ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025/Report/Dody Ismoyo

Thank you Wikimedia Foundation for granting me the scholarship to attend the ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025 which was held in Manila, the Philippines on 23-25 May 2025. I participated in this summit mainly as a representative of ESEAP Preparatory Council and to advance the work of the council.

Things learned at the strategy summit

The main thing I have learned from the summit was all of the inputs and suggestions given by the participants of the summit to the development of our movement within the ESEAP Hub as well as the ESEAP Preparatory Council (EPC).

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

Pre-Summit Meeting

I arrived to the event venue a day earlier than then event starting date to have meeting with all of the related parties to have a better preparation for the summit as well as learn from one of the representative of Wikimedia CEE Hub.

HUB, Action! 🎬 Designing Governance and Strategy Together

This is when I and other members of the EPC presented the latest updated works we have done within the Council to the audience. And we also promoted the ESEAP Hub Manager job vacancy to the audience so that we could get more people in applying for the job position.

Finalizing: The Governance System

This was the continuation of the earlier HUB, Action! where we from the EPC finalized the details of our governance system with the consultation from the audience. We have also finalized the decision on the successor system of the EPC to become the ESEAP Liaison (subject to the ESEAP Hub community's approval for the naming).

Connecting and Collaborating between Affiliates and Countries

I directed this session by becoming the MC for the event. I called upon the four panelists who have registered for the session to share their past works about collaborating between different affiliates (within or outside ESEAP Hub).

Open Mic for Cross-border Collaboration

Due to the time constrain, I had to change the format of the session from inviting the panelists on stage to become me going around the audience to give them the microphone to speak out. For for those who have signed up in the Meta-Wiki page were given the opportunities to speak out about their planned inter-affiliate collaboration of Wikimedia outreach in the future. The session was a bit similar like business matchmaking in the corporate world.

ESEAP Preparatory Council

This summit was the very first time that we, nine people from the ESEAP Preparatory Council (EPC), could have a group photo together. We further consolidated the team to work closely together to advance the ESEAP Hub affairs in the future.

Plans after the strategy summit (from what was learned or contributed in the strategy summit)

As a core member of the EPC, I shall continue my work within the successor of the EPC for at least another year, with all of the agreed new governance system. The very near term (next step) of the work to be done after the summit is to get all candidates applying for the ESEAP Hub Manager position and interview them.

Comments/suggestions about the strategy summit

The summit was organized very well by the local organizing team with only some small glitches along the way.

Some of the improvements that could have been done for the summit (as well as for the future summit) was:

To have one or two dedicated event photographers to fully document the event
To make participants be ready for all of the payment system in Manila (e.g. cash and credit card ready) to buy things outside the event venue
To make the hotel waive the requirement for the participant to provide our credit card detail as a hotel check-in deposit
To standardize any updated information on Meta-Wiki (not on Etherpad or Diff) only, so that we can consolidate all of the information in one place