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Meeting planning for the rest of 2022 and 2023 can be summarized as follows:
If travel related conditions allow, some electronic meetings may be converted to F2F meetings.
November 2022 WG meetings F2F, Toulouse
December 2022 TSG meetings Electronic

February 2023 WG meetings F2F, EU
March 2023 TSG meetings F2F, Rotterdam
April 2023 WG meetings Electronic
May 2023 WG meetings F2F, Korea for RAN and to be determined (TBD) for SA/CT WGs
June 2023 TSG meetings Electronic
August 2023 WG meetings F2F, EU
September 2023 TSG meetings F2F, TBD
October 2023 WG meetings Electronic
November 2023 WG meetings F2F, North America
December 2023 TSG meetings TBD (F2F or electronic)

Two-Way Remote Attendance Concluding Remarks

Due to the continuing travel restrictions in some countries and Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 3GPP was able to
regions, it is not yet practical to fully resume F2F meetings. transform all its meetings, discussions and decision-making
This is evident from the meeting experiences from the summer, into a fully electronic and remote framework. This allowed 3GPP
where many delegates were not able to attend. Therefore, to continue progressing standard evolutions for over 2.5 years,
a temporary solution has been implemented, to ensure F2F without having any F2F meetings. In particular, Release 17 was
meetings allow fair participation for those not traveling. the first release entirely worked out using only e-meetings.
Whilst this handling of the crisis is nothing less than a great
To that end, we have jointly drafted a set of detailed guidelines success and proves the flexibility of 3GPP as an organization,
for remote participation, which was endorsed by the meeting the shortcomings of a pure e-meeting setting become more
decision group. Remote participants shall be able to listen and and more obvious over time. But even today, organizing F2F
talk (two-way participation). The leadership and the group have meetings proves to be a complicated task.
agreed to handle and consider remote participant interventions
in the same way as intervention from F2F participants. However, Despite the extreme challenges and immerse complexities,
it is noted that voting rights may not be accrued through 3GPP managed to deliver a thoughtful future meeting plan
remote participation, and remote participants cannot formally which enables a viable path to return to F2F meetings and
object to decisions taken in the meeting. includes a temporary remote participation solution. This
demonstrates that through careful discussion and sincere
Remote participation in meetings is a temporary emergency cooperation, progress can be made not only in the technical
measure, used to maximize 3GPP progress during a time of domain, but also in the non-technical domain. Such planning
extreme travel ‘hardship’ suffered by some 3GPP partner’s and cooperation will continue driving more successes for 3GPP.
regions. 3GPP TSGs and WGs are committed to return to regular
F2F meetings without any remote participation facilities as soon
as reasonably possible.

“Many new delegates who joined 3GPP during

the e-meeting era have never had the chance
to get in touch with other delegates outside
the e-mail and conference call settings.”

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