CIS-A2K/Wikimania Support/Dhanalakshmi .K. T

Hello,Welcome back from Wikimania. Please document your learnings and takeaways from the Wikimania to the local community.

Please write in details on areas such as

Username: Dhanalakshmi .K. T
Community represented: Kannada Wikipedia and Karavali Wikimedians

In a sentence or two, tell us something about the people you encountered at the Wikimania! If you met some really interesting or useful people, mention them here.

I meet Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight. She briefed me about actions to be taken to connect with the Wiki Women in Red community

I met Netha Hussain and she shared her experiences with me and gave some suggestions and guidelines for my work.

In a sentence or two, tell us about the about sessions which you took part in the Wikimania.

The main conference was started on 16th of August 2019. The programme started with keynote by Michael Peter Edson, co-founder and Associate Director of The Museum for the United Nations and Maria Sefidari, Wikimedia Foundation Board Chair. The theme of Wikimania 2019 was “Stronger together: Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals”. I attended mostly the Diversity and Community growth tracks.

Sessions attended: 16/08/2019:

Community Growth
What we know about newcomers and how to nurture them
Growth of Wiki data in India
Wiki Armenia:Wiki Camp
Women well being 2019
Swedish Wikipedia weekly meetups

17/08/2019:

Bridging the Gender Gap with Wiki loves campaign
Diversity: Inter wiki Women collaboration, cross wiki Global Campaign
Digital Security 101
Health effort in India
Wikimedia and SBU
Attended WikiWomen lunch

18/08/2019:

Edu and the Gender Gap panel
The coolest Projects of Wikimedia 2019
Attended Affiliate User Groups meeting and represented Karavali Wikimedians User Group
Lightening talks under Diversity track.

List three things which you learnt in Wikimania and would like to share with the Wikimedia movement as a result of your participation!

There were many learning from the conference. I get to meet other Wikimedians from different regions who work for the similar cause. It was a very good opportunity for me to interact and learn from others. I also shared my experiences and learning with them. I could also get to know some of the upcoming projects.

Please explain in details what went well during the conference?(write in details, please)

Meeting different people from different region, different community and learning from them about their activities. Organisation was good. All sessions were on time. Time management was satisfactory.

Please explain in details what would you have liked to be different and why?(how could we improve the conference, write in details, please)

Accommodation could have been at the same place as the venue of the conference. Food was not satisfactory.

Do you have anything to share?

Feedback to CIS:

The logistics arrangements could have been better. I was tensed due to many missing links.
Communications from CIS- A2K regarding travel and accommodation arrangements were not satisfactory. Most of the times I had to repeatedly follow up to get updates.
Accommodation mentioned in the Invitation letter and accommodation confirmation were for 2 different Hotels initially. When this lapse was shown the corrected letters were given to me at the last moment. Original letter of Invitation was also not given initially. I had to visit VISA office twice because of this lapse.
The accommodation was provided at a place which was quite far away from the avenue. The reason given for this was that the other person received sponsorship also will be staying at the same place. But actually he was staying at different place. Finally I had to stay and manage things all alone at an unknown country.
I was expecting to attend learning days. Since it was my first Wikimania and it would have been really useful for me. But I was not sponsored for learning days.