Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Celtic Knot Conference 2024 in Ireland/Final Report

Conference Fund Final Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 30 November 2024

Funding program: Conference Fund

Report type: Final

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General information

Title of proposal: Celtic Knot Conference 2024 in Ireland
Username of applicant: OifigeachWMIE
Name of organization: N/A
Amount awarded: 114763.72
Amount spent: 121452 USD, 112178.13 EUR

Part 1: Understanding your work

1. Did your event have any impact that you did not expect, positive or negative?

- Having younger Wikimedian presenters (secondary school students from the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project) injected a dose of energy into the conference that inspired attendees and was particularly beneficial in catching the attention of non-Wikimedian delegates such as key stakeholders in Irish language advocacy (Foras na Gaeilge) and political figures (Mayor of Waterford). It helped to demonstrate how much can be achieved by way of Wikimedia Projects and opened up communication lines for further collaboration.

Establishing a connection with a representative from the Manx Government who is interested in collaboration with WMUK - these types of connections are always welcome but not expected.
We were able to support satellite events that expanded the reach of the Celtic Knot to a wider international audience.
Collaboration between non-Wikimedians and Wikimedia Communities communities (e.g. Wikimedia Italy and Professor Ní Fhrigil from the University of Galway - one of our academic keynotes)
An unexpected collaboration between Wikimedia Community Ireland and Wikimedia Malaysia User Group and their Pitabangan satellite event with further collaborations in currently in the planning stages.
The Mayor of Waterford and Basque Wikipedian connected regarding the Mayoral chains and interest in exploring the tradition - this led to the - Basque Wikimedians being invited to the Mayor’s office and articles being written on the tradition/history
A Wikimedian based in New York working with Wikidata will be presenting a lightning talk about Celtic Knot on NYC Data Day at the Pratt Institute of Technology.

2. What do you think will be the long term impact of this conference?

This edition of the Celtic Knot has enhanced the connection between communities, shared inspiring stories and projects, highlighted important technical developments that can benefit language communities, and invigorated the Celtic language communities. The below points relate to these broad themes.

The conference was revitalised and restored to an in-person event after three online-only editions due to COVID-19, which will continue to be a mainstay within the Wiki conference ecosystem. It provides a much-needed breathing space for small-language communities to gather together and connect with each other and with the Wikimedia Foundation.
It provides a space for knowledge exchange which is vital for the growth and visibility of minority and indigenous languages. Particularly with the development of new Wiki tools in mind, it is a place where the needs of the language communities can be shared with the Wikimedia Foundation which is key to advancing knowledge equity in the realm of language diversity.
It also provides a platform where community members and language activists can highlight challenges, obstacles and achievements and can feel supported and understood.
The conference has had a positive impact on building the reputation and raising the profile of Wikimedia Community Ireland, which will help WCI’s future collaborations, especially around the Irish language. For example, we have been able to connect with the Foras na Gaeilge, the public body responsible for the promotion of the Irish language throughout the island of Ireland.
The WikiWomen Erasmus+ project launch inspired the audience and led to additional languages being added to the project from international communities translating the toolkits on meta-wiki. This will help the toolkits to be more widely available for use in different contexts.
Co-organising the conference has established a stronger connection between WCI and WMUK which will continue with future programmes of both affiliates.
The Celtic Knot has provided a forum for driving the conversation about support for wiki language communities, highlighting these questions for WMF.

3. Would you say that your work improved participants’ ability to apply new skills and knowledge?

Yes

3a. If yes, please describe how and why you think this was successful. Please describe why you think this is the case.

- 96.1% of survey participants were very satisfied or rather satisfied with the conference programme. 79.6% of post-conference survey participants rated the conference as very good, with 18.4% agreeing it was rather good and 2% giving a neutral response. No participants responded negatively when asked to rate the conference experience overall.

100% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that as a result of attending the Celtic Knot Conference, they will be able to bring some valuable outcomes to their local community.
68% of respondents agreed that the Celtic Knot Conference 2024 gave them insights and ideas for their own projects.

In the post-conference survey respondents said that they plan to reach out to the wider language community in the future in the following ways:

1) Connect with other communities and share knowledge 2) Talk about the event to my local / language community 3) Engage with local language preservation organizations 4) Ease internationalisation / improve Mediawiki interface translations

In the survey respondents commented that the conference was well organized and well planned, that there were high-quality and relevant speakers, that there was great communication in the planning process and duration of the conference, and that attending Celtic Knot 2024 brought them inspiration and ideas.
94% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that at Celtic Knot 2024, they were able to connect with the wider Wiki language community and forge networks that will be useful in continuing their work in the field of language diversity.
Outreach and advocacy skills were gained from the programme. For example in terms of government and university/education outreach and recruiting to expand resourcing in Wiki Projects (Jason Evans’ NLW talk, ‘Assessing the Impact of a Welsh Government Wiki Partnership’).
The Language/Cultural Focus of the conference successfully highlighted the Irish language (in signage, communications etc.) and cultural workshops and some programming was dedicated to this focus. This sparked many conversations about the language's linguistic heritage and offered a basis for connection based on history, challenges and experience. The cultural programme was also very well-received to further this. For example, all 15 spaces (plus the waiting list) were filled for the lino workshop, there were 23 attendees at Sean Nós Dance Workshop, and multiple walking tour groups (5-15 people) each afternoon after the conference sessions.

Additionally, in the post-conference feedback, participants highlighted learning about:

1) Being exposed to narratives of language activism used outside of Wikimedia. 2) Navigating AI and natural language generation for Wikipedia Editing and knowledge transfer. Ways it can be used to advance and develop small language wikis. 3) Using language Metrics for small language community empowerment 4) Boosting potential participation in Wikimedia language projects through engagement with digital activism 5) Using Wikidata to fortify and bolster content creation on minority language Wikipedias that are in the earlier stages of development. 6) Knowledge of ongoing activities that are happening within different language communities. 7) Using Open Educational resources in innovative ways to strengthen minority languages. 8) Language incubation process and how new language Wikis can be developed. 9) Navigating the place of Wikimedia within language planning, policy and strategies.(e.g. Dr Maggie Glass’ keynote on ‘Breathing Spaces’ and other references to working relationships with state-level language planning, like Jason Evans (National Library of Wales) 10) How to collaborate with academics to form mutually beneficial relationships that support the work concerned with language preservation and elevation within the digital space being done within academia and by researchers.

4. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact. You can also provide links to them.

Field to type in URLs.

A link to photographs, videos and presentations that have been uploaded to Meta: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_Knot_Conference_2024

Celebrating Language Diversity at Celtic Knot Conference 2024: Key Takeaways and Inspiring Moments (English) https://wikimedia.ie/2024/10/30/celebrating-language-diversity-at-celtic-knot-conference-2024-key-takeaways-and-inspiring-moments/

Testimonials from Language Policy Student Presenters/Scholars from TU Dortmund: https://wikimedia.ie/2024/11/28/what-was-it-like-to-attend-celtic-knot-2024-language-policy-student-presenters-from-tu-dortmund-share-their-experience/

Wikipediaren hizkuntza gutxituen biltzar batean bizitakoak (Basque) https://sustatu.eus/luistxo/1727785781

WikiWomen nei Celtic Knot Conference (IE) (Frisian & other languages) https://www.fryske-akademy.nl/nijs-en-aginda/aginda/evenemint/wikiwomen-nei-celtic-knot-wikimedia-language-conference-ie/

KEA participa a la conferència Celtic Knot Wikimedia Languages (Esperanto) https://www.esperanto.cat/kea-participa-a-la-conferencia-celtic-knot-wikimedia-languages/

International Delegates Celebrate Erasmus + WikiWomen Initiative at Waterford’s Celtic Knot Conference (English & other languages) https://waterfordcouncil.ie/international-delegates-celebrate-erasmus-wikiwomen-initiative-at-waterfords-celtic-knot-conference/

International delegates descend on Waterford for Celtic Knot Conference (English) https://www.waterfordlive.ie/news/what-s-on/1619804/international-delegates-descend-on-waterford-for-celtic-knot-conference.html

Celtic Knot Wikipedia Language Conference – “Strength in Unity” (English) https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/celtic-knot-wikipedia-language-conference-strength-in-unity/

Celtic Knot: Wikimedia Conference Focusing on Minority Languages (Japanese) https://note.com/kankanbou_e/n/n051c60a3bacf

Lightning Talk Report Back at NYC Wikidata Day (English) https://www.canva.com/design/DAGUp9AiNAc/hgXDvYbfJ37ZU8sEGE7abQ/view?utm_content=DAGUp9AiNAc&utm_campaign=share_your_design&utm_medium=link&utm_source=shareyourdesignpanel

5. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community	Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives	Agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors	Agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers	Agree

6. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

Upload Documents and Files

Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

Celtic Knot Logos (on meta): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_Knot_Conference_2024_visuals

Clean Gantt Chart and Tasklist (CK specific): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17jApBA6Th7R5A56BHZTnF9E119AxggW3j3bBhb60PSI/edit?usp=sharing

Empty Scholarship Application Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t4JsrSEXP5eElKCITS2AoT0cuHS1UOPE17Tgumo11uY/edit

Empty Satellite Proposal Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DPifVfBtBpHvnCeYUik8rLMVkOMAvi-PuYgTM365QSs/edit

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

- WCI organised a special Waterford-focused photography contest as part of Wiki Loves Monuments, a global photography contest that encourages people to document cultural heritage sites and showcase images of Irish landmarks.

As mentioned above, cultural Programming was a key component of the Celtic Knot Conference, offering people a way to continue their learning and grow their appreciation of Irish culture. As part of this, a highlight for many was the lino print workshop with Irish artist Aoife Cawley which took place at the Gallery of Modern Art, Waterford. Aoife Cawley guided and inspired participants to create pieces centred around Irish figures and stories from folklore and mythology.
We were delighted by the Pitabangan initiative, organised by the Wikimedia Malaysia User Group, which focused on creating and improving articles about Waterford in native languages from around the world. This came about organically, developed by conference attendees, and was a nine-day global collaboration that mirrored the Irish tradition of “meitheal,” where communities come together for collective work, strengthening cultural ties across borders and sharing knowledge in an open forum. The event was a great success with 13 different languages being involved.
The WikiWomen Erasmus+ project toolkits have been translated into 8 additional languages since the launch at Celtic Knot.

Part 2: Your main learning

8. Were there any major challenges or things you found difficult that you would like to share? What would you do differently next time?

- Travel Arrangements were challenging as the Travel Team were trialling a new system. The agency was not located in Europe which caused some planning difficulties and also budget airlines were not available. At times the agency was unresponsive, avoiding budget airlines led to increased air mileage (as well as longer routes, and a more restricted choice of travel times) and there was a lack of more sustainable options for travel that could be arranged through the agency.

The grant and planning timeline shaped by the grant process meant that there was pressure to organise the event. Additional time would, for example, allow for attendees to apply for visas 8-12 months in advance.

It could have been helpful to connect with a local tourism board and university, in addition to the county council or university to co-sign visa support letters.

Distributing funds outside of Europe was challenging and more time-consuming than anticipated.
Due to community demand, we adapted our approach to include support for satellite events. Knowing that there is an appetite from the Wikimedia community that can be capitalised on, provision for satellite events could have been included in the initial plan.
As a small organising team, we would like more organisers involved so that we would have an increased capacity to take our objectives to the next level. For example, this would have allowed for increased capacity for workshops and interactive demonstrations/activities to take place.
It is also worth mentioning that we had initially set the organisational timeline to go from March to October and calculated our budget including staffing costs to cover this time period. However, there was far more work to be done post-conference than we originally anticipated. This ranged from organising reimbursements for delegates, post-conference reporting, gathering feedback and testimonials, gathering, analysing and reporting on survey results, media, and organising focus groups. Next time it would be good to extend the timeline to at least two months post conference as this is how long was needed.

9. Was there any non-financial support that the Wikimedia Foundation could have provided that would have better supported you in achieving your goals?

We are grateful to Chen, Cornelius and Erin for the support they provided us throughout the organisational process. Having additional people we could share our progress with and raise any challenges was very useful. There are two areas where additional support from the Wikimedia Foundation would be useful in the future.

Assistance with payments for digital scholars and satellite events taking place outside of Europe, particularly in African countries. Aside from the challenge of transferring funds outside of Europe noted in a previous question, if the WMF could take this on it would free up some of the time of the organising team.

10. What would you recommend on a local and/or regional level as the best next step to leverage your success and momentum?

Movement affiliates are uniquely placed to respond to the needs and concerns of their communities. The Celtic Knot Conference was an opportunity for communities to come together and exchange ideas and draw inspiration from people and groups working with minoritised languages. There is a clear appetite for working with these languages as evidenced through the conference.

Building on this, we suggest that it is important to:

Ensure sustained engagement, with the 'Celtic Knot' brand which will continue to be integrated with the ongoing activities of Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Community Ireland (WCI).
Encourage continued collaboration with the existing CK community through communication platforms, including Telegram and mailing lists.
Actively promote future events, eg: regular online community meetings, to maintain connections established during Wiki Projects.
Engage with the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project, for example, translation of the toolkits into diverse languages and involvement of more minority languages in the project.
Explore the potential for collaboration between Wikimedia Community Ireland and the Scots Gaelic Community and Wikimedia Malaysia.
Build on conversations at the conference and interest in the Manx language by exploring possible collaborations between WMUK and the Manx language community.

We hope that the next iteration of Celtic Knot will take place in 2026 to ensure that the conference can return in a developed and rejuvenated way that serves the needs of the community and participants. Wikimedia Community Ireland hopes to remain involved in the organisation of the event along with Wikimedia UK. We also hope to bring you some smaller localised exchanges throughout 2025 to sustain the spirit of Celtic Knot and continue to connect and collaborate.

11. Please add any 3 operational recommendations for future events organizers.

1) Longer planning timeframe & early scholarship process to allow for Visa Applications

There were three months available for applying for scholarships, and visas before attending the conference. A longer time period (eg: 9 months) would have given applicants more time to apply for visas, wait for them to be processed, appeal if necessary, and book travel in advance. The restricted timeline was due to the delivery timeframe available between the confirmation of the grant supporting the conference, and the planned date of the event. Notably, the Foundation has revised the timeline for grant applications and it will allow for a longer planning timeline in future which will be greatly beneficial. However, we do understand that there is only so much that we can do as organisers and often the outcome of the visa application process is out of our control.

2) Regular meetings and live co-working sessions were helpful for managing the workload and keeping track of timelines. We had fortnightly meetings to plan the conference; discuss progress; address any challenges; and co-work on particular tasks. While work happened asynchronously, and we used Asana to track and manage tasks, live coworking and conversations were especially useful for planning and discussing ideas. The meetings were carefully structured to address timely activities and documented so that any actions and responsibilities were clearly outlined. This also meant that in the case of a team member being absent, they would have a resource that could be referred back to. This helped us to manage the workload efficiently, delegate tasks and work together as a small but effective team. The meetings began as fortnightly two-hour sessions and then happened weekly and then twice a week as the event drew closer.

3) Include funding and logistics plans for Satellite events from the beginning of the planning stage to give a similar timeframe for scholarships

Supporting satellite events gave us an opportunity to use funds due to underspending and a dynamic way to respond to community needs and challenges. While this was not part of the initial conference plan, requests from the community led us to explore this impactful option. As a way of maximising the reach of the Celtic Knot, we suggest that other conference organisers should consider how they can support volunteers organising satellite events. However, we did need a longer time frame to process these overseas payments to regions outside of Europe. We would recommend taking this into account in the early stages of event planning.

Part 3: Metrics

12. Open Metrics reporting

In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in.

Open Metrics Summary
Open Metrics	Description	Target	Results	Comments	Methodology
User Experience and Testimonials	Gather qualitative data through testimonials and direct feedback on the event. Participants will share what aspects went well, what they gained the most, and their intentions for implementing the learning in their wider community. Target: Collect at least 50 testimonials and feedback responses during and post-conference.	50	124	*Please note that in this report we have combined metrics 1 and 5 into "User Experience and Testimonials through post-event survey" as we felt that they were intrinsically connected and made more sense when combined. We had 46 instances of positive feedback on social media which were posted on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky and Instagram. We had 9 delegates reach out to us with positive feedback via email. In our post-event survey 69 out of 142 (online and in-person) participants responded, which was a 45% response rate and very close to our goal of 70 responses. Feedback from this survey demonstrated the need for a conference like Celtic Knot stems from the desire to raise awareness about language preservation and showcase the potential of Wikimedia projects in this context. Feedback from survey participants emphasised the importance of sharing experiences, ideas, and skills while building connections to sustain motivation and strengthen local minority language Wikimedia communities. The conference is seen as a platform to represent underrepresented languages, facilitate discussions not easily addressed at larger events, and serve as a "breathing space" separate from the usual context where dominant languages are prioritised. The survey also demonstrated that community expectations include opportunities for diverse networking, practical workshops, cultural immersion, interactive knowledge-sharing panels, and developing language-related Wikimedia projects like Lexemes and Wiktionary. Participants also expressed that maintaining a small, focused conference ensures meaningful engagement while fostering impactful collaboration among Wikimedians, language activists, and institutions. Please see section 3a of this report for more details and statistics from this survey. Some examples of testimonials from delegates: "The Celtic Knot team and the incredible welcome from attendees created such a supportive space—it was clear that we all shared a common passion. I didn’t have to be anything other than myself to feel like I belonged. What stood out to me most were the connections I made and the truly inspiring feedback we received after our presentation. Not only did people resonate with our topic, but many came up afterwards with thoughtful questions and enthusiastic comments that sparked some fresh perspectives for me…It’s amazing to think that something we shared could spark meaningful conversations with others, and their feedback has inspired me to dive deeper into my research with renewed excitement. The conference also offered sessions covering a range of languages and topics I’d never encountered before, each sparking new curiosity and ideas. Being part of this community gave me a richer understanding of how we can work to keep languages thriving and accessible for everyone." -Hannah Yule Heetmann "The pragmatic and inspiring ‘can do’ spirit, and the strength of feeling behind it coupled with the sheer pride being taken in every speaker’s linguistic heritage and its potential for the future in a global digital world, was the thing that impressed me most during the conference. The recognition that government policies can be advocated for and shaped and that AI and other digital tools and initiatives can be harnessed and made to work to help and massively support languages, cultures, and histories being shared for the betterment of knowledge & cultural exchange and understanding across the world…Onwards and upwards… and outwards! And here’s to a bigger, more inclusive Wikipedia language conference next time!" Ewan McAndrew "I made some, hopefully, long-lasting connections during that week. What really stuck with me was the statement that “we’re all just nerds here”. This made me realize that everyone in and surrounding that conference really just wants to share their passion for language, and I will be forever grateful that the Wikimedia team made it not only possible for me to attend, but also put so much unseen effort into this event to make it a truly unforgettable experience." -Joanna Dieckmann	We used numerous communications channels to capture this data and also encouraged and welcomed post-conference blog posts/ testimonials to be added to the Celtic Knot 2024 Meta page. Throughout the conference, our Communications Manager monitored social media posts about the event and in the following weeks recorded any feedback or testimonials about the event that were posted online (please see examples in images attached as story or impact documents). In post-conference communications, many delegates offered testimonials organically or were asked about their experiences. We also gave space for commentary in our post-event survey where participants could further express their thoughts about the experience to enhance and further illustrate the data we were collecting. On the final day of the event, we shared the post-event evaluation survey with all participants via email and a QR code during the closing remarks. We followed this up with reminders via email, social media, on the event’s meta page and also in the Celtic Knot telegram groups. You can find the full summary report of our post-event evaluation survey here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celtic_Knot_Conference_2024_-_Post_event_survey_report.pdf
Discussion Insights	During the conference, facilitate discussions to gather insights into how language groups operate within their country’s language advocacy context and identify the most pressing needs of each language Wikimedia community in terms of skills, governance, and technical tools. Target: Conduct at least 3 in-depth discussions covering different language groups.	3	3	The Conference allowed space for in-depth discussions covering a diverse range of language groups including all of the Celtic languages and also expanding to other minority languages. Three key meetings that were specifically timetabled into the programme included; The Language Diversity Hub Meeting and Update The Launch of the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Toolkits which included a discussion and introduction to the project. Presentations with digital activists such as a session on ways to boost participation in Wikimedia language projects through engagement with digital activism led by Global Voices/ Rising Voices (an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, academics, and digital rights activists).	The most important tool for allowing this to happen was holding space and allowing for a wide range of voices and experiences to present at the conference. We also made sure to allow time for hybrid Q&A sessions and made sure that presenters and indeed, the conference co-hosts, made information about how to further engage with these initiatives widely accessible at the conference (online and in-person) and through our other various communications channels. There were also many opportunities for networking and discussions, groups meeting at meal times and in social spaces to exchange ideas and continue discussion. This has resulted in new partnerships and collaborations within the wider Wiki community to materialise for example, there has been keen interest from a representative from the Manx government to collaborate with WMUK and WCI, and plans for a partnership between WMUK and WCI. There has also been further collaboration opportunities and interest from Wikimedia Italy and Wikimedia Malaysia in collaborating with WCI on future projects and events. In addition, the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Launch has prompted discussion and inspired other minority language communities to consider taking on similar projects and international partnerships moving forward.
Pre-Conference Survey on Community Needs	Include a short pre-conference survey in the conference attendee registration form to capture information on community needs, expectations, and existing gaps. This will help tailor the conference program to address specific requirements. Target: Achieve a response rate of at least 100% from attendees. As attendees will be required to fill out this form to register, including some questions within this will remove the need for an additional survey.	100	100	We conducted two surveys ahead of the conference. The first we conducted during the initial planning phase to make sure that we were responding to the Celtic and Minority Language Community needs. We had 45 responses to this initial community survey, which was an increase of almost 30% from the last Celtic Knot community survey. This helped to guide the thematic approach we took to organising the conference. It was important to consider that not all community members would be able to participate in the conference, but we considered it important to still capture their responses to enable us to adequately address community needs, expectations, and existing gaps from the onset. Then closer to the event, we also conducted a participant's survey for further needs analysis for event logistics. We had a 100% response rate from this survey.	We conducted the pre-conference community survey that helped us to shape the conference via Qualtrix. We also posted this widely across wiki and non-wiki communication channels in order to maximise our reach. Members of the organising team also attended the Celtic Knot Editors meeting in December 2023 to gather verbal feedback and consult this group. Our pre-conference participants survey took place via Eventbrite, the ticketing platform we used for the event. We decided to make this part of the registration process to gather insight from everyone who attended the event both online and in person.
Focus Group Confidence Mapping	Organise focus groups where participants visually map their confidence, knowledge, and agency before and after the conference. This will provide qualitative insights into the impact of the conference on individual participants. Target: Conduct at least 3 focus groups, each with a diverse set of participants	3	3	We invited three focus groups to take part in visually mapping their confidence, knowledge, and agency prior to and post-conference. We selected three groups that we felt would capture the diversity of participants. These groups included the Pan-Celtic Wikipedia Editors, The Malaysian Wikimedia Community and members of the Irish Language Community. This selection of participants covered community members who had been previously involved and those who were new to the movement. It also allowed us to include a wide range of geographical, cultural, linguistic, age and gender perspectives. The three feedback groups gave useful insight into how people’s confidence, knowledge and agency changed. Respondents across the groups pointed to learning about new tools as a particularly useful aspect, highlighting the introduction to lexemes and how the programme sparked curiosity. A recurring theme was that the conference inspired people - using stories of success such as using digital TV channels to recruit editors. One of the respondents also mentioned that being able to present at Celtic Knot helped increase their confidence in public speaking. People also highlighted that they learned about the impact of Wikimedia beyond the projects, with its intersection with large language models, and appreciated how Wikimedia is an important part of digital language infrastructure. The varied programme led to a variety of responses, with people inspired to experiment with AI and Wikidata and to emulate successful campaigns such as #wici365 on the Welsh Wicipedia. There was a broad sentiment of being enthused to keep working with languages and to try new approaches to language revitalisation, and introducing Wikipedia to educational settings. The overall positive feedback can be summarised with the following quote from one of the focus groups: “This conference helps make you feel like part of a global community, with people all over the world working to promote and engage with small and minority languages through Wiki” At its core, the Celtic Knot is about bringing communities together, which can sometimes feel isolated, acknowledge common challenges, and support each other. This is perhaps best encapsulated by one of the comments in the focus groups “The conference made me feel more hopeful about the future of my language community. Seeing global efforts to preserve minority languages through technology and community-driven projects was truly inspiring.”	When planning the focus groups, the organising team were faced with the challenge of when and where they could take place. An initial thought was to hold the focus groups during the conference, but we reconsidered as we thought this would have distracted participants from the main programme and taken from their conference experience. We therefore decided to hold the groups afterwards, with the additional benefit that greater chronological distance from the Celtic Knot would allow for more accurate reflections from participants. The next consideration was whether to hold the focus groups asynchronously or as live discussions. As we selected three diverse groups, this meant that some were located in different time zones. We were also acutely aware that participants and organisers may have conflicting schedules. Thus we needed to find a way to gather these insights whilst also allowing participants to have adequate time to reflect upon their experiences. With these circumstances in mind, we decided to take an asynchronous approach using a virtual whiteboard to gather information (Figma). As the groups were working asynchronously, with queries to the Celtic Knot organising team getting a slower reply than being able to ask during a live event, it was important to have clear questions and instructions on how to use the board and what questions we were seeking feedback on. This methodology worked very well and the feedback we received from participants was well thought out and very helpful.
Post-Event Participant Survey	Run a post-event participant survey to gather feedback on the overall experience, learning outcomes, and connections made. Include questions about the application of skills learned, continued engagement with peers, and the conference's influence on their work. Target: Send out a post-conference evaluation survey measuring the attendees’ satisfaction with the conference, aiming for a score of 4 out of 5 or higher. The results from this survey are expected to be available and presented in the final grant report.	70	N/A	*Please see metric 1.	N/A

13. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

Yes

13a. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future. Also mention why you felt you had to change some metrics.

1) We decided to merge metrics 1 and 5 as we felt they were intrisically linked: collecting feedback through the post-event survey and testimonials.

2) We initially planned to conduct a pre-conference survey on Eventbrite however we ended up conducting an additional survey on Qualtrics. As this initial survey was not tied to event registration, the metric of a 100% response rate was unlikely. We took this approach as we it was likely that not all of the community would be able to attend the conference however we wanted to capture the needs of the whole community. We also wanted to use the information gathered from the survey to help shape the conference so we needed to conduct it at an earlier time, rather than during registration.

Closer to the event we then carried out the pre-conference survey participants survey which gathered information about needs analysis and logistical information, that had a 100% response rate.

3) Instead of running focus groups during the conference, we carried these out post-conference, the reasoning behind this change is outlined in Metric 4 ‘Tools and Methodology’.

14. Please indicate if you applied any of the following survey and registration tools. Please select all that apply.

5. I used other survey or registration tools

14a. Please share the result(s) with us, provide the link(s) or summarize the main result(s) and insight(s) from them.

N/A

14b. If you used other forms, please share them with us, as these forms might be useful for others to use.

Please see section 6b for forms.

Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance

15. & 16. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

112178.13 EUR

17. Please state the total amount spent in USD.

121452 USD

18. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

Upload a financial report file.

Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hcvJCuNK7hVUK7LnYein8TTGob4cbZWfPb06yubIusQ/edit?gid=0#gid=0

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

19. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

The final budget reflects some adjustments compared to our original proposal, primarily due to the combined invoicing by the venue and the reallocation of underspent funds.

1) Delayed Payments for Overseas Satellite Events: During the post-conference period, we encountered delays in processing payments related to satellite events and other conference costs. Despite these funds being allocated and budgeted in advance, several international payments remain outstanding due to prolonged bank processing timelines. To address this issue, an email has been sent to Cornelius to seek guidance and propose a solution. Specifically, we recently asked about the possibility of transferring the funds to WMUK to process these payments, as this approach might expedite the remaining transactions. While we had hoped to finalise all payments before submitting the conference report, these unforeseen delays have made that impossible within the given timeframe. We would like to note that these funds remain allocated for their intended purposes, and we are actively working to ensure their processing. We are open to any suggestions or guidance from the Foundation on this.

2) Combined Invoices: Expenses such as meal stipends and meal-related costs, outlined separately in our grant application, were invoiced together with the venue hire. These appear as combined expenses in the spending report. This is also the case for the flight and travel for scholarship attendees, guest speakers and the organising team.

3) Underspend Adjustments: Some costs, like AV/Tech Support, came in under budget. However, this was offset by the purchase of a Zoom package, which utilized the majority of this underspend. The underspend on in-person scholarship accommodation and data packages were partially reallocated to support satellite events. This was not part of the original grant application but became possible due to the surplus.

4) Over-budget Adjustments: Printing and conference merchandise for delegates (referred to as ‘swag’ in the financial report document linked above) costs exceeded the initial budget. This was managed using underspend from other areas.

Cultural events, not specified in the initial budget, were funded through surplus and contingency allocations, allowing us to include additional workshops in the program.

5) Staffing Costs: The initial proposal covered staffing costs from March to October. However, our team worked an additional month (November), and Wikimedia Community Ireland’s team contributed more hours than anticipated to conference administration. To date, we have not increased the staffing costs in line with this. This is discussed further in Q20, section 20a, and section 20 b.

Overall, while some costs shifted between categories, we maintained a balanced budget by reallocating funds from underspent areas to cover additional or over-budget expenses, enhancing the conference experience beyond our original proposal.

20. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

Yes

20a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

The total underspend from the Fund is €9950.05. This figure accounts for the total grant awarded (€121,630.00 / $133,452.21) and the expenditure provided by the travel team for flights.

When excluding the travel team’s expenditure, Wikimedia Community Ireland (WCI) received €105,430.00 from the grant, in addition to €498.98 from ticket sales. The total expenditure managed by WCI amounted to €103,624.05, leaving an underspend of €2,304.93 held by WCI. This underspend resulted from cost savings in several areas, including AV/Tech Support, in-person scholarship accommodation, and data packages. These savings were partially reallocated to additional satellite events, cultural programming, and conference enhancements, but a surplus still remained.

Total Amount granted: 121,630.00

Amount Allocated to Travel Team: 16,200

Amount Spent by Travel Team: 8554.08

Underspend by Travel Team: 7645.92

Amount Allocated to WCI : 105,430.00

Income into WCI: 498.98

Total Amount Held by WCI: 105,928.98

Amount Spent by WCI: 103,624.05

Underspend by WCI: 2,304.93

Total Underspend: 9,950.85

20b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

A. Propose to use the underspent funds within this Fund period with PO approval

20c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

We propose to use a portion of the underspend to cover staffing costs related to post-conference reporting and additional work incurred by Wikimedia Community Ireland (WCI), Wikimedia UK (WMUK), and our supporting contractor. Initially, staffing costs were budgeted for six months (March to October inclusive) in the original proposal. However, post-conference reporting extended into an additional month (November). To account for this, we request to allocate 1/6 of the original proposed staffing costs to cover this extra month.

These figures are as follows: WCI: €24,000 budgeted / 6 = €4,000 for one additional month. WMUK: €12,000 budgeted / 6 = €2,000 for one additional month. Contractor: €5,000 budgeted / 6 = €833.33 for one additional month.

In total, we estimate that €6,833.33 from the underspend would be required to cover staffing for November. Additionally, upon reviewing the workload for conference organization, it was clear that WCI’s team undertook significantly more work than anticipated. The scale and complexity of the conference administration exceeded initial expectations, leading to extra hours being contributed throughout the planning and execution phases. The organising team propose that a portion of the underspend also be allocated to compensate WCI’s team for this additional effort.

These allocations would reflect the actual time and effort invested by all parties in ensuring the conference’s success. The remaining underspend, pending decisions and advice on the above queries regarding additional staffing hours and the allocated satellite event funds awaiting processing due to banking timelines, will be returned in accordance with grant instructions once confirmed with the Foundation.

After discussing with our Fund Program Officer we will also use the leftover funding of (2,304.93) to support the Celtic Knot 2025 Online Celebration Day. This event is currently being planned by Wikimedia Community Ireland and Wikimedia UK. This event will be a smaller community gathering ahead of the potential in-person international biannual more generalised minority languages conference that we hope will take place in 2026/27. Celtic Knot 2025 will invite Wikimedia's Celtic, indigenous, minority and minoritized language communities to join in a one-day online event that will offer a place to update each other on networks, partnerships and projects that may have come about due to connections made at Celtic Knot 2025. It will also offer the community a space to share learnings, challenges and insights by participating in lightning talks. It will also be a nexus for language community members to come together and reflect on their needs and envision the next Wikimedia Languages conference.

21. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

Yes

22. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

23. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

24. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

To grow and sustain momentum, we hope that as a community we can build on what has been created by Celtic Knot. The reception and excitement that was awakened at the conference make it clear that there is a huge amount of enthusiasm to keep the conference growing.

Celtic Knot provides an invaluable breathing space for small-language communities to gather together and connect. These kinds of opportunities are crucial to enhancing knowledge equity and making community members see how valuable their contributions are to open knowledge and Indigenous language Wikimedia projects. We are extremely appreciative to have had the opportunity to play a part in making this happen which would not have been possible without the support (of all types) from the Wikimedia Foundation.