2026 Fly-In Recap: A Successful 48 Hours on Capitol Hill

We are happy to share some highlights from a productive and successful edition of our annual Congressional Fly-In. “As someone who spends most of the year developing relationships with legislators and regulators to educate them on the topics i2Coalition works on,” said i2Coalition Executive Director Christian Dawson, ” the Fly-In is a very important validation point. We can bring in our partner companies to show that it’s not ‘just us’! Our members can tell their own stories about how legislation is affecting their businesses.”

Here is the recap video:

On Day 1, attendees queued up in some unusually long security lines to enter the Congressional office buildings along Capitol Hill, as it was the final day of voting for this session of Congress. They then spent an intensely busy day meeting with policymakers and staff from both sides of the aisle. Those conversations gave our members an opportunity to speak directly about the policy issues affecting the Internet infrastructure industry and the people and businesses that depend on it.

Day 2 saw us gather at CTA Innovation House for a packed agenda of policy discussions and special guests covering some of the issues that matter most to our industry. Even those of us who work on these issues on a daily basis learned something new. 

We closed the formal program with our Internet Leadership Awards, celebrating James Bladel with the Community Leadership Award, Ray King with the Internet Entrepreneur Award, Emmit McHenry with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Rep. Lori Trahan with our Champion of the Internet Award, accepted on her behalf by Chief of Staff Mark McDevitt. Now in his eighties, McHenry is still working on the cutting edge of Internet technology, which is exciting and inspiring!

We also got a sneak preview of what’s ahead at CloudFest Americas and NamesCon Global in Miami this November.

Once the formal program concluded, attendees and guests headed to Hawk ‘N’ Dove to celebrate with old friends and new ones after two very full days.

Thank you to everyone who supported us in organizing this year’s Fly-In, and everyone who made the journey to Washington, D.C. to take part. We look forward to continuing the amazing conversations we’ve had, and to applying what we learned to our Working Groups.

Also, we want to thank our title sponsor PIR, as well as our sponsors Identity Digital, Texas.net, and Cheval Capital, for making this event possible.