Talk:Wikimania 2013 bids/Bristol

Bid Supporters (Expressions of Interest)

Bringing Wikimania to Bristol would be great for the city. Bristol Airport will work with the team to provide information on travel options and give a warm welcome to all visitors flying into the South West. Bristol Airport 10:17, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

1 - Nice idea i like it Killerb 00:35, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

2 - Destination Bristol is proud to support the Bristol bid. Working with businesses in the tourism, leisure, hospitality and retail industry across Bristol and the west of England, we can help the team bring this fantastic event to the city. We can offer a simple delegate accommodation booking system, provide advice and create opportunities for Wikipedians to fall in love with this incredible city. Destination Bristol 15:34, 29 December 2011 (UTC)Destination Bristol 15:31, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

3 - Dsoundz Media ( Samdownie 13:24, 5 January 2012 (UTC) ) is a WikiMedia member, and helped to to organise the Wikipedia 10th Anniversary day in Bristol and London in January 2011, by helping with the live webcast, the blogging, audio capture and event organisation in Bristol. Also helped to set up a blog to take note of the day's events. Samdownie 13:22, 5 January 2012 (UTC) Is proud to support the WikiMania Bid for Bristol 2013, and aim to help make it successful.

4 - Great idea! Bs5er 13:53, 7 January 2012 (UTC) As stated on the page itself, I shall raise the bid at the next Bristol Wireless monthly meeting. I can also contact Bristol Hackspace and Bristol Dorkbot informally. They're more than likely to be supportive.

5 - Either Bristol or London would be an excellent venue for such an event, good facilities and good transport links. This proposal would be supported by Stone King, charity lawyers whose HQ is in Bath and second office in London. Jonathan Burchfield, head of SK's charity team

6 - Girl Geek Dinners Bristol offer our support to the bid. Some of our members are very keen to participate and we have lots of ideas to contribute.

7 - Great idea! tonycoll 13:15, 9 January 2012 Yet again, Bristol proves that it's among the world's most innovative cities.

8 - It'd be great to add this to the panoply of events in the Bristol calendar, especially ones that promote public engagement. The British Science Association is all about promoting openness about science in society and affirming science as a prime cultural force through engaging and inspiring adults and young people directly with science and technology, and their implications. As the Chair of the Bristol & Bath Branch, I'm enthusiastically in support of this proposal. JohnBradford 15:08, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

9 - |- |MrMattAnderson - Great idea and I believe we have the skills and the ground swell of support to make this bid successful for this highly digital and creative city! #LoveBristol MrMattAnderson 15:55, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

10 - Jason Thorne Great initiative, in favour of the bid Jason Thorne 16:56, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

11 - Doormatt fantastic idea, fully support this Doormatt 22:00, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

12 - The Marriott hotels in Bristol would be delighted to support in attracting this event to Bristol. The Marriott have over 500 rooms in Bristol, in addition to extensive conference space, and would be willing to offer favourable rates to attract Wikipedians to this great city.R Powell 13:55, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

13 - Bristol24-7 is happy to support Bristol's bid and can help to promote it on our pages

14 - Rich Smith (MTCD) Would be fantastic to see it in Bristol, I live about 30 minutes train journey from Bristol and would totally support the event! - Methecooldude 17:48, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

15 - Great idea. Tom Bennett

16 - Really hope this happens, good luck MacTheDog

17 - I support this project. cjlcs50 Lionel Stanbrook--Cjlcs50 15:48, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

18 - Voscur support the bid and will offer help in whatever capacity we can

19 - Great stuff! Hope it happens! T.Rawlings, PM Studio Resident

20 - I support the bid - it would be fantastic for Bristol to get this! Andrew Tibber

21 - I support Bristol's bid. - Kaspar Bumke.

22 - I support Bristol's bid whole-heartedly! Jaya Chakrabarti, A Mayor for Bristol

23 - I support Bristol's bid. Dave Jarman, University of Bristol Enterprise Education Manager.

24 - This is a great idea and I whole heartedly support Steve and this bid - AnaKronschnabl, CEO FluffyLogic

25 - I support his bid as enthusiastically as I can. There is no city in the world with such an exciting cocktail of diversity (industrial, cultural, social, ethnic) with such great transport links, a beautiful mixture of architecture, countryside, history, culture - and one of the largest research clusters in the UK. What greater source of exciting knowledge can you find in one place? Nick Sturge, Centre Director, SETsquared [1]

26 - Brilliant! I support Bristol's bid and would be happy to help where I can! Sarah Weller

27 - Happy to support this and help out in whatever manner. Jezhotwells (talk) 10:07, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

28 - Apologies for late expression of support, but I'll help wherever I can and hopefully enlist the support of my BW colleagues. Steve Woods, Secretary, Bristol Wireless [2] Bs5er (talk) 12:34, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Planning On-going discussions/developments

Meeting with Destinations Bristol- 29/12/11 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• Agreed that Destinations Bristol would back the bid in principle and offer 100% help in organisation of all logistics to get partners on board for the bid
• Agreed that Destinations Bristol would support the bid and play a key coordination role in liaising with the Wikimania bid committee if Bristol is successful
• Destinations Bristol has been mandated to get involved by the Leader of the City Council's Office Cllr Barbara Janke so has support of city
• Destinations Bristol would be a 'single point of contact for all hotel/accomodation and booking arrangements for all Wikimani delegates (it does this already for the city)
• Destinations Bristol would help in the approach to all venues and in negotiating favourable deals to hire venues, block book hotel rooms, to provide microsite booking information for the event which it would manage on our behalf
• Destinations Bristol would coordinate all contacts with tourism/places of interest that the bid team felt would enhance the quality of the Wikimania experience (museums, theatres, restaurants etc)
• Destinations Bristol would secure support from the Bristol Balloon Festival that overlaps the proposed Wikimania event and ensure that sponsored balloons, balloon rides were a practical and definate benefit for any Wikimania delegate that wished them

Meeting with Bristol Airport - 05/01/12 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• Bristol Airport outlined the city’s accessibility via the major international hubs of Amsterdam, Paris CDG, Brussels and Dublin. Each is served by multiple daily flights to and from Bristol, making connections to Bristol accessible for travellers from all over the world. In addition, those travelling from the US via Dublin have the added advantage of clearing US customs in Ireland on their return journey, arriving in the US as domestic passengers.
• Agreement on the part of the airport that Wikimania can have a 'welcome desk' at Bristol Airport manned by volunteers (both ours and the sirports own) who would assist and help Wikipedians arriving in Bristol and those leaving
• Agreement that Wikimania can have/place its own branding inside the airport on and around the welcome desk
• Bristol Airport to consider a package of benefits for Wikipedians, such as Fast Track security, retail and catering discounts and a concessionary fare on the Airport Flyer Express bus service to Bristol city centre.

Email from Bristol Balloons after initial meeting - 05/01/12 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• The following estimated charges would apply to the 3 day event to get the idea off the ground;-
• Hire complete 4 passenger balloon with plain envelope (including a trailer) = £500
• Hire a 4 x 4 vehicle at about £100 per day = £500.00
• Addition of ‘D’ Rings or Velcro to balloon for 6 banners = £250.00 (16mt of Velcro for each banner)
• The manufacture of 6 banners (4 sq mt each) = £200
• Design and application of artwork to the banners = £????
• Bristol Balloons ‘Day Rate’ to operate and staff the balloon = £800/day = £2,400

Grand Total = £3,850 Option to ‘join’ the 100 Club for the weekend (see link = £2,000 See link - http://www.bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk/content/26/the-benefits.aspx

Would this mean we could sell places in the balloon? I suspect a few wikimanians would be up for that. WereSpielChequers 10:25, 9 January 2012 (UTC) Oh yes! That's the general idea...balloons fly dawn & dusk so it does not interfere with the conference. There'd also be some sensational views out over the Avon Gorge around the suspension bridge. I also think it'll make for amazing PR if we could get Jimmy in a balloon with a few famous uber-geeks Steve Virgin 12:18, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Bristol vs. London

• Support Bristol, although as a resident, I have a conflict of interest. I don't currently hold membership, but will update this when that changes. Holding the event in Bristol is likely to offer the following benefits over London:
  1. Reduced cost (venues for organisers, accommodation for attendees)
  2. Potential support/sponsorship from independent creative businesses to balance large corporate entities
  3. Compact city
     • permits easy access to surrounding geographical areas
     • has potential to involve all city's stakeholders
  4. Potential to arrange (subsidised) shuttle buses via discussions with FreeBus

-- Trevj 20:43, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

The cost saving will be more than cancelled out by the added cost of getting there. For most people in the world, you have to go via London to get to Bristol, so it inevitably costs more. --Tango 01:23, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

That depends on how long people stay in the area (significantly different cost of hotels). I think other issues are far more important. e.g. Facilities (East London Tech City sounds like it's gonna be awesome), the availability of volunteers to organise it and the helpfulness of useful people like the council and the owners of the facilities. Yaris678 10:34, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Two airlines (in particular) have significant presence in Bristol KLM and EasyJet. It should be no problem to involve all the weight of the city in discussions that involve heavy discounting on plane seats/chartering for pre-booked flights out of Amsterdam (that has frequent flights into the city). There would be the full weight of the city behind this bid, that would include contacts at City Cabinet level with the airport authorities directly. Local businesses would step up and back the bid and I'd expect major levels of sponsor support from groups that have already done so before and have seen value from backing the event. There is already genuine city-wide enthusiasm and support from many groups (as mentioned in the Potential Sponsors section). There is likely to be a Wikipedia Society in the University of Bristol in the coming months, that would support the planning for the bid. There are other vehicles of support that tap into the digital media community (Bristol Media), the world class natural history broadcasting team at the BBC Natural History Unit (via our friends at Bristol Natural History Consortium) and many others.

While recognising that an event in the Olympic Village is hard to overcome, the costs could come in under half of the other event, there would be city-wide (if not region-wide) mobilisation of support behind this event.

Hotels issue - hopefully we can kill that one off too - plan is to get agreement to base 99% of all attendees in the University of Bristol Halls of Residence...so no buses to venues, all in 5-10m walking distance - and a lot of good bars, cafes, green spaces and things to see outside the Wikimania event itself Steve Virgin 00:21, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Template:Culture in Bristol lists some places not already mentioned. I've also copied in the self-evaluation titles from the London bid, so it's not forgotten. Sorry for not actually adding any content there ATM. -- Trevj 19:53, 28 November 2011 (UTC) thanks Steve Virgin 17:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Move to Meta?

Hey. :-)

What's the plan about moving this to meta? Other bids are piling up there and it'd be good to have them developed on a more high-visibility wiki for others to see...

Jdforrester 17:48, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

As suggested at Talk:London Wikimania Bid#Move to Meta?, I think the idea is that we decide on a single UK bid, before moving it to meta. Yaris678 10:27, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

James - this is still in embryonic stage - can we do it in a week or so time - it is unfinished...rushed in a single couple of hours prior to a Board meeting...would like some time to think it through more carefully - say 2 weeks? Then I'd be delighted to put it across to metaSteve Virgin 15:41, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

I'm in London but I think Bristol might work better for Wikimania - in a smaller city it will be a bigger deal. --Filceolaire 19:34, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

That depends how big a deal you want to make it! London has a lot more access to international media. Is this being a big deal high on our priorities for this conference though? EdSaperia 15:30, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

That really does not have to be the case (the idea that London is the only place where news happens). When Bristol hosted the Jimmy Wales Wikipedia 10 birthday talk on Jan 13 2011 - the next morning there were just under one thousand news items on Google news about the event. We had 3,500 people watching the talk live - some 20-30K more watched the talk from around the world subsequently. It has been placed on many talk channels across the world so I have no idea of the final total. The bristol day was in the Top 10 of Twitter for some ours (as we had a team of volunteers in the Bristol Watershed tweeting and blogging about the even after having a coffee with jimmy Wales). It was in top 3 on Twitter nationally that morning. For this bid we have a professional web based news service called Bristol News/24/7 offering its services for free to 'act as newswire hub' - we also have plans to engage the media in interactive ways involving the Balloons and thought leading Wikipedians - plan is to create a Balloon Debate with a real life balloon and famous people, streamed live while flying over the Bristol gorge - and getting people to vote online to decide who/or what gets thrown out or kept in the balloon. I think this might be pretty engaging with the world's media, wouldn't you? Then there is the full support of the local city council (Leader Barbar Janke and team have already endorsed the bid). This means we'd have a fully paid professional communications team working for a city 'at our disposal' for support/advice/drafting/contacts and anything we wished - so the idea that London is the only place that the press will pay attention to is quite frankly nuts Steve Virgin 13:24, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Other Languages

2013 will be directly after Washington - another English speaking city. What links does Bristol have with projects in other languages besides English? Are there any Welsh Wikipedians, for example, on the list of supporters? --Filceolaire 11:32, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

• Reasonably-sized French community, probably partly due to universities, Airbus and partner companies. This means that the Ecole Française de Bristol (not a state school) is sustainable. There's also the local Alliance française, [3]. The twin town in France is Bordeaux, but I don't know the current status of the Bristol-Bordeaux Association[4], [5]. There are apparently other twin towns in Germany, Portugal, Georgia, Nicaragua, Mozambique and China. HTH.

-- Trevj 19:37, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

The Bordeaux link is very strong - regular farmers markets in the summer, trade delegations etc - given the intra-city connections developing that tie for the bid (if successful) is a superb idea Steve Virgin 17:38, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Record of Meetups

It looks as if there's only been one! A while ago I unofficially created Bristol 2, for the Wikipedia at 10 event. Are there any others which should be noted? It's a good job that Cambridge isn't in the running! -- Trevj 11:38, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

No - there was one in May 2010 following on from the Annual Fund Raising Conference listed on the page - then there has been a series of events (see above) at which a wide variety of Wikipedians and would be Wikipedians have got involved. There was also around 30 volunteers 'working' during the Jimmy Wales talk in January 2011 - tweeting, blogging and assisting with the organisation where needed. Bristol has tended to 'do events' over just WikiMeets - the testimony is visible on the page above Steve Virgin 15:49, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Is the "testimony" what's included at Bristol Wikimania Bid#A city with a track record of support to our movement? Is it worth discussing whether any of them would qualify for being retroactively classified as WikiMeets (even "fringe" WikiMeets tagged on to more prominent events)? (Sorry, if this is a distraction which is unnecessary to pursue.) Thanks. -- Trevj (talk) 01:58, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Well we had a UK AGM there, that certainly should count as a Bristol meetup. It was a bigger event than most of the London events I've been to. WereSpielChequers 22:02, 2 January 2012 (UTC) Wikimeets - you could argue they were all 'Wikimeets' of sorts...just look a bid odd and hyperactive. Big difference between what we were doing and a WikiMeet is that we had a specific activity (training, teaching, explaining, discussing or something of that nature) rather than just meeting as a group of like-minded friends for a drink and a chat. There was one of those in May 2010 (on the saturday evening of the Fund Raising Conference. Steve Virgin 12:27, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Accommodation

Halls of residence sound great and this sort of thing worked well in Haifa and Gdansk, except that some of it was 20 minutes walk away in Gdansk, and Haifa was a coach journey. So how far will they be from everything else? Currently the bid reads like everything is easy walking distance except the Accommodation. Also we have people on varying budgets including some who will expect a 5 star option - I'm pretty sure Bristol has such but can you confirm and add, including again the proximity to the venues. WereSpielChequers 00:38, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Good questions - am working on confirmation of this now - in theory as follows: University of Bristol based at the top of Park Street - it connects to Harbourside by a 5-6 min walk down hill. The majority (if not all) of the venues will be no more than 10 mins walk. Accomodation - student halls are on the Downs near Clifton (mostly) - that's about 15 min to 20 min walk. There are other student places right slap bang in the city run by a private company called Unite - who we will be talking to. Hotels - through Destination Bristol we will have a single point of contact, single point of booking for all travel and residence. So 'it is taken care of' and our Bid team just coordinates with them and does not have to do much of the donkey work at all. They'd also be the 'hub' for me now in contacting all interested parties, venues, universities and other bodies to meet them and to woe them onside for the bid. They have been instructed already to offer full support by the Leader of the City Council Barbara Janke (hence we have the city swinging 100% behind the bid). Steve Virgin 12:24, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Three student halls of residence: en:Clifton Hill House;[6] en:Manor Hall;[7] en:Goldney House[8] can between them accommodate about 700+. All in Clifton, 5-10 minutes from main University campus (0.7 miles/ 1.1 kilometres).[9] The halls on the far side of the Downs (Durdham, Wills, Hiatt-Baker, University and Churchill[10] are at least 30-40 minutes (2 miles/3.22 kilometres).[11] Goldney Hall has a beautiful garden which might be suitable for a large evening garden party for all delegates? Jezhotwells (talk) 10:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Just a note, Manor Hall will be closed for renovations in the 2012/2013 academic year, and won't have many rooms available. I am not sure when they complete their renovations, but this may put that hall out of the list of options. Also, with most Bristol University halls, there are very few ensuite rooms, and showers will be shared with 3-4 people, generally. This also needs to be taken into consideration in case some people would be uncomfortable with that idea. --72.139.44.214 01:18, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Geonotice

Don't we want to request a Geonotice like London have? -- Trevj (talk) 15:33, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

sounds like a good ide - can you put it in motion? Steve Virgin (talk) 20:29, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, but I'm already neogiating another event notice there too. What dates would you suggest? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Trevj (talk) 11:44, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm now proposing a combined London/Bristol notice. -- Trevj (talk) 12:06, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

great idea Steve Virgin (talk) 17:02, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Now in place until 15 April. -- Trevj (talk) 14:25, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Bristol/London and the position of the chapter

Hi,

While preparing a bit, I cannot help but wonder if you could perhaps clarify what is the position of the chapter in this bid - considering that there are currently two Wikimania bids from England. Is the chapter actively supporting either bid, is the chapter indifferent and will it support either city equally if selected? Will there be a choice at some point? Will either bid be explicitely organized by the chapter, or not at all? Effeietsanders (talk) 16:44, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi - the Board has not discussed this issue as of 24th March so no 'choice' has been made. The community can of course do so and make any choice it wises but no formal process has begun to my knowledge yet Steve Virgin (talk) 20:28, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Dear All, please see below for the statement from Wikimedia UK Chapter:

The chapter is pleased that two high quality UK bids have emerged and wish them luck. We will await the choice that the global community and Wikimania Jury makes. If one of the UK bids is selected, we will begin negotiations to see what support may be needed from our resources. We have four full-time members of staff, including both event management and communications professionals, an office based in central London, and trustees based around the UK, including in Bristol. We feel that, as a fundraising chapter with a vibrant community behind us and several major events (such as GLAM-WIKI 2010) behind us, we have the ability to support a UK bid.
Daria Cybulska (talk) 13:11, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for this message. I would like to dig a little deeper here (will post the identical question on the London page): will the Wikimedia UK chapter be the official organizer of Wikimania, if either bid gets accepted? If not, what role exactly does Wikimedia UK and the bidding team see it take on? Effeietsanders (talk) 10:44, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

IRC Public Meeting

Dear bidders,

As outlined in the timeline on this page, there will be a public IRC meeting on 14:00 UTC coming Saturday on #Wikimania on Freenode IRC. I look forward to meeting you then. Effeietsanders (talk) 15:47, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

The meeting is taking place RIGHT NOW. --თოგო ^(D) 14:13, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Questions for the Organizing Committee

Venue

1. How many simultaneous tracks are possible?
2. Which hall will be used as a main hall? How much doe it sit?
3. How many breakout rooms are there? How many people are exactly in each breakout rooms ?
4. What is the distance between the various halls if not in the same building?
5. Will lunch be at separate buildings or at one location?

Additional question:

1. How is the technical side set up? Who will take care of the wireless internet, how is it tested and will you be able to handle 2000 - 3000 devices at the same time? Effeietsanders (talk) 21:35, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Additional question answer

The University of Bristol is run by the University of Bristol's own internet team who have worked with us before. Wi-Fi access is available on a pre-arranged basis across the whole campus. in 2010-11, the University of Bristol had 15,107 students + staff, although not all attending and accessing multiple devices or attending at exactly the same time of day. [12]. We would seek advice from the University of Bristol experts to see whether any 'strengthening' of the Wi-Fi network is required in tests. Our understanding is no, and that 1000 wikipedians on multiple devices for a conference would pose little difficulty for the system, but it cannot hurt to ask further questions as a precaution.

I'd just like to endorse the above answer: a large number of devices at the same time is what the university network routinely experiences a few weeks later than the conference, at the start of term. The University has a joint venture with the City Council to provide free wifi over a large swathe of the city, specifically with the goal of supporting public events. MartinPoulter (talk) 21:44, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Venue - Answers:

• What is the distance between the various halls if not in the same building? AND Which hall will be used as a main hall? What capacity is there?

Bristol has a number of venues that can accomodate parallel sessions all within very close walking distance of each other. This means it is simple to move from venue to venue without wasting time. The University of Bristol campus and its buildings are all located within 5-10 minutes walk of the city centre (see google map link attached) [13] The Victoria Rooms would be one of the two principal venues (marked D on the previous google map). The Victoria Rooms was the venue for the only public lecture/talk that Jimmy Wales gave for Wikipedia 10- and was attended by a capacity 750 people on the day, with another 3,500 watching on live web stream. A second venue is at the Wills Memorial building which no more than a few hundred metres from the Victoria Rooms and holds around 800-850. [14]. For some simultaneous tracks we would use the Watershed [15] and the Arnolfini [16] which is almost opposite the Watershed across the harbour

• How many breakout rooms are there? What capacity do these breakout rooms have?

1. Victoria Rooms has four breakout rooms: Harley Room (30 people), Victoria's Room (80), Recital Room (150) and Lecture Theatre (150) -
2. Wills Memorial Building has two rooms - Great Hall (800), Reception Room (200)
3. Watershed has Cinema One (200), Cinema Two (45), Cinema Three (100), Watershed One (30), Watershed Two (45) and Watershed Three (120)
4. Arnolfini has Cinema/Theatre (220), Dark Studio (50) and Light Studio (40) - its galleries can also be hired for drink receptions

• How many simultaneous tracks are possible?

Given the proximity of 'main venues' (listed above) and other venues within the University of Bristol campus, there is very little limit on the number of possible simultaneous tracks. The only factor would be budget. Proximity is not an issue, neither are facilities as they are, in many cases, university owned, as such, negotiable. Or active supporters of the Wikimania bid (Watershed) or council owned and, de facto supporters, (Arnolfini)

• Will lunch be at separate buildings or at one location?

Lunch is budgeted for in the University of Bristol's own catering facilities - these are also within walking distance of the main venues. The University has a dedicated Conference and Exhibitions team that would see to it that all forms of special dietary needs are catered for [17]

Venue follow-up

Thanks for the detailed answers above. I have a few follow-up questions. 1) Could you please provide in the bid a map with all the relevant locations (all venue locations + main accommodation sites). 2) Could you outline here or in the bid how you plan to ensure that people find their way to the right building at the right time. Will you be allowed to place markers on the public road, is there much traffic in the road people have to cross etc? How will you resolve the confusion that undoubtly will come when people have to move between different buildings through a public area. Thanks, Effeietsanders (talk) 21:27, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Here's is a map I just knocked up on Google Maps[18] with hotels major potential venues, points of interest, transport hubs noted. I will let Steve answer on placing markers but as the bid has the support of the city council and Destination Bristol, this should be OK. The main busy road crossings are Queens road (top of Park Street) and the City Centre (Watershed/Arnolfini/Bristol Hippodrome, etc.) These are served by pedestrian crossings and good street signing as a result of the Bristol legible city project.[19] I imagine that all delegates would be provided with street maps, probably based on the freely available Destination Bristol Maps.[20] Jezhotwells (talk) 11:25, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much, the map is extremely insightful. Just to make sure I understand correctly: The walking distance between Victoria Rooms (as I understand, some sessions of Wikimania will be held here?) and the Watershed (which will host parallel sessions to the Victoria Rooms?) is 10-15 minutes as calculated through Google Maps. But the bid seems to me a bit unclear which venue sites are intended to be used in parallel (and need to be walkable easily by participants going from one session to another) and which are mainly party sites etc (which can be at a greater distance without too much trouble). I hope this can also be clarified a bit more in the bidding page. Because while I can imagine that the Watershed, at-Bristol and the City Council House (all in purple at Google Maps) are within walking distance - even though suboptimal to have multiple locations - the distance between these and Victoria Rooms is simply too large to be reasonable I'm afraid. Effeietsanders (talk) 12:25, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Answers

• Thanks for map Jez very helpful. Just took guidance from AA websites and it said Victoria Rooms to Watershed was 8-10 minutes walking. The main venue sites would be the Victoria Rooms and the Wills Memorial - which are little more than 600m apart in distance and would be about 2-3 minutes to get to. The 10-15 minute comment in the bid allows for people to walk back to student accomodation which is near Clifton Downs, all 'active venues to be used for the conference and evening events' are all within a few minutes walk of each other. Its the accomodation that is 10-15 mins walk away, but not the hotels, only the University of Bristol's own student accomodation near the Clifton Downs. Clifton is clearly marked on the map that Jez helpfully provided near the top. Many of the hotels are marked on the same map and are no more than a small walking distance from the main venues.
• Yes I can confirm that Destinations Bristol (DB) will provide a fully manned 'concierge service' for delegates, involving maps, tourist information and guidance and support. This would form part of the support that they offer conferences of this scale for free. DB is checking officially with relevant bodies on signage, as this is an uusual request, but they advise that creating temporary signage has been and could be attached to lamposts or standing freely outside buildings to provide guidance to delegates should it be necessary. (Steve Virgin)

return

I'm sorry to be insisting here, but can you please clarify whether there are *any* venues aside from Victoria Rooms and Wills Memorial planned to be used during the main conference days for sessions? What will the Cathedral, St.Georges, Colston Hall or Watershed be used for? I mean, it is great that you put all these venues in the bid, but for me it is quite unclear from the bid which building is intended to be used when. It would be helpful if you could add for each building a short note what it is intended to be used for, on which conference days. Effeietsanders (talk) 22:38, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

We will be tackling these tomorrow - we've made some changes improvements today and we'll continue tomorrow up till the meeting on Saturday. These suggestions are really useful as they mean we can raise our game more. We really do value them. The points you highlight need addressing and we will later today. (Steve Virgin)

• Can you please provide a map of just the veneu sites to be used (main hall, breakout halls)?

Local vicinity

1. Did you contact the hotels and checked availability? (yes)
2. What will be the cost of the student rooms pledged by the university? How many persons per room? What will be the cost per person? (all on bid page now)
3. What are the expected hotel costs? (all on bid page now)

Local Vicinity - Answers

• Bookings for Accommodation, Travel and Tourism

There will be a single point of contact, managed by Destinations Bristol, for all travel, tourism and accommodation arrangements in and around the city during the event, in conjunction with advice from the Wikimania Bid team. This includes: the provision of a knowledgeable and friendly team that provides a one stop shop for all conferencing needs, it includes securing venues - providing an online delegate accommodation booking service – coordinating site visit arrangements – providing information and materials for delegate packs - expert suggestions for bespoke social and partner programmes - and link up with any extra relevant event services providers. The provision of specialist assistance for the Bristol Wikimania team will smooth the process by which Wikipedians travel to and stay in the city.

• Did you contact the hotels and checked availability?

Destinations Bristol is in regular contact with hotels and accomodation providers and can leverage the size and number of delegates expected to attend Wikimania to secure favourable rates on hotels or other forms of accomodation. The University of Bristol has already committed to between 300-400 places in student residence accomodation. Destinations Bristol would secure additional student accomodation in the city centre from Unite [21]. There would also be spaces booked at the city's Youth Hostel Association houses. [22] Hotel chains have already offered varying degrees of support, one, the Marriott chain, has already registered its support on the bid page [23] . Others have committed to support the bid verbally but not yet added their name to the Supporters section. So, in conclusion we'd expect to secure favourable rates on hotel accomodation throughout the city thanks to Destinations Bristol's expertise and long-standing connnections with all of these hotel groups in the city.

• Typical average hotel/student room cost update

We now have a full breakdown of costs of everything on the bid page. The judging should note that no discount for block booking of anything is included in these costs. It is expected that discounts will be negotiated.

• Destinations Bristol - our relationship

Destinations Bristol's [24] involvement in organising the event is a little like having our 'own event management company' working for us for free. Its job is to organise events of the scale that we seek to offer Wikipedians. The Bristol Wikimania Team would have full access to these services at little or no cost. This commitment is already in place as Destinations Bristol is already wortking with the Bristol Wikimania team. In practical terms, Destinations Bristol is in touch with all relevant destinations across the city now. They have done the same for hotels across the city. They have also committed to provide a single online point of web access that would be available to the Wikimania organisers. This website would be a valuable one stop shop for *all* hotel, travel and venue arrangements, leaving the Wikimania organisers to concentrate on building up the shape and nature of the conference sessions themselves instead.

Jimmy Wales Bristol University Wikipedia 10

• University of Bristol Conferences and Hospitality team - our relationship [25]

The University of Bristol team partnered Wikimedia UK in the organisation of Jimmy Wales' talk for Wikipedia's 10th Birthday at the University of Bristol, so there is an established relationship between the Bristol Bid team and the Conference and Hospitality team.

The University team would advise, assist and guide the Wikimania Bid team at all stages in achieving an optimal use of the venues at is disposal. The cost of venues on the day and catering would need to be met through the Wikimania budget, but all consultancy advice in terms of set up, reservation and best practice usage would all be free.

Accommodation follow-up

Could you please expand in the bid the section about the arranged accommodation. How many beds, against what price is to be expected. It is very welcome that the rates are reduced, but we need to compare with other cities and countries, not with normal Bristol :) I hope you can understand. If you cannot give solid numbers, please give estimates. Also please make sure to include the important accommodation locations in the map mentioned above. Effeietsanders (talk) 21:33, 9 April 2012 (UTC) will sort this out before saturday. This request is now met - see Bid page Steve Virgin (talk) 20:53, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Visas

1. Is there government support for the conference? Can they ensure Visa assistance support?

Visas - Answers

International conferences in the UK tend to revert back to the Home Office webpage for all matters relating to VISA applications - we shall follow the same approach. We have a question out there with the UK Borders Agency for any alternative or better approach and are awaiting a reply. [26] [27]

USEFUL VISA INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS OF INTERNATIONAL EVENTS IN THE UK

The UK Border Agency is responsible for securing the UK border and controlling migration in the UK. We manage border control for the UK, enforcing immigration and customs regulations. We also consider applications for permission to enter or stay in the UK, and for citizenship and asylum. The main website can be found at: [28]

The visas and immigration section of this website is the main source of information and guidance for visa applicants from outside the UK. [29]

Visa and Direct Airside Transit Visa Nationals

Visa nationals are those who need a visa for every entry to the UK. Different rules apply to visa nationals (including those who need visas to transit the UK) and non visa nationals, so it is important to be aware of which rules apply. More information on visa nationals is available at the following link: [30]

Visa Application Centres The UKBA employs commercial partners (VFS Global and WorldBridge Service) to manage Visa Application Centres (VACs) and provide information services (on behalf of UK diplomatic missions overseas). The VACs collect applications and biometric information for the appropriate UK diplomatic mission where an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) makes a decision on the application. Some VACs also have telephone call centres and call charges may vary.

Applying for a visa In many countries you must apply for your visa online. You can make an appointment during this online process to submit your printed and signed form in person at your nearest VAC. [31]

However there are some countries that do not have an online application facility. If the country you are applying from does not have this facility you will need to complete a visa application form. Please check the specific country webpage for more guidance. [32]

There is also an on-line search tool/questionnaire entitled 'Do you need a visa?'. This helps you find out if you need a visa to come to the UK. [33]

Biometrics All visa applications will require the actual applicant to attend your local VAC to submit biometric details. This involves a digital photograph and a ten digit finger scan being taken. The application cannot be assessed until these details have been submitted.

When to lodge a visa application A passport will need to be submitted as part of the visa application process. The onus is on the applicants to ensure that they submit timely and well documented applications and in accordance with the immigration rules for the category of visa in which they are applying. Applicants can apply for a visa within three months of their intended date of travel. We are only able to post-date visas by a maximum of three months from the date of the decision on your visa application. Applicants can enter the UK anytime after the visa issue date but not before.

Premium/Priority Services There is no automatic fast track service for visas and nor can we deliver a same day service. A premium or priority service is available in some countries, where an additional handling fee is payable. Check the relevant visa application centre website for information on the service available as well as charges.

Visa Fees Visa fees are collected in the local currency of the country where the application is made. The websites for UK diplomatic missions overseas or the VAC show the fee converted to local currency. Visa fees are charged to cover the cost of processing the application. A fee will be refunded only if the application is withdrawn in writing prior to any processing of the application and biometrics have not been taken, or if the applicant refuses to provide biometrics. No refunds are given if the visa is refused or is issued with a visa with a validity shorter period than applied for. Fees are subject to change annually. [34]

Fees are also listed on the individual country’s webpage. To go to a specific country’s page go to the ‘Where to Apply’ dropdown menu on the UKBA homepage and select the country from the list.

Customer standards and Processing Times We aim to process each visa application within a target period but we cannot guarantee that your visa application will be completed within this time. The unique circumstances of each individual case may result in longer decision times. To find out our most recent visa application processing performance, use the interactive tool on the ‘Guide to visa processing times’ page at: [35] Information about our customer service standards can be found on this webpage: [36]

Application forms and guidance notes

For information about different categories of visa and the requirements for each, as well as application forms and guidance, see the following links. Study the guidance notes for the entry clearance application route. Please complete the visa application form carefully, including the Declaration section at the end of the form. Visitors: [37] Students: [38] Working in the UK: [39]

Supporting documents The UKBA website sets out information on supporting documentation required for both non points-based system and points-based system applications. Applicants should also check with the application centre where the visa will be lodged for any specific local guidance which also needs to be taken into account.

Immigration advice The UK Border Agency cannot give any guarantees to the outcome of any visa application submitted. Nor can the UK Border Agency or the VAC staff overseas give immigration advice (which can only come from trained immigration advisers). The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has a list of trained advisers on their website. [40]

For further guidance click on the ‘where can you get advice?’ tool under ‘more information’, found at the bottom of each country’s webpage. [41]

Making travel arrangements We strongly advise applicants not to confirm their travel arrangements to come to the UK until they have received their visa. We strongly recommend against purchasing a non-refundable, non-flexible ticket to the UK, until the visa application has been approved and the applicant/s are in receipt of the visa. We do not accept responsibility for any financial loss and we do not fast-track applications solely due to planned date of travel. Arriving in the UK On arrival, an immigration officer may ask to see evidence of the reasons for coming to the UK. This may include travel tickets, evidence of funding, letters from the sponsor or businesses they are visiting. Applicants should carry in their hand luggage copies of documents that were passed to the visa officer. Applicants should not experience any problems on arrival in the UK, providing that: • they have given the visa officer all information relevant to the visit to the UK • they have not, with or without their knowledge, given false information to support the visa application, and • there has been no change of circumstances, or reasons for going to the UK, since the visa was issued.

Visa conditions Those allowed to enter the UK do so for a specific purpose. Successful applicants need to keep to the conditions of the visa. For example, if work is not permitted, taking up employment will mean a breach of the conditions of the visa. This could result in a fine, deportation from the country and a ban from returning to the UK for up to 10 years. It is also illegal to stay longer in the UK than the visa allows. An overstayer may face prosecution and detention as well as a 10 year ban. The British Government is committed to a firm but fair migration system.

The UK Border Agency receives over 2.5 million visa applications a year from people wanting to come to the UK, and delivers first-class customer service to genuine applicants. Those who try to gain access to the UK with false documents or deception will face an automatic ban from the UK for up to 10 years. Applicants who have previously breached UK immigration laws by staying in the UK illegally or working without permission will also be banned from coming to the UK.

OTHER USEFUL LINKS ‘Your Stay in the UK’ ‘Your Stay in the UK’ pdf (see link) contains information about the UK visa and what it permits visitors to do whilst they are in the UK. It is intended to help visitors enjoy a trouble-free arrival and stay in the UK. [42] The Visiting the UK page contains general information about different types of visa and categories of traveller to the UK and aims to answer some common questions on the visa application process. [43]

Frequently asked questions

Follow the links below for useful information on the following topics: • Applying for a visa [44]

• After I get my visa (visa holders) [45]

• My visa is refused (Administrative Review process) [46]

Immigration Rules Full conditions for entry to the United Kingdom are contained in the Immigration Rules published on the UK Border Agency website: [47]

UK Border Agency Newsfeeds Visit the UK Border Agency News and Updates page for news and announcements related to Border Agency policies or the visa operation we manage overseas. [48]

You can subscribe to the various newsfeeds to receive email notifications of our latest news and updates of specific interest. [49] Produced by UK Border Agency © Crown Copyright September 2011 (version 6) s: stakeholders/events/events management/generic visa guidance

Judging Questions - Conference organization

1. Will there be hacking days?
2. There is only one "net" day for the conference – with chapter's meeting on day. Why so little?
3. Why the VIP party over lunch?
4. Will dinners be provided as part of the conference?
5. Who are the 10 VIP's?
6. Will you cater for various dietary needs (lactose intolerants, sugar free etc.)? Will you arrange vegetation food? Can you arrange Kosher food? Halal food?
7. Why the VIP reception is a bit too expensive. Why so much?
8. What is "technical" item in the budget? Is there budget for recording the tracks?
9. What is "travel for VIP" comprised of? How many will there be? Who will they be?
10. How many Keynotes planed?
11. Any ideas who they will be?
12. Will you be using a production company? An event manager? Will the "Conference consultant" be a professional firm? Or just one worker?

Conference Organisation - Answers

• Will you cater for various dietary needs (lactose intolerants, sugar free etc.)? Will you arrange vegetation food? Can you arrange Kosher food? Halal food?

The University catering services deals with this full range of dietary issues on a daily basis. the Bristol Bid team and the wider Wikimania community will collaborate to identify special dietary need in advance of attendees arriving and work with the University of Bristol Conference Services will liaise with its catering services to ensure these needs are properly met.

• Will there be hacking days?

The shape of the Conference agenda is very open to improvement so the short answer is 'yes.' We have several groups in Bristol keen to lead or to get closely involved in the organisation of hacking days at Wikimania: Bristol Hackspace [50], Bristol Dorkbot [51] and Bristol Wireless [52]. Members have attended or been involved with the organisation of Wikimedia UK events in the city over the last two years. They are committed to continue this process if Wikimania came to Bristol in 2013. Local Wikipedians are also involved in forming a Geodata Consortium. [53] Then aim of this group is: To enable and encourage people and organisations in Bristol to create free geographical content, to prepare the city for the next generation of location-aware "augmented reality" technologies. Bristol should be a showcase for how a community can benefit from, and contribute to, shared geographical data. We would involve the new members of this consortium as well in this enterprise.

• Will you be using a production company? An event manager? Will the "Conference consultant" be a professional firm? Or just one worker?

In preliminary discussions with Wikimedia UK Board members it was felt that a successful UK-based Wikimania conference bid would need to have full time support 'on the ground' that liaised with the Wikimedia UK office, but could also operate independently in support of the local bid team. It was also felt that this person or company would need to be 'in post' shortly after the bid had won the support of the wider community. This 'budget' line is in recognition of an 'organising role' to run from the end of July 2012 until the end of August 2013. No firm decisions on this person or company have been decided and the Bristol team would seek wider advice on the matter were they to be successful.

* Other questions We've made some changes to the Conference schedule and Budget to answer these questions. Taking on board the advice from within the questions above.

VIP's why so many - the Bristol team is attempting to budget for around 10 people who could come from: the sponsorship deals that the organisers plan to make, where one or two people from the company may attend, or from the international guests or keynote speakers (covering air flights mainly - illustrated example would besomeone like Clay Shirky from the USA or Brian Solis). However, if we went for figures who were closer to home (international experts from Oxford or Cambridge as an illustrated example - Richard Dawkins) we'd find our VIP costs considerably lower than what is budgeted for.

The budget for accomodation is a working one with a premise of 10 VIPs and the number is a generic one, where it is possible not to spend that amount we will do so. Similarly the budget for travel for VIPs is also based on the same sets of premises. If the VIP is local we'll end up only paying for a room and train fare. If they are from Hong Kong or New York the costs may well be higher. This is not a budget that we 'must' spend on this item at these rates. It is a precautionary amount that will move to another budget heading if underspend occurs.

Judging Team Comment

• Expect much higher attendance at the attendee parties (One of the parties in Haifa had about 700 attendees). VIP/sponsors – about 80 attendees,

Judging Team Comment - Answers

As degree ceremonies are held in the Wills Memorial room for hundreds of graduates and it has an 800 capacity, this should not be a problem. Equally, there are no end of venues that can host anything from 50 to a few hundred that Destinations Bristol could help us secure and that would all be within walking distance of other venues. The booking and organisation of the events inside these venues would be done in tandem with the Bristol Festival of Ideas. We'd discuss a 'Wikipedia Week' theme with them ad the city - as an additional way to get sponsors to come forward at an early stage.

• Bristol Zoo [54],
• Riverboats can be hired with bar and buffet to entertain guests [55], (Wikimedia UK's Global Fundraising Conference in Bristol in May '10 had evening entertainment on a riverboat for delegates)[56]
• SS Great Britain [57]
• The newly opened £30m museum M-Shed [58]

All of these venues are also within a few minutes walking distance of the city centre, making it accesible as a tourist attraction or a venue for a sponsor event or a breakout session.

Some comments

• May I know exactly the experience of the team to organize events inside and outside Wikimedia movement? It's unclear in the profile but it seems that the team has the organization of the 10th anniversary as main event in their experience. What about the professional members joined in the team?
• The section concerning the accomodation is poor and I have some doubt that Bristol may host an event that can have also 1000 persons. In my opinion the offer to use halls of residences and the Youth Hostel can cover only 50-60% of the accomodation. May you indicate the average of the costs of the hotel in Bristol? (Bid page now updated to include everything you requested to improve this section Steve Virgin (talk) 20:59, 10 April 2012 (UTC))
• Probably I miss it, but I don't see any specific organization of social events. There is the VIP party but there is not a specific event for all participants like that proposed by Hong Kong, is it? --Ilario (talk) 09:55, 9 April 2012 (UTC) (Explained in Festival of Ideas section and below - as this organisation will book speakers and coorganise dinners, discussions and social events in conjunction with Wikimania Organisers. They will have a seat on the Conference organisation team in the same way as Destinations Bristol Steve Virgin (talk) 21:56, 11 April 2012 (UTC))

Judging Team Answers

• Destination Bristol supporting the bid for Wikimania Bristol 2013 (Professional members in the Bristol Bid team - one member from Destination Bristol, following a Wikimedian's guidance)

Destination Bristol’s role is to work in partnership with these organisations (in fact around 600 businesses involved in the tourism, hospitality, retail and leisure industries) to enable complex logistical events can happen by ensuring the right people are working together to provide the best solution. Bristol has been quietly gaining a reputation for staging events with one of the most high profile examples being the 2010 UK Prime Ministerial debates [59] see footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W025qa6Wk8

While this event was organised by Sky TV and not Destination Bristol, it involved Destination Bristol in the coordination of at least 4 venues, security and accommodation working closely together for a huge spectacle. At the same time, Destination Bristol has worked with event management companies to help deliver events such for Rotary, Associations, corporate groups and Destination Bristol will work as closely with the Bristol Wikimania organising team as required, even providing a concierge service during main conference programmes offering maps, advice, directions and other assistance. We will continue to work with any event consultant or management company to provide a professional service once the destination for 2013 is announced.

As an organisation, we offer a simple booking service for delegates to secure accommodation through specially negotiated rates available through a secure site. Delegates can select accommodation according to their needs and budget and we can assist with the booking process if needed. The available accommodation is displayed clearly on a Google map to show the location in relation to the main conference location.

• Social Events complementing Wikimania will be organised by Bristol Festival of Ideas which will also help with administration and publicity. So, they'll coordinate arrangements on Key Note speakers of the calibre of:Clay Shirky,Cory Doctrow,Jimmy Wales,Brian Solis,Stephen Fry,Tim Berners-Lee. Though no specific approach to these speakers has yet been made. We are in discussions with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, three local schools and the some student societies in the two city universities about theming events and encouraging volunteers to get involved.

All VIP/social events will be coordinated with our Bristol Festival of Ideas partners. They have years of experience working with these venues (St Georges, Watershed, Bristol Cathedral) and hold many events each month in these venues. The closeness of the working relationship (our Bristol Wikipedia 10 experience), means that we would have every chance of drawing on its closeness with The Observer/Guardian Group [60] means that there is every chance our event would get 'official media backing' from this group. We've not begun the conversation to this effect, but knowing the Festival of Ideas team as well as we do, it would be a simple one to start with every prospect of success.

• Flights The bid team has agreed a working plan with Bristol Airport [61] on arrangements for Wikimania 2013. The airport will lead negotiations directly with specific airlines to secure discounted seat deals for delegates. It has agreed to allow Wikimania 2013 to 'take over' Bristol airport to organise an offical 'Welcome' desk, with supporting banners, flags and welcome material. It has agreed to provide supporting staff as well. I suppose you can add these as organisation partners. They have been asked to participate by the city's coordinating and strategic planning team at Partnership Bristol. The meetings and coordination between the Airport and the Wikimania team is transparent and has full official city sanction. The airport will work with its own Bristol-based airlines (EasyJet, AerLingus, KLM etc) to secure discounted air flights, which they will offer to 'set up' for the Bristol conference organisers, and it is then up to us to book and organise the process - in conjunction with Destinations Bristol. The airport partners will also organise all Fast-Track custom arrangements with sister airports and airlines. They will also throw open the airport to Wikmania organisers so we can have 'welcome desks' - banners - anything we wish, for the arrival of flights full of Wikimania delegates. This is an impossibility at huge global airport hubs such as London or busy ones like Hong Kong.

Timeline

Dear bidding team, could you please indicate in a rough timeline what main actions you would perform when between the acceptance of the bid and the evaluation? I'm not looking for extreme details, but mainly for when you will be booking, when you think you will have the final budget ready, etc. Effeietsanders (talk) 22:30, 9 April 2012 (UTC) We did answer this during the Round two questioning - but for the sake of consistency we will do so again - see bottom of page where we will put answers Steve Virgin (talk) 18:32, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

A few minor comments

• "Hiring a boat around the harbour to travel downstream to the world heritage city of Bath or upstream to the mouth of the Avon Gorge while delegates enjoy the evening"

Pedantic, but important point. The mouth of the Avon (Avonmouth) is downstream of Bristol - The Avon Gorge is passed through on the route; Bath is upstream. BTW the journey to Bath by boat takes about 5-6 hours (one-way)![62]

The largest boat in the harbour is the Tower Belle, capacity 90 - short 45 minute harbour cruises would probably be the best bet. The best bet for entertaining large number of delegates would be for a joint operation with between the Bristol Packet and the Ferry Company.Jezhotwells (talk) 00:05, 10 April 2012 (UTC) Thanks Jez useful reminder - we hired a boat for Wikimedia Fund Raising Conference delegates in May 2010, that must have been the harbour cruise you refer to. I do recall there were a series of options. Steve Virgin (talk) 03:52, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

• The first jury meeting was on 7 April, but Bristol was not online there. Wikimania 2013/IRC meeting 2012-04-07. Does that mean that we are out of the running? Jezhotwells (talk) 00:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Jez - not to my knowledge. Not a good start, crossed wires. We are working on turning the situation around. Steve Virgin (talk) 12:25, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

• Are key people able to make the 15 April IRC meeting? -- Trevj (talk) 08:04, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Trevj - yes we are just trying to establish the time for meeting 2 with the judges Steve Virgin (talk) 12:25, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Follow-up Jury questions from IRC meeting

Hey Bristol team,

Questions as promised:

9. Budget Q.s - (lots of them - sorry!)

9.1. venue cost- can you detail? three venues per day (which?), hacking days?

• ANSWER - The three venues and prices where inflated intentionally as we did not have the information we do now (see in section below that explains the two main conference hall prices). We'll keep the budget line 'high' for now - as until we know what the community wants in the third venue (which will be for social events mainly) - we won't know what it is we need inside them. If there is a band, some kind of special entertainment for the event we need to pay for. There are too many unknowns to be able to price this to the exact penny - so we'd prefer to keep the figure high. I think though, you can safely say this budget is likely to underspend.

9.2. Video recording costs? where?

• ANSWER Wikimedia UK has organised webcasting in the past for most, if not all of its major events. The event we arranged for January 13th 2011 Wikipedia 10 - had the BBC recording it on an open copyright licence for free. It also had the local council donating its webcast services for free. We also had the University doing the same. So we are quietly confident that we will manage to repeat this for all of the main conference sessions, though we do not have a promise in writing yet. We'd concentrate all sponsorship 'in kind' from BBC Bristol and the council webcast team on the Conference sessions themselves only. Although we can record events at the social gathering if required to do so. Hence, contingency funds.

9.3. Promotional materials & supplies - what is that?

• ANSWER Things bought for the event from the official Wikipedia shop {http://shop.wikimedia.org/}. Things similar to these that may not be available from the Wikipedia shop that relate to the name Wikimania Bristol. Promotional videos for the Bristol Wikimania conference - here is an example from Haifa to give judges a better idea[63]. or like this, recording participants views {http://philippebeaudette.com/check-out-the-great-closing-video-from-wikimania-2011-haifa/) for posterity and to help in learning lessons for future events.

We have moved three question to foot of page so they don't get missed Steve Virgin (talk) 18:34, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

9.7. WikiExpedition - when? where? and how did you reach this figure

• ANSWER The idea stems from the Gdansk 2010 Wikimania Schedule: "Wikiexpedition is an expedition around one of the regions of Poland focused on gathering photo documentation. We want to share our experience with Wikimedia community to spread our idea." - In Bristol we want to build on the great technological things that are happening with Wikipedia in the UK at the moment. The best known of these will soon be Monmouthpedia, a world's first, where we are QRPedia coding a whole town - tying the monuments, bridges, flaura and fauna in the city back to Wikipedia pages in a limitless number of languages. en:Wikipedia:GLAM/MonmouthpediA The awarding of Wikimania City Status will be used as a catalyst to make Bristol the second city to do this. So, the WikiExpedition is a working title for this 'idea' or 'ambition.' The budget stems from WMUK's own Monmouthpedia project but we'd hope to get significant sponsorship from the city for this too - perhaps as a parallel project to Wikimania itself.

10. how much are the prices in Bristol for a) a beer in a restaurant / pub b) a regular dinner (rough estimates, in average)

• ANSWER

Beer prices vary hugely depending on the establishment and the beer but an average would be £3.50. A two course dinner could again vary hugely but generally from £15.00 upwards

11. Is there one "free night"?

• ANSWER There can be...as we said on IRC we have set out an illustrative schedule, not one set in stone. Indeed, {https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule] even Washington DC's official Schedule is only starting to firm up now, so I believe there is a lot of merit in reaching out and making amendements and improvements to it all along the way. With an obviously cut-off, last possible change deadline - which we'd try and make something like the end of February or early March next year. So "YES" - if that is needed - and Wednesday evening would be the teams suggestion.

12. What levels of sponsorship is being discussed?

• ANSWER
• Bristol Festival of Ideas/Destination Bristol - would be sponsorship in kind with lots of 'time' spent assisting and collaborating with Wikimania Conference organisers for free. Technical advice and support from Bristol Media and the University of Bristol would also be free. Though, we hire rooms and staff (if needed) on the days of the event itself.
• Two medium sized law firms have said that they'd support an event in the UK in principle - as the scale of the commitment is not yet known - there has not been discussions on pounds and pence yet. They have said that they support *either* event - so London would benefit from this too.
• HP Labs are enthusiastic supporters for the bid and would offer *at least* as much sponsorship as before which was around $4K in 2010 and £10K in 2011. Though it would be no surprise for them to go a lot higher than that. Again, we would not talk numbers as we do not have the conference awarded to us yet.

• The organisations locally that would be key to sponsorship would be the University of Bristol Research & Enterprise Development team [64]. This body hired a Wikimedian-in-Residence in the University of Bristol last summer. They have confirmed that they will assist in making introductions and contacts with a view to sponsorship opportunities. On the same list in the RED link is Business West, another body committed to support Wikimania in Bristol and that represents the business community. The Bristol City Council will help our team to present to Silicon South-West [65]. With around 100 small to medium sized 'silicon' companies in the area + Toshiba (HD TVs research at the University of Bristol), Intel, Orange, Airbus, Rolls Royce too - we have a strong 'introductory' service already in place and we would expect to be able to announce sponsorship arrangements for at least some of them before the end of 2012.

Any answers you could give would be great.

James F. (talk) 15:15, 14 April 2012 (UTC) We are on it James - mails, calls going out on Monday - hopefully in 48 hours from 9am on MOnday it will be all sorted. Steve Virgin (talk) 13:40, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Answers to Judges

Room Hire - official costs (for the two venues were Conference events will take place)

Victoria Rooms

• Auditorium @ £750.00 + VAT– 9.00am-6.00pm or 6.00pm-11.00pm
• Breakout Rooms @ £50.00 + VAT per room per day
• Recital Room
• Victoria’s Room
• G12 and Albert’s

Wills Memorial Building

The Wills Memorial Building with it’s iconic tower overlooks the University Precinct, the sweeping double stone staircase leads up to the Great Hall which cannot fail to impress and seats several hundred theatre style. There is also a number of break-out rooms including the stunning Reception Room , six lecture theatres and the Old Council Chamber

Great Hall           

• £850.00 9.00am-6.00pm – Monday - Friday
• £600.00 6.00pm-11.00pm – Monday – Friday
• £1,000.00 – Saturday/Sunday

  Reception Room

• £400.00 per day 9.00am-6.00pm – Monday - Friday
• £300.00 per evening 6.00pm-11.00pm – Monday – Friday
• £500.00 – Saturday/

• Breakout Rooms @ £50.00 per room per day
• Law Rooms 3.30, 3.31, 3.32, 3.33
• Earth Sciences Lecture Theatre
• Old Council Chamber and Room 1.5

  Facilities Charge @ £73.50 for 4 hours (or part thereof) and £110 per consecutive 8 hours per location per room. This charge is in addition to the room hire charges above, and applies to all rooms booked. An administration fee of £1,500 00 may apply for any additional support the University is required to give. Please note the above rates are special discounted rates, as the University supports this event.  

Where are the student halls of residence that for part of the accomodation?

http://www.bris.ac.uk/conferences-hospitality/maps/halls-map.pdf

What halls of residence has already been confirmed and what prices and details?

Accommodation will be within Wills Hall of Residences situated in Stoke Bishop.

• Bed and Breakfast in 190 Single Standard bedrooms @ £29.00 +VAT per person with shared bathroom facilities with a mixture of showers and baths
• Bed and Breakfast in 131 Single En-suite bedrooms @ £34.00+ VAT per person
• Add £16.00 + VAT per person for a 2- course self service dinner

Please note the above rates are special discounted rates, as the University would like to support this event

NB - this is what has been committed to us *now* - we'd look to get more rooms from them once official negotiations begun The extra rooms will be made up negotiated discount rates by UNITE student accomodation, hotels, B&B's, Youth Hostel Association - all managed by Destination Bristol as stated by them on our promotional video.

Food

The Day delegate packages are ideally suited to your event:

Designed to meet your catering needs for the entire day, these packages include a 2-course lunch served with orange juice plus tea, coffee and biscuits served at your conference venue in the morning and afternoon (herbal and fruit teas plus decaffeinated coffee are also provided).

• Day Delegate Cold Fork Buffet @ £17.50 + VAT per person
• Day Delegate Finger Buffet @ £14.55 + VAT per person
• Hot and Cold Fork Buffet @ £16.00 + VAT per person
• Finger Buffet @ £10.75 + VAT per person
• Sandwich Lunch @ £5.50 + VAT per person
• 3- course dinner with coffee from £35.65 + VAT per person

Additional judging questions

• Can you provide a general timeline - when will the website be up? when registration will commence, when accomodations are expeceted to be available for booking? what your actions will be in the coming year, etc.

Answers

• May-June (Consult - WMP, national chapter, long-term Wikimedias, organisers of previous Wikimanias)
• Attend Wikimania in DC - work with the organisers and learn, listen and observer
• Target the appointment of a full time consultant or company for this month
• Have holding/initial website in place for end of DC - so that organisers can say 'see you in bristol next year' and there would be something of substance on the site for people to see - in place earlier than that 'distracts' from DC
• June-July-August - secure venues and final costs, secure accomodation and final costs - begin project management planning
• August - October - priority negotiations to finalise airlines details (which hubs, where, what arrangements) (which flights, arrangements of discount codes, possible reservation of discounted seats form late September)
• May - October - listening about 'tracks' for ideas, suggestions - start putting shape to these tracks
• October - December - Social events/VIPs - get venues and start shaping the arrangements
• January - February - secure 'speakers'
• February - revist, learn and review previous six months - from there depends on what has been achieved

• When do you expect the official web site to be up?

Just after DC Wikimania for reasons outlines above

• When registration will commence? when accomodations may be booked?

Shortly after the 'review' listed in the illustrative year plan above - from March onwards

Timeline

Dear bidding team, could you please indicate in a rough timeline what main actions you would perform when between the acceptance of the bid and the evaluation? I'm not looking for extreme details, but mainly for when you will be booking, when you think you will have the final budget ready, etc. Effeietsanders (talk) 22:30, 9 April 2012 (UTC) -

• We understand acceptance of the bid to be end of April. The UK Chapter has some key events at this time (AGM 12 May) which will distract some members and we are also involved with launching Monmouthpedia (May 19) - lessons and benefits of wich we hope to include around the periphery of Wikimania. However, an evaluation can be fitted into the requirements of the Judging Group. Best guest for an ideal time would be just after the 19 May (week 21 & 28 May) but if the Judges want to come earlier the team will simply have to accomodate them and have the answers for them when the judges arrive.

Answers

1. Attendee parties -detail?

It all depends on the numbers in attendence. Having the chance to talk to earlier Wikimania teams we can get some idea of the range of attendees and the type of events that worked and those that did not. With the University of Bristol, Destinations Bristol and the Festival of Ideas full support in the booking of venues, the whole city is literally at our disposal. We'd wish to get them booked for specific themes by the end of this year.

1. VIP reception - why so much?

We are expecting success in sponsorship as we have the support of Bristol Economic Development department, Invest in Bristol and the other institutions of the city. Therefore, we'd expect to have things going on in the city before, during and after the conference to accommodate those sponsors who have generously supported the organising committee. Example may well be a 'talking heads style discussion' through the Festival of ideas with 3-4 guests on a panel debating an issue of topicality just before the event to ramp up interest. Or things of a similar nature

1. UnConference Day - which venue? detail costs?

It depends on numbers - the possible venue would probably be - Watershed has Cinema One (200), Cinema Two (45), Cinema Three (100), Watershed One (30), Watershed Two (45) and Watershed Three (120)

With the 20% discount the following rates will apply (+VAT):

• Cinema One – full professional cinema, capacity 200
• Full day 9am-5pm £760
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £476

• Cinema Two – full professional cinema, capacity 42
• Full day 9am-5pm £336
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £200

• Cinema Three – full professional cinema, capacity 100
• Full day 9am-5pm £600
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £416

• Waterside One – flat floor event space, capacity 30 or catering space
• Full day 9am-5pm £224
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £136
• Evening 6pm-11pm £168

• Waterside Two – flat floor event space, capacity 40 or catering space
• Full day 9am-5pm £280
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £176
• Evening 6pm-11pm £216

• Waterside Three – flat floor event space with high beamed ceilings and views over Bristol harbourside, capacity 120 or catering space for Cinema 3
• Full day 9am-5pm £680
• Half day 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm £400
• Evening 6pm-11pm £464

• Waterside 1, 2 & 3 together provide catering space for Cinema 1.

Dataprojector charged at £150 + VAT per full day, £75 + VAT per half day or evening. This comes with full technical support throughout, and many other technical items are included free of charge.

Wikimania 2014

Considering the existence of Wikimania 2014 bids/London and the recent geonotice, are we planning on revising and resubmitting the Bristol 2013 bid for 2014? The city offers a cheaper alternative to London, as previously identified. -- Trevj (talk) 12:22, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

The jury feedback cited the cost of getting there as levelling out any benefit of cheaper venues, accommodation e.t.c. There may still be other places in the UK other than London suitable to host Wikimania though, but in any case, I think there will be a push next year for there just to be one bid from the UK for the chapter to get behind, so if multiple bids are presented one will have to be selected. CT Cooper · talk 13:21, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I get the picture. -- Trevj (talk) 07:37, 5 October 2012 (UTC)