ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025/Report/23jvvn

Hello and kopisanangan! I am Joeiviviean, a member of Kelab Wikimedia IPGM Kampus Kent, Tuaran, Sabah, under Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to receive this scholarship from the ESEAP Summit Organizer to join this event here in Manila, Philippines.

Things learned at the strategy summit

For me, the ESEAP Summit 2025 was an amazing experience. Through numerous discussions, brainstorming sessions, and even informal coffee conversations with other communities and groups, I was able to acquire insightful knowledge.

I was able to establish connections with people from various areas and diverse communities, which can support the development of our own local communities.
I gained a lot of fresh insights and concepts that I can use in my own community, the Kent Wikimedia Club.
In particular, we discussed the difficulties we encounter and the ways in which our communities are developing and changing.

Some of the key things I learned at the Strategy Summit:

The importance of regional collaboration in amplifying impact across the ESEAP movement.
How to build sustainable and inclusive communities through clear communication and shared goals.
Strategies for increasing youth involvement and leadership within Wikimedia communities.
The value of storytelling in advocacy and outreach efforts.
Practical tools for community engagement, governance, and conflict resolution.

Overall, the summit not only inspired me but also equipped me with knowledge and connections that I believe will make a real difference in our movement moving forward.

Things the participant contributed or participated in or since the strategy summit

22 May 2025- The Journey Begin

There are only two representatives of the Kent Wikimedia Club, which are my friend Ronalita and me. We begin our travel from BKI at 11.30 am in the morning and arrive at KUL at 2.30 pm in the evening. We transit to Manila at 5:30 pm by Malaysia Airlines. While waiting, we got lost in the airport while trying to find Gate C. We were heading there to meet our friend from WCUGM, but since it was our first time at this airport, we didn’t know the way. Eventually, we had to video call our friend for directions. One funny experience was that both of us ended up walking into the immigration passport check area at the same time! Thank God, despite being first-timers, we made it to Manila securely and correctly. Two volunteers were already there to greet us. After that, we take a Grab that they have reserved to travel straight to the Sheraton Manila Bay hotel. We were thrilled to discover that the driver's seat differed from that in Malaysia. During our Maggi-cup party later that evening, we also had the opportunity to meet and greet a few other members from various groups.

23 May 2025- First Day of ESEAP Summit

The program started at 9.00 am right after we had our breakfast. Thoroughout this day, I got a lot of various input.

1: HUB, action! Designing Gorvenance and Strategy Together

A gallery style set of exercises to help everyone brainstorm ideas together
I was only able to visit three groups, but I gained a lot of new ideas, including what should be in a newbie handbook, how to help new communities grow and what kind of training each community needs.
I discovered from this that every communities had particular challenges and we were able to express our need for the HUB to act.

2: Landscaping Global and ESEAP Regulatory Trends for Advocacy

In the evening, there were two different session but I choose to be in this session. Here, we heard from various country about global regulatory trend.
I observed that several community from other nation have difficulties with regard to their rights or policies and dealings with changes in the government.

Today's session ended with photo sessions and dinner. During dinner we also got the chance to have fun as we did a 'semi-final round' for karaoke the next day. My ears were blessed with many different talents from various countries who bring their own language songs.

24 May 2025- Second Day of ESEAP Summit

Today's program started with a warmup or icebreaking session. We were instructed to gather people who shared our interests. For instance, a group of coffee drinkers and a bunch of dancers.

1. Connecting and Collaborating between Affiliates and Countries

For this session, there are five panel speakers from communities/group.
Here we are able to hear about their struggles, setbacks, development and achievement over the years.

2. Open Mic for Cross-border Collaboration

This session was for promoting and discuss any cross-affiliate collaboration plan in the future.
I got insight that there are numerous projects that can be collaborated on together between countries.
One of the plans that attracted me was the ESEAP Youth group.

3. Strategic Tactics for Building External Patnerships

In this session, I learned about some strategies that we can use to build a better partnership across regions.
I learned about 5 tactics, which are identifying partnership goals and drafting a minimum viable partnership, assessing potential partners, approaching, convincing, and outreaching; partnership documentation & agreements; and lastly, managing/sustaining partnerships and evaluating impact.

4. Global Trends Workshop

In this workshop, we did some group activities that consisted of talking together about how the global trends are impacting our communities/groups.
Some of the points that I got were how AI such as ChatGPT is threatening Wikimedia as an information source and about copyright issues.

5. ESEAP Community Skills Mapping

We discussed topics like programming and organizational abilities, which are essential for the development of our communities, in three separate groups throughout this session.
This was all planned out and turned into a tree.

A lovely dinner at the Bistro Remedios restaurant marked the conclusion of today's seminars. Prior to the supper, we also had the opportunity to attend the Church of St. Augustine's sunset mass. Even so, traffic caused us to arrive a little late. The church is incredibly stunning and magnificent. Since their mass was conducted in Tagalog, we were unable to fully comprehend. We had the opportunity to explore the church after the mass. But after a little while, we were asked to leave. I was a little let down because I had hoped to learn more about the church.

25 May 2025- Last Day of ESEAP Summit

1. GLAM-Wiki Meetup

We discussed what GLAM activities various communities and groups had carried out during the GLAM-Wiki meetup.
We also discussed the difficulties in carrying out these initiatives. Among the events that have taken place throughout the region are editathons and museum tours.
This GLAM expansion also required more training and publicity.

The announcement and theme selection for the ESEAP Conference in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, came last. The ending ceremony and Quokka's transfer to the next organizer followed.

Following lunch, we took a bus to the National Museum tour. The National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of Anthropology are the two museums in Manila that we visited. Despite the somewhat hot weather, it was enjoyable to visit the museum and learn about the natural beauty and culture of this nation. We returned to the Intramuros after the museum tour, having visited there after yesterday's mass. It was extremely crowded when we attempted to enter the Manila Cathedral. We can hardly move. We attempted to leave, but the way became jam-packed as well. Before managing the crowds, we were stuck there for a few minutes. I was a little disappointed because I was unable to see the entire church because of the big, tall people in front of me, and I was also unable to visit the gift shops inside, which I would have liked to do in order to purchase some presents for my friends. We have a delicious dinner at The Bayleaf's Sky Deck View Bar to cap off the day. Even though the sunset was the bar's main draw, we were unable to witness it because of the cloud cover that day.

26 May 2025- Home Sweet Home

Getting up early, we eat our final breakfast here before checking out of the hotel. We had a reservation for a taxi to the airport. Since we already knew how to return to BKI in a different way than on the first day, nothing significant has happened that day thus far. After arriving at BKI at 11.40 p.m., we take the IPG bus to the campus, arriving at 1 a.m. What a long, exhausting, yet delightfully novel experience.

Plans After the Strategy Summit (ESEAP 2025)

Following the insights and connections gained at the Strategy Summit, I am motivated to bring what I have learned back to my local community and take actionable steps to grow and improve our movement. Here are some of my next steps:

Strengthen Local Community Engagement

I plan to do a knowledge-sharing sessions within the Kent Wikimedia Club to aply what I have learned. This will include Club Strategy Planning and Leadership.

Promote Regional Collaboration

Inspired by the ESEAP regional approach, I aim to reach out more communities in Malaysia to explore opportunities for projects and collaboration.

Improve Communication and Documentation

For our club, I will suggest having more two-way meetings and improving the documentation of our activities and initiatives. This will help strengthen the club and foster better cooperation among members.

Comments/ suggestions about the strategy summit

Overall, the Strategy Summit was well-organized and insightful. I truly appreciated the diversity of perspectives and the opportunities for meaningful conversations across different communities. All of the sessions were very engaging. A big thank you to the amazing organizing team and everyone who joined the Summit. I truly hope we will stay connected and keep collaborating through our shared work on Wiki projects.