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.

I know other people have a different opinion about it, and would rather make the conference more professional, less risky, more fancy etc. I prefer it to be a lower key community event.

Lodewijk

On a general note, I agree with Lodewijk and some of the other sentiment that it may be wise to take Wikimania back in the direction of a somewhat more informal, community-centric social experience.

However, I very much disagree that this has to mean a *smaller* Wikimania,

I would rather see Wikimania growing, year by year, as a global social hub for volunteers and fans in the wide world of the emerging free knowledge movement.

And look forward to our Wiki-Woodstock bid for NY, coming 2019 or so! ;)

Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)