness.
Venue Readiness Beyond Surface Presentation
Branding alone does not make a conference venue ready. Fire safety, licensing, housekeeping, security, access control, and booth installation all have to function together. Managing Lotus and Jasmine ballrooms at ICANN85 showed ICE India’s ability to support that full operational layer within a live international event.
Why This Matters
ICANN85 Mumbai is a strong proof point for ICE India’s conference capability in India. The project combined hybrid meeting requirements, hotel transport, delegate services, sponsor servicing, gifting, print management, ballroom operations, and exhibition build within one globally visible event at Jio World Convention Centre. It shows that ICE India can act as a dependable local execution partner for international conferences that need precision, scale, and steady on-ground control.