Program – How did it all work?

Youth Conference 2025 was a three-day event for young Wikimedians and Wikipedians around the world.

Main topic

Held 16-18 May in Prague, Czech Republic, the main scope of this conference was How to attract young people to Wikipedia?

This meetup of 83 young people from the CEE region and the rest of the global Wikimedia movement looked together for answers on how to make Wikimedia projects and activities more accessible to young people, how to ensure their growth and retention, and what they can do in their communities in this regard.

Character of the meeting

The nature of the event was Meet-up of 83 active young Wikimedians, who together looked for ways to further promote youth involvement in the Wikimedia movement and how they can actively contribute at their own level.

It was not a traditional conference, but rather a working meet-up to develop the potential of the participants. The format of active discussions and working groups helped to do this. The whole three-day meeting was facilitated by a group of facilitators who, together with the group of peer-facilitators and organizers, ensured the most active space for all participants.

This means that there was no call for papers, instead, participants came to the venue to present themselves and their perspectives and maximize their potential for the future.

Pre-meeting task

Participants were given topics to think (even with wheir peers) before the event begined so that they could arrive at the meeting similarly prepared.

Individual presentation – posters/Avatars

Participants were given the opportunity to present themselves individually in the form of posters/Avatars.

Active participation

Throughout, the participants were actively involved in the program thanks to the Slido tool (Slovak start-up), which was used by the participants via their mobile phones.

This enabled the continuous active participation of all, visualized their continuous feedback and also enabled the collection and continuous summarization of the outputs from the discussion groups. There were 10 of them + 1 online + a control group composed of conference guests.

The group discussions were facilitated exclusively by CEE Youth peer-facilitators who had been trained in the conference theme and thematic discussions at the preparatory CEE Youth Meeting in Prague in November 2024. They were continuously prepared for their role.

Individual plan

Each participant was guided through the conference by a document called "My journal", which guided them through a process of learning and individual reflection throughout the program until the end, when each participant created a 6-12 month individual plan for their next organizing engagement.

Post-meeting task

They left the meeting with a clearer idea of what and how they can do from their position to advance the Wikimedia movement, and how to support others in their community and other young Wikimedians among themselves.

We will offer everyone the opportunity to create a plan several months in advance and define a support system for its implementation.

We hope to create a supportive network.

youthwikimedia.cz

This e-mail address can be used for all inquiries or questions regarding the event.