Am 25.08.2012 21:46, schrieb Lodewijk:
Maybe the question should first be: what kind of Wikimania do we want. Personally, I would be totally happy with down scaling the conference a bit. Less visitors (500-600), less events and less professional. Let it be more volunteer focused, and yes, perhaps also a bit more chaotic. That also means we can change the nature of bids: more back to basic and more focus on location, venue and accomodation. If we can bring the budget down, we also need to focus less on sponsorships etc, which should make the bidding easier and more open to more groups of dedicated volunteers.
this is exactly the point I wanted to make.
Wikimania is not a place to professionalise. Well, a bit, but not too overly.
The unique thing at Wikimania is the atmosphere. And sorry to say so but I don't see non-Wikimedians (or "not Wikimedians per se") making a great Wikimania. That just doesn't work. That does not mean you are not allowed to hire a production company to make your life easier but it means that the core team and the project manager are true full-hearted Wikimedians. There are plenty of them out there. We don't need six bids for Wikimania each year. We don't need chapters bidding for Wikimania because having done a Wikimania puts them in a certain level. As was said before, Wikimania is not the Olympic Games or the Soccer World Championship.
/Manuel