Wikimania Handbook

Wikimania overview

Organization

• Committee
• Community group
• Handbook
• Checklist

Next event

• 2024 (Katowice, Poland)

Future events

• 2025 (East Africa)
• 2026 (Paris, France)
• 2027 To be determined

Past years

• Details of past Wikimanias
• 2023 (Singapore)
• 2022 (Virtual event)
• 2021 (Virtual event)
• 2020 (Cancelled)
• 2019 (Stockholm, Sweden)
• 2018 (Cape Town, South Africa)
• 2017 (Montréal, Canada)
• 2016 (Esino Lario, Italy)
• 2015 (Mexico City, Mexico)
• 2014 (London, United Kingdom)
• 2013 (Hong Kong SAR, China)
• 2012 (Washington, D.C., USA)
• 2011 (Haifa, Israel)
• 2010 (Gdansk, Poland)
• 2009 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• 2008 (Alexandria, Egypt)
• 2007 (Taipei, Taiwan)
• 2006 (Boston, USA)
• 2005 (Frankfurt, Germany)

How to run a Wikimania: past practice, best practice, and general guidance

So, you want to organize a Wikimania conference? This guide should give you lots of tips on how to organize Wikimania and where to get help for stuff not on here. It's a work in progress; please feel free to add to it if you see anything missing.

Please note: This is not a set of official requirements for Wikimania. However, it is a collection of best practices that have been developed over the past several years, as well as a comprehensive checklist of the areas to consider when running a conference. The goal of this guide is to help each new team in planning the best conference they can.

Ideally this guide will also prove useful to organizers of other Wikimedia and community events, not just Wikimania. Feel free to adapt and remix it.

• See also:
  • Wikimania checklist, a timetable of Wikimania planning
  • User:Phoebe/Wikimania, thoughts on the Wikimania conference from User:Phoebe
  • wmteam:The Ideal Team (not visible for everybody)
  • wmteam:The Ideal Timeline (not visible for everybody)

Introduction

What is Wikimania?—Wikimania is an annual global conference devoted to Wikimedia projects around the world (Wikipedia and the MediaWiki software). The conference serves both the community and the general public. Wikimania is part community gathering and part business meeting, giving the editors, users and developers of Wikimedia projects an opportunity to meet each other, exchange ideas, report on research and projects, and collaborate on the future of the projects. However, Wikimania is also a chance for educators, researchers, programmers and free culture activists who are interested in the Wikimedia projects to learn more and share ideas about the Wikimedia projects. While the content and structure of Wikimania is mostly consistent from year-to-year, the Wikimania team for each year is free to re-imagine and adapt the Wikimania conference to their city or country, and they may revise the structure of the conference as they see fit. Just as how Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit, Wikimania is organized chiefly by grassroots organizers.

Who is Wikimania for?—This question has been repeatedly debated over many years. First and foremost Wikimania is for the Wikimedia community to come together. However, you may want to consider focusing on additional groups of attendees in addition to the core community, including "fans" of Wikipedia that may be recruited as new editors, journalists and filmmakers, and those from related movements, including the free culture and open data movements. Who do you want Wikimania to be for? The answer to this question will help determine the kinds of activities that you include, such as whether there is a session for new editors, and perhaps the total size of the conference, which could in turn determine what your logistical needs are.

Are you ready to host Wikimania?—The best way to tell whether your community group is ready to host Wikimania is to try bidding for the conference, as described below. Reading and discussing the bid requirements, as well as this handbook, will give you a good idea of whether you are ready to host the conference. Wikimania is a lot of work and requires a substantial commitment over time, but it does not have to be daunting. It is a true "team effort" and you will have the support of collaborators from all over the world, as well as the thanks of the entire Wikimedia movement!

Bidding

Overview

Just like the projects it celebrates, Wikimania is very community-run and is dominated by the community. The Wikimania planning process begins each year with an open bidding process where different community teams submit their own bids so that they can bring Wikimania to their area. These bids are then fleshed out and developed over a few months. In the end, the bids are all reviewed by a Wikimania jury of Wikimedia Foundation members, community representatives, and former organizers, who then decide which country will host the next Wikimania. Once the bid is awarded, that team can go ahead with planning the conference.

The process of bidding is time-consuming but good preparation for planning the conference, and preparing a bid can help a team decide if they are ready to put on the conference. The bid must show a comprehensive and realistic plan for hosting the conference, including a core team of committed volunteers, a proposed location, and a budget. The bid must convince the jury that the team is ready and able to host a great Wikimania.

Meta-Wiki lists the Wikimania judging criteria used for past and present Wikimania bids.

Preparing a bid

Venue—Before launching your bid for the conference, consider where specifically you would like to host Wikimania. Discuss with your team the pros and cons of each possible location and venue, have several proposed venues and choose the city and venue that would be most appropriate for hosting the conference. Factors to judge venues by include:

• Proximity to conference accommodations, as well as to restaurants and shopping areas
• Availability of public transportation, including to and from conference accommodations
• Availability of a large hall for plenary sessions, as well as smaller rooms for conference tracks
• The venue and accommodations will be available for the days of the conference
• Ability to reserve the venue and accommodations well in advance of the conference, one year or more
• Distance between where your conference team lives and the venue

Dates—After choosing the venue, choose the dates of the conference based on the availability of the venue and lodging options. Be sure to select dates that do not interfere with religious or local/national holidays. For instance, past Wikimanias have been held during the holy month of Ramadan, which can limit attendance by Muslims. Additionally, if the conference overlaps with state holidays, many restaurants and suppliers may not be doing business on those days. Check with a good calendar when selecting conference dates.

Submitting a bid

A comprehensive bid will include the following information:

• Background information on the country and city
• Information on the venue
• Composition of the team, including who is assigned with what duty
• Proposed itinerary
• Nearby accommodation options
• Transportation options to the venue and nearby accommodations; check flight costs through websites like Expedia
• Cost of living, including cost of food
• Nearby attractions and sites of interest
• Weaknesses of your proposal, and how you are planning to deal with them
• Draft budget, based on research and solicited price quotes
• Letters of support from the local government and local institutions, including universities

Use bids of previous years, and Wikimania sites of previous years (http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org, http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org, http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org, http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org, http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org, http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org) for tips and ideas.

Judging process

Wikimania bids are judged by a jury of fellow Wikimedians, including past Wikimania organizers. Be sure to answer their questions and keep the established deadlines in mind. During the bidding process, the competing bid teams present their bids before the jury on IRC, giving teams an opportunity to explain the merits of their bid and to answer any questions the jury may have. Prepare for this meeting and coordinate among your team members.

The winning city is announced on the Wikimania-l mailing list by the head of the jury.

Team

Overview

The local team is by far the most critical component to any successful Wikimania. The team is the group of people that will plan and carry out the conference. Part of the planning team—the core team—will need to form at the bidding stage and stay involved throughout the year, coordinating the entire operation. These people should almost all be located near the site of the conference. Some team members will only become involved with specific parts of the conference (for instance, the scholarships committee). Some volunteers will only be able to provide remote assistance online, performing tasks that can be done remotely such as reviewing submissions and scholarship applications. Finally, some team members may only become involved at the last stage of the conference—immediately before, during, and after the conference. These team members may be volunteers who come from the hosting institution or from other local groups (such as a local university).

For more information, see:

• wmteam:The Ideal Team
• wmteam:Talk:The Ideal Team

Building your team

In-person—Try and enlist local Wikimedians in the area. Feel free to look for volunteers and other interested supporters in the vicinity. Also consider recruiting from local colleges and universities, as well as from organizations with aligned interests (especially ones that have experience holding large conferences).

Online—Having an online base of volunteers can help give your conference an international perspective while also expanding the pool of available volunteers beyond those who happen to live where the conference will be. Recruit interested volunteers for OTRS (customer support), email, design-related tasks, and for your program committee. Feel free to announce on the mailing lists and on the Village Pump.

Partnerships—Coordinating with other institutions in hosting Wikimania can help reduce costs while bolstering relations between the Wikimedia movement and outside communities. For instance, Wikimania 2008 was hosted in conjunction with the Library of Alexandria while Wikimania 2012 was hosted in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State Office of eDiplomacy. With the latter, the State Department leveraged their relationship with George Washington University Law School to provide us with a discounted venue. In return, we would allow them to host their quarterly technology conference, "Tech@State," which in July 2012 was to be about wikis in government. Additionally, Wikimania 2012 agreed to cover most of their expenses. This symbiotic relationship allowed Wikimania 2012 to be a great success.

When pursuing partnerships, consider: what can the partner provide for you, and what can you provide for the partner? What effect would it have on your conference's financial burden? Would this partnership be too much of a burden?

Planning team

The structure and organization of your planning team ultimately depends on the number of people available to help, as well as the skills and talents of these people. The following is a list of job descriptions that your planning team will need to accomplish, in no particular order.

• Lead Coordinator—The job of the lead is to make sure the different parts of the planning team are working together and that the conference as a whole is making progress. Consider also having a deputy lead. These two people should have some experience in organizing events or managing people.
• Budget Manager—Prepares the budget and provides for budget control. Works with the hosting organization's treasurer or financial controller.
• Press Contact—This person is responsible for answering emails that come through OTRS, including press inquiries.
• International Coordinator—Depending on the host country's laws, international travelers to Wikimania may need a visa to enter the country. This person's job is to write invitation letters and to help guide people through the visa process and making sure they know all the necessary laws. Consider working with your country's foreign relations office.
• Sponsor Coordinator—A dedicated team member who specializes in arranging sponsorship. This task could also be taken up by a hired conference planner.
• Volunteer Coordinator—Plans for staffing needs, supports the human resources needs of the planning team.
• Program Committee Chair—Heads the program committee while coordinating with the planning team. Coordinates with the speakers, especially keynote speakers.
• Special Events Coordinator—Plans the opening and close parties for Wikimania, as well as other outings that happen during the conference.
• Technical Coordinator—Oversees the server setup, registration software, e-commerce, calendaring, and on-site technical requirements.
• Registration Coordinator—Runs the registration process and answers any questions that may arise.
• Scholarships Coordinator—Serves on the scholarship committee, helps to determine scholarship criteria and arranges accommodations for scholarship awardees during the conference.

Professional planners

Officially speaking, no Wikimania team is required to hire a professional conference planner; however, it is highly recommended. The role of the planner is to handle the logistical, "business" work of the conference so that the volunteer-ran planning team is free to develop the substance of the conference, including the program.

If you decide to hire a planner, ensure that you go with someone with a proven track record and experience. This might be the most important decision related to the organizing that you will make, so feel free to check with any references and past clients. Also negotiate with the planner and have it absolutely clear, in writing, what the expectations of the planner is, including whether his or her role is restricted to the main conference or includes special events or even ancillary tasks like sponsor relations.

Also give consideration to hiring a registration management company to handle the printing of name badges and purchase of conference bags, as well as the management of the on-site registration desk. This is a tremendous amount of work best left to experts in conference logistics.

On-site team

During the days of the conference, you will need an on-site team to carry out the operations of the conference. There should be little overlap between the on-site team and the planning team, since the planning team has a supervisory role in the conference. The on-site team is led by the volunteer coordinator, who is experienced in handling and managing people. The volunteer coordinator will be focused but also friendly, and he or she will know how to diligently and strategically assign volunteer roles during the conference.

There are three broad categories of on-site work: registration, traffic, and session operations:

• Registration volunteers work at the registration desk, handing out name badges and conference bags to the attendees, and answer any questions that may arise.
• Traffic volunteers hold signs and direct the flow of people. With a minimum of hundreds of people attending Wikimania each year, it is very easy for attendees to get lost in the venue.
• Session operators run the different track rooms, providing water for the speakers and making sure the presentation equipment is working. They also moderate sessions as appropriate. People like volunteering to run sessions, as they get the best of both volunteering and attending Wikimania—it's a fun job!

Considering the volume of work that needs to get done, the on-site team may rely on a combination of volunteers and workers recruited from the community paid a day rate. Typically, traffic work and registration should be left to paid staff while session operators should be community volunteers.

Make sure your volunteers stand out as volunteers (during Wikimania 2012, they wore bright green sashes) and always thank volunteers for their work.

Role of Wikimedia Foundation staff

Although Wikimania is not directly ran by the Wikimedia Foundation, the Foundation still helps in organizing. In addition to providing scholarships, they help the planning team secure sponsorships and provide other forms of assistance as necessary.

The conference planning team, after being awarded the bid, will get the opportunity to meet with Wikimedia Foundation staff. Before meeting them, get a clear idea of what you want from the staff. Also consider talking to previous organizers—ask for invoices, purchase orders, and other documents so that you know what the logistical requirements are for Wikimania.

Budget and sponsorship

Overview

Wikimania is made possible by financial support from the Wikimedia Foundation and other sponsoring companies and organizations, as well as from in-kind donations and from attendees' registration fees. In the process of planning and executing Wikimania, you will raise and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. With this volume of money you need formal, written financial controlling and reporting as well as a fiscal agent to handle the money (such as a Wikimedia chapter or other nonprofit organization). Financial controls help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse while financial reporting helps keep track of the many receipts and expenditures while informing stakeholders (especially the Wikimedia Foundation) on the conference's financial health.

Financial control

Different levels of financial control will be necessary depending on the size of the organization; consider consulting an accountant or management expert. Generally speaking, the organization conducting the business aspects of the conference (i.e. the spending and receipt of money) will want to have a fiscal control policy, spelling out who is authorized to incur expenses and by what process expenses are incurred. In the interest of balancing control and expedience, consider a multi-tiered policy where the amount of process required depends on the amount of money being spent. Buying $50 of office supplies and signing a $50,000 contract with a venue don't require the same level of scrutiny. However, for almost all expenses, it is necessary to collect invoices or receipts that explain what was purchased, from whom, when, and for how much. Accurate written records is necessary to maintain positive relations with stakeholders and it makes your job as conference organizers easier.

Expenses

The conference has two basically types of expenses: fixed expenses and variable expenses. Fixed expenses include such costs as the cost of the venue rental—these expenses stay the same no matter how many attendees you have. Variable expenses, however, are the costs for individual participants, and change depending on how many attendees you have, such as the cost of food. Variable expenses are typically calculated per person. Multiplying variable costs by the expected number of attendees and adding this to the fixed costs equals the total cost of the conference that will need to be balanced by sponsorships and registration fees.

From the beginning of the bidding process through the end of Wikimania, you will need to prepare and maintain some form of budget. This is a perpetual process—as you learn more about your expenses and revenue, you will need to account for these changes and make decisions. Bid budgets should take into account both fixed and variable costs. The bid budget should also reflect core (absolutely necessary) expenses and potential extra expenses (such as for a field trip that might only happen if funding is received). The best budgets embrace the principle of conservatism: maximum expenses and minimum revenue are predicted. Good budgets also include a contingency fund to account for an unexpected surge in expenses. Budgets, as forecasts, are inherently imperfect and should be revised with new information. However, careful track should be kept of such changes and the team should always be kept up-to-date on the latest budget.

When bidding to host Wikimania, your budget is an opportunity to impress (or frighten) the jury. Put plenty of effort into it—demonstrate to the jury that you have the capabilities to host a large, expensive conference. When preparing your initial budget, consider what your goals are for this Wikimania and also consider the needs of past conferences. Review the budgets of past conferences and adjust for your conference's expected attendance, as well as for the costs of doing business in your city and country. Revise your budget as new information comes up, and report any major changes to the Wikimedia Foundation. Base your budget on written price quotes from vendors, as well as reasonable estimates based on your experiences and publicly-available information. Plan for emergencies and unexpected cost increases by including a contingency fund in your budget and keeping extra cash on-hand. Upon the completion of the conference, prepare a budget report that compares original cost estimates to the actual costs, along with an explanation for any discrepancies.

To give you an idea on what kind of expenses you will incur, here is data from Wikimania 2012:

• Conference catering: $133,829.30
• Venue rental and equipment costs: $104,651.70
• Special events (Library of Congress opening reception, Buffalo Billiards closing party, event photographer): $74,628.03
• Staffing costs (conference planners, registration management, on-site logistical staff, graphic designer, sign language interpretors): $61,430.00
• Conference video recording and editing: $56,390.00
• Hotels and dorms (both those re-sold to attendees and those staying at the conference's expense): $55,395.65
• Transportation (shuttle buses, transit cards): $26,812.00
• Gift bags, t-shirts, and other merchandise: $10,490.78
• Conference booklets and Wikibucks: $10,441.00
• Speaker costs (transportation for keynote speaker, green room food and beverage): $6,133.94
• Venue signage: $4,187.40
• Volunteer costs (volunteer coordinator travel, volunteer per diem, volunteer sashes, duty phone): $3,415.88
• Lanyards and name badges: $3,077.07
• Transaction fees (PayPal and wire transfer fees): $1,709.48
• Miscellaneous office expenses: $683.17
• Capital expenditures (CLEAR modems for hostel, Mac adapters, credit card readers): $565.40
• Total: $554,422.51

Disclaimer: These figures are meant to be illustrative and does not constitute an audited financial report from Wikimedia District of Columbia. For complete financial information, see Wikimedia District of Columbia's website.

The expenses for each country is not necessarily the same from year to year. Wikimania 2012 is on record as the most expensive Wikimania to date for two reasons: first, the incredibly high cost of doing business in Washington, D.C., and second, the conference had record-breaking attendance and lasted longer than Wikimania conferences that came before it. (As a third reason, the Great Hall of Library of Congress is by no means a cheap place to hold a reception.) Hosting Wikimania in an inexpensive country is one way to keep costs down, as is having a shorter conference. With all decisions, be sure to weigh the costs and benefits.

Sponsorships

On the revenue end of the budget, obtaining sponsorships is a core part of every Wikimania team's job, but it can often be quite difficult and time-consuming. At least one person should have the full-time task of persuading and keeping in touch with sponsors—this person, after securing sponsorships, should also do what they can to make sure they are happy. The Wikimedia Foundation will work with teams to pursue big or international sponsors and can help work with sponsors on behalf of teams, but it is up to every team to pursue at least local and in-kind opportunities and to make sure that materials that make it easier to get sponsorship (such as up-to-date press kits, websites, budgets and other information) are available.

To locate sponsors, start out by looking for locally-based companies and institutions. Look in a related industry, such as technology or education. Always prefer a large known firm to a smaller company, the chances of a large sponsor backing out are low compared to a new, unknown company. Co-branding is also an option to consider with a large sponsors. Try and get vendors to offer discounts for sponsorship and promotional opportunities.

Many institutions, companies, and universities would love for a chance to be associated with an international event like Wikimania. You have to be good at selling the idea of Wikimania to sponsors. Potential sponsors likely have no idea about our community or the conference; however, they will know about Wikipedia. It is up to you to inform them and educate them about what benefit the conference might have for them. Prepare a sponsor kit to show potential sponsors—be sure to include the different levels of sponsorship and the benefits for each. See wm2012:Sponsor Wikimania as an example. Focus on the international recognizability of Wikimania, and offer past sponsor information and past conference statistics. Once you've successfully convinced a sponsor, continually follow up with the sponsor to ensure that they are satisfied—after all, conference sponsorship is a business decision for your sponsors, and they will want to get the most out of their money. (Some sponsors, however, are more hands-off than other sponsors.)

Program

• see also: program checklist (needs work)

Overview

The "program" comprises all of the activities during the conference that attendees engage in -- whether it's listening to academic presentations or participating in a trivia contest. The program is a crucial component of the conference experience.

It is also an area where there is a great deal of leeway for the local team to determine what they want the conference to be. At the same time, there are certain "traditions" (such as the Wikimedia Foundation Board panel) that have been established over the years and planners are welcome to continue these traditions. The program is typically an area where there is a good deal of remote and international help as well as local participation. This is in fact a good area to assign to a team of remote volunteers, as long as there is a liaison to the core local team.

While the program is often considered "the fun part" of the conference, it has many complicated components that often depend on one another. Careful scheduling of program deadlines well in advance -- and sticking to that schedule -- is an important part of planning the conference.

Deciding the overall types of program activities that will be included needs to be done at the very beginning of conference planning, as this will determine how long the conference is. For instance, if you want to have two days of business meetings and hackathon before the main conference, this will add an additional two days to the time for which you will need a venue, accommodation, etc.. You also need to decide early on in the planning process the length of the formal program. Although every Wikipedia to date (2011) has been 3 days long for the actual conference, there is no particular reason why this could not be longer with fewer simultaneous tracks and so fewer "clashes" between talks/sessions that people want to attend.

The program team is often split into several groups -- for instance, the people who are planning the parties and social events and the people who are in charge of the core "academic" program. While these groups can work independently, there needs to be very good coordination between all of the groups and the core team. Several areas, such as the attendee party, the keynote speakers, and Wikimedia Foundation events, will require the input and possible leadership of the core team.

Program components

• core conference program
• Wikimedia Foundation presentations -- board panel, executive director, etc.
• fun activities and social activities (incld. pre & post conference
• show the cultural identity of the represtenting city/nation
• party
• business meetings/chapter meetings
• hackathon
• ask if the participants want to do anything particular for the event like build a collage or installation, try and support any such activity if possible. (Wikimania 2010, had an installation made from empty pipes outside the venue.)
• etc.

Poster session

Some Wikimanias have had a poster session. These have a specific set of requirements to do well.

Open space/unconference

What is open space, requirements, etc.

Team Building exercise

Consider a large team building exercise at the beginning, its a great way for people to bond and get to know each other.

Cultural exhibitions

The 2010 Wikimania introduced an element of cultural exhibition, with the screening of a film and performance of a symphony concert. The idea is to have something that the entire community can enjoy together.

In 2010, the Wikipedia-related documentary Truth in Numbers? was screened, and there was a symphony concert celebrating the host city and the cultural impact it had had and continues to have on the world.

Other options could be to have a call for submission of videos, with some of the videos screened at the event and a winner could be picked by the audience.

Other Ideas

Quiz

You can consider having small quiz sessions to give out merchandise. The questions could be related to Wikipedia or encyclopedic. Wikipedians might enjoy the chance to see how encyclopedic they are. Have an overall Quiz progression through the event, with ladder matches and competitions between winners to crown a single winner.

Submission system and timeline

Program review, scheduling, and speaker management

• example schedule outline

Keynotes

• keynotes and invitations to send out

Parties and events

For some the parties are the most important part of Wikimania. Parties are a great way for people to meet and get to know each other, provided you have at least part of the venue quiet enough for conversation. Try and organize at least two such events. Look for venues in the vicinity, if negotiated before-hand discounted rates could be arranged. Consider the safety and distance to the Accommodations, make sure the venue is not located too far off for the parties. Also, must provide non-alcoholic options to everyone. During the day time, coffee shops or similar venues could also be considered where Wikimedians might stick around and meet each other. The most important aspect is to facilitate social interaction between all the participants.

On-site program needs

Best practice: A large, printed on-site schedule that's kept up-to-date alongside the online schedule. (Wikimania 2007)

• Program needs to coordinate with tech & venue
• Onsite printed schedules, signs
  • You will have schedule changes that you need to communicate. Two things: 1) The online schedule is always canonical. Note this in the printed program, and point it out as well. 2) Wi-Fi will sometimes be flaky or unavailable. Therefore, ensure that there's a large, visible printed schedule in the entrance area that is updated as needed. (Updating with a sharpie pen is better than not updating at all.) Nice to have: Posting a room's program near the door -- but remember you'll have to keep those up-to-date as well.
• Moderators!!!!
• Someone from the organization (e.g. the moderator) should stay in each room and get a copy of all presentations slide to make sure that they'll later uploaded to Commons or wikimaniawiki.

Program team best practices

• Program team / committee best practices
• program committee; wikimania-program@lists
  • international committee! not just local team

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

On-site logistics and attendee services

• see also: logistics checklist (needs work)

Overview

This is the "physical" part of the conference -- dealing with on-site services, including the venue. This is the part of the conference that affects the experience of attendees and their comfort: where they sleep, what they eat, and how they get around. People usually remember this part of the conference -- if they don't have good sleeping arrangements, that can spoil the rest of the experience.

These details are not very glamorous but they are a crucial part of planning an event. In addition, this is the part of the conference where budgeting becomes very important, since small differences in the cost of a meal can add up to big changes in your overall budget.

The final part of attendee logistics are on-site services, which include registration check-in, information services, childcare, presentation logistics and teams to deal with any emergencies. When several hundred people converge in one place, there will be issues that will need to be dealt with, and the on-site team will be the ones dealing with them.

The team for this diverse set of areas may consist of several individuals, many of whom will typically be part of or will work closely with the core team. These team members generally need to be local, so that they can conduct in-person negotiations, site visits, etc. However, the logistics team will also need to coordinate with every other team -- since logistics will be the ones setting up registration tables, helping the tech team get access, assisting the program team with room assignments, providing and receiving budget information and so on. On-site services will be coordinated by this team, but may actually be provided by a "last-minute" larger crew of volunteers who may come from the venue, a local university, the local meetup group, etc. Many people will be required throughout the conference to provide these services, and these people will need to be coordinated by the volunteer coordinator, which should be an assigned position (*not* the lead organizer).

Venue coordination

• venue coordination and planning
• venue requirements for Wikimania (presentation rooms, auditoriums, lounges, etc)
• coordinating with tech & program teams

On-site "war room"

• The venue should have space for an on-site planning/organizational space where the organizers can congregate and do work. This room should be open ONLY to organizers. It should be stocked with:
  • printer
  • paper
  • scanner
  • pens
  • snacks&drinks
  • whiteboards
  • (network)cables
  • wired! network connectivity (the wifi runs the risk of overloading)
  • powerstrips (there's never too many powerstrips)

See also Wikimania 2011 lessons#Venue

Lounge/social space

Wikimania 2007 lounge

Wikimania 2010 patio setup - with couches AND beer, and a view of the waterway :)

This is one of the unusual requirements of Wikimania, compared to most conferences -- Wikimedians love to hang out :) Nothing makes a big group of Wikimedians happier than having a quiet area with access to wifi, coffee (or beer) and couches on which they can sit and discuss plans for world domination (and/or improving the projects). In fact you could probably host all of Wikimania successfully just by giving people a big room with enough couches in it. This social space may be in the venue itself or it may be in the accommodation space. Ideally, it's somewhere that everyone has access to. Other requirements include:

• big enough so that many people can hang out here
• easy access for long hours -- preferably pre- & post- (especially post) conference, as well as during
• access to food and drink
• comfortable - not too noisy
• flexible - so attendees can set up their own tables, exhibits, podcasting sessions, etc.
• with power outlets and wifi

Accommodation

Accommodation is one of the biggest headaches for Wikimania, since we would like both on-site and very cheap housing for our participants -- a combination that is often quite difficult to find. It is preferable for Wikimania attendees a) to sleep on site or as near the conference site as possible and b) ideally be sleeping in 1 location.

Options

• Bulk booking in advance at hotels- Many Budget priced hotels would consider subsidized rates for bulk booking especially in off-season or when negotiated in advance.
• Dorms- University, schools or other Institutions can provide lodging depending upon the season and availability.
• Hostels-There are lots of Hostels that offer lodging for highly subsidized rates.

See also Wikimania 2011 lessons#Accommodations and Wikimania 2010 lessons#Accommodation

Food

Lunch at Wikimania 2006

• Coffee, coffee and more coffee. If it is hot weather, water is essential.
  • Even in an area where it's not normally hot at the time Wikimania is held, plan for heat. Every Wikimania since 2007 has been hot.
• Always have water around - also between coffee breaks. You should make sure with your caterer that water is always available. Some might just remove everything after breaks, due to misunderstanding or costs.
• Snacks.
• Food service- Professional catering is ideal in most cases, especially if prices are competitive and negotiated before-hand.
• Account for various dietary preferences:
  • Vegetarian options.
  • Many editors avoid pork for religious/cultural reasons.
  • Always advisable to have Kosher/Halal options.
• Catering staff won't necessarily speak good English, so labels for the food and it's ingredients would help a lot for those with specific dietary needs

Transportation

Every locations differs in terms of its requirement for transportation. Some things to consider regardless of the venue

• Distance to and from the Airport
• Distance from the Venue to the center of the city.

If the distances are high, prices and bulk deals could be arranged before-hand with a transport option like a Taxi company to provide pick up service for the event.

Handouts to attendees

A welcome pack including:

• program
• conference information
• map showing venue, party venue(s), accommodation sites, location of nearby museums, transport links, recommended cafes/restaurants, Churches, temples, mosques and synagogues
• listings, brochures, pins, stickers and other knick-knacks.
  • Another option to consider is co-branding with a sponsor or finding a sponsor to provide the material altogether, sponsors can include their promotional material in the pack.
• tshirt - remember Wikimedians come in many sizes, and children in the creche expect their Tshirts too.

Childcare

• An ideal option to consider, but do bear in mind the security and safety of Children. Providing materials for children, babies is a thoughtful option to consider.

Wikimedians want childcare; there are always a small group of attendees with children (and growing every year).

• best practices for providing childcare

On-site services

• Information desk
• lost and found
• tech help
• presentation room help

Security

A high proportion of Wikimania attendees will have laptops or netbooks with them, depending on the level of local crime this may necessitate on site security to ensure that people only leave the venue with their own laptops. In Buenos Aires several computers were stolen and security had to be implemented with guards checking every computer that was taken out of the venue and in and out of certain rooms.

As a precaution, laptops should be labelled as part of the registration process.

Insurance and emergencies

• about event insurance
• how to set up an emergency team
• emergency info for participants
• first aid and health teams

Printing and production

• You will need to print and produce a good deal of material:

• signs
• conference books
• tshirts, etc

This is an entire area of logistics in itself. Some things will need to be produced well before the conference, and some right at the end.

Logistics team best practices

• logistics team best practices

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

On-site technology

Overview

Unsurprisingly, everyone wants great wifi at the conference! Perhaps surprisingly, this is remarkably hard to get at conference venues. In addition, since Wikimania is a global conference with a world-wide audience, recording sessions and making them available (during and after the conference) is important.

These technical areas require pre-planning and are complex enough to need a dedicated team.

Attendee wifi

this may not be the ideal solution, but sometimes you need guerilla networking. Wikimania 2005

.

For many attendees of Wikimania, WiFi is the only connection to the outside world (which we can't live without) since we are traveling internationally and our cellular devices don't have service or would cost a fortune due to roaming fees.

Consider that you have about 600 visitors, so you need to be prepared for many devices. Most contractors would never consider that every Wikimania attendee will have at least one device that wants an IP and potentially two or three. With this in mind, a /23 (510 devices), or even a /22 (1022 devices), subnet (instead of the usual /24 with 254 hosts) should be considered. Additionally you could limit the DHCP lease time to 1 or 2 hours so that addresses can be reallocated often.

A wifi access point can - according to vendors - handle up to 20 concurrent devices. In practice you can support around a hundred people with one AP as they are mostly not using wifi all at the same time. Consider getting cheap wifi gear and more of those. There are only three wifi channels which don't have overlaping frequencies (1, 6, 11), so you can have up to three wifi gears per room. Put them into three different corners of the hall and limit the radio power so they don't interfere with wifi in the next room or in the lobby.

Graphical representation of Wi-Fi channels in 2.4 GHz band

Additionally you might also put up 5 GHz wifi (802.1n) but these are not licensed in all countries.

• List of WLAN channels

Bandwidth on the wifi is less of a problem, much more important is to support enough concurrent users in big halls and to avoid interference. Therefore also check with the venue if they have wifi - maybe even in their office - and switch them completely off.

Recording/streaming of sessions

Do it yourself

Streaming and recording is what we really should support on every Wikimania, but it needs a lot of resources.

For a minimal setup you will need (per lecture room):

• a camera (DV with Firewire)
• a PC (with Linux and Firewire)
• one person handling the camera and monitoring the streaming

The simple setup uses an Icecast server which is hosted somewhere in the internet (Manuel has done that in the past for free). With a few command line tools you can grab the camera input from Firewire (dvgrab), encode it into Ogg/Theora (ffmpeg2theora) and push it via HTTP/ICE2 to the streaming server (oggfwd). You can simply run dvgrab and ffmpeg2theora in a second instance to record the lectures onto the local harddrive in a different format. This can be started and stopped by the person handling the camera before and after each lecture, so you get separated files. If you have an additional volunteer you can collect the recordings from the computers immediately after, adjust the beginning and end, convert and upload them soon after the lecture has ended.

Sound

To improve the sound check that your cameras have a separate audio input or play with ffmpeg2theora so it uses the audio from your soundcard instead. If you use the camera make sure you can switch of Auto-Gain. Get a small mixer - you might already have one to adjust the microphone volume in the hall - and use the recording output from there as sound input. The camera person should use a headset to verify the sound is good at all time, a VU meter in the mixer would be also helpful to be able to stick with a certain level.

Better Video

If you can afford, get a second camera for a static position that captures the whole lecture scene while the first camera will be guided and captures close-ups of the speaker. You will need a separate camera person for this.

Per video mixer you can mix the two images from both cameras to provide a more lively scene and better vision to the viewers. A good video mixer can also capture the VGA input from the projector - the projectors mostly have a VGA output where you can capture the image they are showing. This way you can also mix in the slides shown during the lecture which improves readability and overall quality of the video greatly.

Contractors

If you are able to get a contractor make sure:

• streams can be watched with open source tools (eg. no flash)
• recordings will be provided in a free format (either Ogg/Theora or raw DV)
• when the recordings will be provided and to whom
• That the recordings will be released under an appropriate license

The last item is important, in the past we had problems that contractors have promised to provide a DVD with all recordings which we never received, despite asking several times.

A contractor should be able to provide all the equipment and staff as outlined above, especially the "Better Video" stuff. A typical Wikimania will need a team of ten people (five concurrent lectures) to do all this. Including the rent of the equipment 1000-2000 EUR per day is a reasonable price for this.

Kaltura, an open source video portal and streaming company is also working with the Wikimedia Foundation on video editing on Wikimedia Commons. They have offered to do streaming for free, provide staff and equipment.

• need: Manuel Schneider (streaming/recording); wm2009 team too

Upload

The videos must most of all be uploaded for future usage; this is even more important than live streaming.

After videos have been edited (basically, just split and named properly), it's suggested to upload them to the Internet Archive at the highest resolution you have (raw DV is ok, there's no size limit), one video/session per item, for instance via the S3 API or the very reliable bulk uploader. This way, videos will be converted to several formats and will be available immediately for streaming and download.

Ogg videos in reasonable bitrates can then be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons for backup and inclusion in the wikis' pages (such as session pages and schedule); to circumvent the size limit a sysadmin will be needed, see commons:Help:Server-side upload for instructions (it's way easier if you provide them in correct format: with the previous step, archive.org will have already produced the Ogg videos whatever the initial format, and you'll only have to send links to the sysadmin, with no need of conversion or hard disks).

Technology team

Know your peers

Be on the site early, if possible visit the site a few months prior to Wikimania to check the following:

• internet uplink:
  • existing - can we use it?
  • do we need to buy our own uplink?
• cabled network:
  • there must be at least one RJ45 socket in each lecture hall, connected to a central network rack
  • do we need to bring extra switches? how many switches, how many ports, where can we put them (power, uplink nearby)?
  • do we need extra cabling?
  • how do we get access to the central network infrastructure during the conference?
• wireless network:
  • is there any wifi already in place we can either use or shut off?
  • where can we put our own wifi gears, how to hook them up to the cabled network, where is power?
• audio:
  • do the lecture rooms have amplification available?
  • how many microphones are available (wireless?)
    • needed: two for small rooms, four in the big halls
  • mixer available? - recording output needed for streaming / recording!
  • if we need to rent more equipment: Do they have a contractor for that?

Make a list of all important persons and their mobile numbers, know when they are available during the conference and where to find them:

• facility manager - helps you with locking / unlocking doors, power issues, lights
• audio technician - in case there is a problem with the local audio equipment
• IT manager - to get access to server / phone cabinet with internet uplink, switches etc.

During the conference

You need at least one person in the local team who exactly knows the venue and has access to all the information listed above. This person has to be immediately available in case of emergency. Radios assure the communication between Wikimania office and the rest of the local team while they are around.

Additionally one or two volunteers who can jump in wherever needed: To exchange the batteries of a microphone or reset a wifi gear that has locked up.

Spare parts

• check the batteries needed in the wireless microphones - have a lot of spares
  • we [who??] exchanged the batteries - just in case - every morning to prevent them dying during a lecture
  • have one set of batteries in each lecture room - the session chair should take care of them
• have one or two extra wifi gears available
• an extra set of network cables is always needed
• bring as many power strips as you can find

• best practices for an on-site tech team

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

Registration

• see also registration checklist (needs work)

Overview

All your preparations are made in vain if people can't register for your awesome conference! Registration is a headache. Fortunately, you can draw on the experiences of past teams.

In order to register people for the conference, you need to have:

• a registration system set up
• a list of the information that you want to collect from attendees
• registration fees decided and a system for payment set up
• enough information about the conference so that people want to register!

The timeline for registration should be set at the beginning of conference planning and based on the date of the conference, especially if you are offering tiered (early/late) registrations. Registration needs to be in good time for people to be able to book holidays, get cheap early booking deals on flights and get travel visas. However, registration is also dependent on information from many parties (see below). It is helpful to set up registration infrastructure as soon as possible so that when all the variables fall into place it can be easily switched on.

Once everyone is registered, the registration team isn't done -- there is an on-site component to registration as well. All attendees will need badges and will need to be checked in.

The registration team will need to work closely with the budget, scholarships, program, press and logistics teams. The budget team should determine best practices for handling money and where the money should go, as well as setting registration fees. The scholarships team and registration team will need to coordinate about how to register participants who are also applying for scholarships. And the program team and registration team will need to coordinate about how to register program speakers, as well as how to register the long list of VIPs and guests that the program team will have: everyone from Jimmy Wales to the local dignitary. And the registration team will need to work with the press team for issuing and keeping track of press passes.

Finally, the registration team must stay in close contact with the logistics team, who will provide cut-off dates for registration (for instance, no more registrations after x date so that we can order the food), as well as information about accommodation (which may or may not be a part of the registrations process). The logistics team will need an updated and accurate count of registrations throughout the process; it's probably helpful for the registration team to get in the habit of making a weekly report to the core team throughout the registration season.

Registration systems

• overview
• registration checklist
• what a registration systems should do

• receipts
• flexibility to waive fees
• good reporting

• buying vs making: registration systems of the past

Registration site

• Who to take code from / write it from scratch??
• When to open registration
• Where to host it
• How to modify it
• Paypal buttons
• Other payment means
• I18n of registration site
• Management system for registration data

Visas

Probably one of the most time-consuming and complicated thing to consider. As Wikimanias get larger, the number of countries represented also increases. Some familiarity with Visa Procedures would go a long way, consider grouping countries by their Visa Requirements. Use similar options for all the visitors from a single category. Also, consider having a dedicated team member checking and following through on progress of Visas.

• Visas, invitation letters

Badges

• This sounds simple but is always more difficult - people's registration details change, people turn up on the day wanting to register, the printer breaks, someone made a typo (you'll be blamed even if the attendee goofed), someone is registered as a normal attendee but want a speaker/organiser/press/... badge, etc. - be prepared to create new badges on-demand at registration.
• Need to include the name of the conference, a logo to prevent easy duplication/faking, the Username, and give each attendee the choice of which of the following other information they want displayed

Firstname

Surname

Username

Home Project(s)

• Ideally you want the details printed on both sides of the badge
• Font should be as large as you can fit on the badge - but notice that some people have very long names and user names (over 40 characters is not unknown in attendees).
• Badges need to be attached to Wikimanians. This is usually done by hanging them round the neck on a lanyard with an option for clipping them to clothing. Pins are a bad idea (difficult for some clothes, potential for injury, less visible).
• Use different colors and text labels for different type of Attendees: Organisers, Volunteers, Speakers - and most important: Press.
• Make a small booklet with the schedule and most important information (such as venue layout, nearby shops / pharmacies, shuttle schedules) and put this booklet inside the badges, so it can't get lost. (Great idea from Wikimania 2011.)
• Not all information on the badge is of equal importance. Use different font sizes to easily identify the important bits (e.g. name).
• Landscape badges have more space for (large print) names
• username@homeproject is quite long to read - consider separating onto different lines
• You (or your funding sources) may wish to add sponsors' logos to the badges too.
• Some (generally 2-3) attendees will not want their photo taken, and will ask for an extra badge to indicate this. Sometimes we have included this either on the badge or as a sticker to apply by attendees on registration.

Registration team best practices

• Have an onsite and an offsite registration team. They can be composed of local volunteers, organizers, staff- an ideal option is to consider a mix of all for the onsite registration team.
• Important to have a public facing registration team. Preferably people with a high degree of familiarity with the area, to offer advice, directions or guidance.
• Co-ordinate with the offsite team regularly to keep track of issues, new registrations, cancellations etc..

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

• Registration must start well before the deadline for attendees to apply for visas, especially if the host countries visa process requires one to register before getting a visa.

Scholarships

• see also scholarships checklist (needs work)

Overview

A scholarship -- or individual grant of money -- provides a way for Wikimedians of limited means to travel all over the world to the conference. They are a crucial part of making a Wikimania a success.

Scholarship money can come from several sources: in past years, individual Chapters, private organizations, and the Wikimedia Foundation have all sponsored scholarships. Organizations may be approached specifically for sponsorship of scholarships or scholarship money may be part of a general fund.

Scholarship recipient criteria can vary; for instance, individuals may be selected for scholarships based on participation in the Wikimedia movement (e.g., a chapter officer or long-time editor), a role in the Wikimania conference (e.g., organizer or program presenter), geography or other demographics (e.g., developing countries or women), or need (e.g., students). The amount of individual scholarships may be fixed or variable depending on individual need.

The Wikimiedia Foundation generally takes the lead on coordinating the general funding for scholarships with the help of a very dedicated committee of volunteers. It typically takes a dedicated coordinator and committee to coordinate the scholarship process and review applications. Scholarship applications and funding needs to be done well in advance of the conference and be coordinated with the registration and program processes and timelines. Additional complications to running the scholarships process for Wikimania include those that come with running a global conference -- for instance, scholarship recipients may need visas to the country Wikimania will be held in, which means that they must receive their scholarship far in advance of the conference. In some cases, the scholarships team has taken the additional step of assisting scholarship recipients with travel or buying travel tickets directly. Assigning scholarships is complex but worthwhile.

Scholarship application systems

• Who to take code from
• When to open and close scholarship application
• Where to host it
• How to modify it
• Assembling an international scholarship review team
• Scholarship review process
• How to mass-mail participants
• I18n of scholarship site?
• Running chapter-funded scholarship side programs

Wikimedia Foundation scholarships

The Wikimedia Foundation sets aside money every year explicitly to fund the costs of select volunteers to attend Wikimania. The number of scholarships has varied year to year, based on funding as well as location of Wikimania, as well as the designation of full versus partial scholarships. In years past, these scholarships have been open to anyone to apply, and can either be a full scholarship or a partial scholarship:

• Full scholarships: awarded round trip travel, dorms accommodations, and registration
  
• Partial scholarships: subsidized up to 300 euros of travel expenses
  

Goals

The Wikimedia Foundation chooses to support these scholarships with the following goals in mind:

• To make Wikimania a successful and productive international conference
  
• To support the Wikimedia projects by encouraging participation
  
• To enrich the conference with attendance by a diverse group of participants in the Wikimedia movement
  

Roles

Review Committee

The scholarship process is started in late fall, the year before Wikimania, with the establishment a scholarship review committee. The committee consists of 8-10 individuals from various Wikimedia communities around the world. One of those committee members should be from the Wikimedia Foundation, one should be from the chapter hosting Wikimania, and one should also be the technical adviser (i.e., run the application system). Typically, members from last year's scholarship committee are invited to remain and additional recruitment is done on an as-needed basis.

The review committee is primarily responsible for the front-end of the scholarship process:

1. Determining the criteria for scholarship recipient selection (e.g., establishing the weighting of the different selection criteria, outlining questions on application), and
2. Assessing and scoring the scholarship applicants (e.g., going through a database of applicants and assigning scores based on pre-determined selection criteria)

Tasks:

• Participate in periodic online meetings with scholarships program manager and other committee members (Oct-Jan)
• Review and edit communications material (e.g., Scholarship wiki, application questions) (Nov-Jan)
• Screen scholarship applications for spam (Jan-Feb)
• Rate final round of scholarship applicants (Feb-Mar)

Scholarship Program Manager

This individual from WMF is the chief contact for the WMF scholarships. S/he is in charge of selecting and organizing the review committee and ensuring the scholarship sites and communications are all coordinated and executed. S/he will receive the applicant scores from the review committee and is responsible for the final selection of scholarship recipients. S/he will also work with recipients in coordinating travel to/from Wikimania.

In 2011, this person was Jessie Wild. For contact see User:Jwild.

Local/Host team

The host of Wikimania should set aside one individual to be involved on the scholarship team. This individual would preferably serve as the tech coordinator of the scholarship process, as well - assuming capacity - as a representative on the review committee. The benefits of having this individual be the technical lead is to facilitate coordination between the (1) scholarship applications, (2) Wikimania registration, and (3) Wikimania presentation applications.

Another major time investment of this individual is answering questions, historically via OTRS. This person is ideally situated to answer these questions given their (1) local knowledge (e.g., visa questions), (2) close interaction with the Wikimania planning team (e.g., timing, accommodations), and (3) familiarity with scholarship rules (e.g., expenses covered).

Timeline

The timing obviously can flex based on when Wikimania is occurring. Roughly:

Date	Activity	Owner
October-December	Set-up scholarship committee Determine selection criteria Outline specific timeline / key dates Finalize scholarship application Test scholarship application	Review committee Scholarship program manager
October-December	Set up scholarship application site Enable repository for storing applications and interface for scoring applications	Tech coordinator
January	Scholarship application is open Advertise Scholarship applications (e.g., Central Notice; mailing lists; blogs)	Tech coordinator Scholarship program manager Local team representative
February	Scholarship application is closed	Tech coordinator
January - March	Scholarship committee reviews applications and rates based on selection criteria	Review committee
March	WMF selects scholarships based on committee's recommendation and special considerations	Scholarship program manager
Mid-March	Scholarship recipients are notified (~3 weeks to accept/decline)	Tech coordinator Scholarship program manager
April-May	Scholarship recipients work with WMF and travel agency to book flights	Scholarship program manager
May - June	Help scholarship recipients get visa assistance, if necessary	Local team representative
May - August	Help scholarship recipients get reimbursed for travel costs	Local team representative Scholarship program manager

Chapter scholarships

Some chapters provide their own scholarships for different reasons. There are several options to deal with that:

• Chapters give money to the WMF scholarship pot. This is quite simple and straightforward, nothing special needs to be done. But the chapters won't be able to influence who is getting scholarships.
• Chapters provide additional funds for scholarship attendees of their own choice. This way the chapter can influence to whom they give their money. This might be useful if a chapter wants to enhance participation from its own country or helpful for the WMF scholarship team as chapters might know their local Wikimedians better to be able to rank them. This kind of scholarships needs to be coordinated with the scholarship team, all applications following a certain criteria will be forwarded to the chapter. The chapter decides and informs the scholarship team which applications it will accept and fund. The other applications will go back to the WMF pool and may be funded by the regular scholarship program. The Wikimania organisers can decide to invoice the chapter directly for these scholarships while providing discount codes for the registration, so scholarship recipients don't have to pay in advance.
• Chapters do their own scholarship program which is completely independant. There isn't a lot to deal with by the scholarship or organiser team. The problem is though to avoid duplicate applications and scholarships from the seperate programs.

Scholarships from other organizations

Sometimes outside organizations volunteer to sponsor attendance for Wikimania. For example, in 2012, the Soros Foundation and ROSEdu both offered scholarships to qualifited individuals upon the recommendation of the Wikimania Scholarships Review Committee.

These scholarships are typically administered by the organization itself, and their recipients go through the same selection process as other scholarship recipients.

Scholarships team best practices

• best practices for a scholarships team
• committee/team
• need Sara/Cary to help with this

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

External communications

• see also external communications checklist (needs work)

Overview

People need to know about the conference to make it a success! That is where communications come in.

You will need to publicize the conference widely and have a great conference wiki that is up-to-date and makes people want to attend. This is a good job for a combination of remote and in-person volunteers. In addition, you will need a team that is available to answer questions from potential attendees, speakers and volunteers, both in public forums (like the mailing lists) and private ones (like email through OTRS). While this is something that is ongoing throughout the conference planning process, it will become a full-time job just before and during the conference.

Finally, working with the press is a crucial part of the conference. Wikimania is always well-covered by the press, and the conference is a great opportunity to promote Wikimedia and the local Wikimedia community and to make announcements and give interviews. While not every Wikimania has had a dedicated press conference, dealing with the press (including issuing press passes, a press kit, and explaining and promoting the conference) is a job that every team must take on. This is a good area for the local team to partner with Foundation staff and other Wikimedians who routinely deal with press and public relations.

Conference wiki

• Who to ask to open wikimania 20XX.wikimedia.org for you
• Remember to ask for Translate extension to be enabled when the wiki is created.
• Set up an interwiki link: Interwiki map (e.g., wm2012.wikimedia.org)
• How to import last year's pages and templates into there, organize translations etc.
• How to gain admin permissions there
• What it must contain

• It wouldn't be advisable to have a new wiki for every year, but consider having a centralized wiki for every year, or run each wikimania as a project within meta. The resources from the last year could be added and used by the next team.
  • however, past practice is in fact that there has been a new wiki for every year, following the format wikimaniaxxxx.wikimedia.org. There are pros and cons to this.

Sitenotices, mailing lists and more

Dedicated team member to handle the communications, back-office operations. Feel free to ask for help for Site notices, Watch-list notifications etc. to recruit volunteers in your local vicinity. Assign someone to manage the mailing list discussion or keep track yourself for any queries or requests. OTRS and email queries also need to be answered. Other team members could also be recruited to help who might be located remotely, the only requirement should be their availability and communication with the team member, it is advisable to have one person from your team overseeing this side of operations.

Mailing lists to be present on and where applicable also manage

Many Wikimania mailing lists already exist. Some are public and some are private. For the private lists, the "new team" takes over the list every year. Multilingual coordination is acceptable and expected, especially on the private lists; there is not a need to start a new list just for your language. International planners subscribed to these lists expect to get messages in lots of languages.

Public lists

• wikimania-l
• foundation-l

Private lists

• wikimania-planning-l
• wikimania-program-l
• wikimania-scholarships-l
• wikimania-core-l
• internal-l

CentralNotices

• How to put up Wikimania-related CentralNotices
• Who to ask for it
• Where to prepare them

OTRS

OTRS is an e-mail ticket system set up for all of Wikimedia. See the list of queues (and people with access) on the Wikimania team wiki.

A dedicated team member checking the back-office operations like keeping track of issues reported on OTRS and following up is an ideal option. It would be advisable to consider someone familiar with OTRS, if the language difference is not an issue consider asking volunteers located remotely to help.

General documentation about OTRS is available on the OTRS wiki and is not presented here to avoid duplication.

• How to get permissions to OTRS queues?

  Have a senior member of the Wikimania team contact an OTRS admin to request an account for you, providing your name and e-mail address.

Logo and permissions

• where is the official logo, how to get trademark permissions

Translations

• Thus far, English has been the most widely spoken language at Wikimania. Please consider having english translations available for any materials, directions, announcements, followed by the second most widely spoken language.
• Consider using Meta in advance to get translation in some of the most widely spoken languages for directions, banners, important material that might be needed.
• If the host country is not English speaking it is normal to have some elements of the welcome and closing ceremonies in the host language. Thanks to local sponsors, helpers and volunteers do not need translation into English, the Wikimania crowd are quite capable of clapping at the appropriate moments.
• Buenos Aires was a bilingual conference in English and Spanish. Organisers contemplating a similar approach are advised to look at what was done on that occasion. In particular:

1. Clearly mark on the program which language each event will be in and whether translation will be available.
2. Include languages in the threads so that people who are more comfortable in one of the conference languages can choose to mainly participate in that language.

Press and press conference

• If your team has someone familiar with dealing with press then get them material and directions before-hand. Alternatively, an option to consider is enlisting outside help to manage press relations for the event. Get a local PR agency or a PR person to do a press release, go over the material and be available to the media for questions, etc..

Communications team best practices

• Best practices in building a communications team

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

Internal communication and planning tools

Overview

How do you coordinate all of the moving parts of the conference? It is a job that can feel overwhelming at times. This is where good internal communication is crucial. Making a communications plan up-front and sticking to it will help you run the conference smoothly and efficiently. Good communications includes making sure that all team members know what is going on, what their responsibilities are and how to get the answers to questions; making sure that planning meetings are well-documented for the sake of those who join your team later; and making sure that planning documents (including budgets and timelines) are up-to-date and accessible.

Good communications makes it possible to get additional volunteers, since people are more likely to help if they can figure out what is going on and if they know what the areas are where their assistance is needed. It can also help the lead organizers feel less stress, since if you have a good plan that is well communicated (and all your team members communicate back to you) you will know exactly at what stage of the planning process you are in and what needs to be done next.

Finally, good communication is required in a few circumstances -- for instance, for reporting back to the Wikimedia Foundation and other sponsors. All of your funders will require clear, prompt and detailed communication about the state of the conference and how their money is being put to use.

Internal communication

mailing lists

• wikimania-planning-l for all volunteers - everyone can sign-up there
• wikimania-core-l for the core team

Wiki

• wikimaniateam.wikimedia.org

Planning tools

Planning the conference is like planning any major project, and typical project management tools will be helpful.

• GANT charts
• Timelines
• Regular planning meetings
• Mailing lists
• Roadbook (a roadbook is a document that centralises everything in one place, from registration particulars to phone numbers of hotels attendees are staying at, to list of speakers). The roadbook can be on a wiki, but it must be easily printable so that organisers who are running around can have it in their hands while running around.
• Volunteer Handout: a document with contacts, timetables, assignments for each team of volunteers.

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

After the conference

Overview

After the conference is done, you will feel giddy from lack of sleep, have lots of adrenaline from running around, and be happy from the knowledge that you've finished a huge accomplishment! You can congratulate yourself and your team on a job well done. But you're still not quite done. After you get a little rest and have a celebration meal, there will still be activities you need to complete.

Immediately at the end of the conference, you'll need to make sure the physical space and attendees are taken care of. Is there a place to store extra supplies, like extra t-shirts; is the space cleaned up; is technical equipment removed? For attendees, a certain number will likely be staying after the conference; do these people have a central place to gather? You don't need to plan activities for attendees after the conference, but it can be a nice touch and is a good job for local volunteers (but not for the lead organizers -- who will be exhausted at this point).

After this stage, the next most immediate thing to take care of is the conference "post-mortem", which should be done as soon as possible after the end of the conference while the whole experience is fresh in everyone's mind. The post-mortem very simply means that you analyze each area of the conference (you might use the breakdown of this handbook) and have team members report on what went wrong and what went right. The post-mortem serves two purposes: knowledge collected from the session will help future teams decide what to do, and it can provide a kind of closure to the experience for the team.

You may also want to collect attendee feedback about the conference, either online or in person at the end of the event.

The next crucial set of things to do after the conference is to finish your reporting. You will have receipts and final bills to account for, and you will need to make sure all of your accounting is finished. You will then have to submit reports to the Wikimedia Foundation and any of your other sponsors that require them. You may also choose to post a final report for the community.

Lastly, attendees will want to see the videos of sessions that were recorded and any other program notes (such as presenter slides) posted online for later viewing. This is a process that may stretch for several weeks (or even months) but a timeline for this should be developed and followed by the technical and program teams, who will respectively be in charge of these areas.

The very last thing to do is to share your experiences with the conference on this wiki and in the handbook. A representative from your team will also be invited to join the Wikimania bid jury for the following year. Congratulations, you ran Wikimania!

Final reporting

Post-mortems

Sharing the conference

Historical information

• Ideas for how past teams have met this challenge

Appendices

Contacts

• list of contacts for various areas

Checklist

• See Wikimania/checklist

Timeline

From wmteam:The Ideal Timeline

A timeline for Wikimania planning.

Immediately after winning the bid

Venue and accommodation

• Contact venue and book it for the dates of the event.
• Contact hotels and rooms, negotiate prices and book sufficient rooms.

Website

• Placeholder webpage with information

Sponsors

• Early sponsor inquiries -- in-kind venue and lodging sponsors if possible

Program

• Early keynote invitations possible.
• Identify list of interesting speakers, topics, community discussions

Staff

• Core team recruiting
  • Query bid team for interest & availability for further planning

12 Month out

Budget

• Complete draft budget based on proposal received.
• Recruit Sponsors

9-7 months out

Templates finalized

Registration

• Fee schedule & calendar set
• Online registration opens for community
• Visa invitation templates (speaker, vip, other)
• Attendee invitation templates (vip, other)

Program

• CfP system set up
• Set content themes
• Begin speaker invitations

Communication

• Placeholder website w/dates
  • First draft of calendar of related events
• Year-specific logo design
• First save the date! notice, blog posts
• Call for participation (papers, &c) to community
• Call for participation (wide broadcast)
• Translations started of the above
• Translations of CfP system

Materials

• City-specific draft docs (bid team followup)
  • directions, local events/outings sheets

Logistics

• Initial venue walk-through
• Draft A/V, projection, wireless, mic needs w/ venue staff

Budget & finances

• Final budget, overall
• Recruit Sponsors

Staff

• Continue recruiting core team members
• Recruit reviewers for program submissions
• Look for high-reliability volunteers : local crash-space, people w/ summer availability

Scholarships

• Set scholarship timeline
• Announce early scholarships & provide applications

6 months out

Draft "how to find local sponsorship" kit (and translate)

Communication

• Basic website launch
• Email teasers, sig designs
• Web banners & buttons for supporting sites
• Translation of banners & slogans
• Translation of registration announcement, interface

Registration

• Early call for registration, specify dates & prices
• Registration opens.

Social

• party venues contacted

Sponsorship & Budget

• Get early quotes
• Sponsorship (ongoing, corporate & other)
  • Support for travel scholarships
  • In-kind support for materials, food, printing

Scholarships

• Early scholarship acceptances; finalized

Materials

• Design : framework for print materials

Program

• Call for papers underway
• Program committee reviewing papers; finding final reviewers
• Draft speaker list finished; invitations continue
• Acceptance of early submissions, workshops, &c.
• Draft schedule

Staff

• Recruit more translators & designers
• T-shirt design for planning committee
• Draft poster/late-submission reviewers
• Draft volunteer-emails

3 months out

2 months out

6 weeks out

4 weeks out

Logistics

• Final run down of the location
• Venue/program adequation fine tuned

2 weeks out

• A/V test if applicable

10 days out

• Go to Tahiti The North Pole to cool spirits down

Program

• finalize moderation schedule

Logistics

• program should be printed
• blank badges should be printed

1 week out

[HD1] 3 days out

[HD2] 2 days out

Registration

• names on badges should be printed - badges finalized
• testing badge printers
• test registration system
• training registration desk people

Program

Hacking Days

[HD3] day before

• Registration opens
• Accommodation registration opens
• A/V installation (if applicable)

Day 1

• Sample schedule:

 7:30 - volunteers/staff training
 8:00 - Check rooms, stock with water
           Registration begins
 8:50 - Stage manager - check for all moderators, speakers
 9:00 - Program starts
           A/V coordinator - roll all streaming video/audio

Day 2

Day 3

day after

• cleanup
• Chapter meetings? Board meeting?

2 days after

• cleanup
• conference debriefing (post-mortem)

week after

• send thank you notes

after

• comparing with commons:Category:Wikimania 2009 presentations, review the contents of [[:commons:Category:Wikimania 20xx presentations]].