Bangkok is not only an excellent geo location for a conference, the cost of living here  in this ultra modern city is only one sixth of that of the Western and Westernised world (that will raise a smile for the WMF), and it is, due to Thailand's very old and very special 3-gender  culture, possibly the most LGBT friendly city in the world.

Kudpung

On 17Oct, 2016, at 01:04, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgroup@gmail.com> wrote:

We talked about this in the LGBT meetup in Wikimania several times. As far as I remember it is a huge concern for coordinators and Wikimania committee when considering a bid for Wikimania. IIRC, there are several examples that situation of LGBT laws was a reason to reject a bid.

So I assure you Wikimania committee is aware of these issues and keeps this in their mind when deciding on bids. (I must note I'm not in these committees. I talked about it with them before as a member of Wikimedia LGBT)

I'm really saddened by the stupid laws made by ignorance of people. Let's laugh at it and then educate them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIvCh3EQv1Q :)

Best

On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:57 PM Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Pax,

My understanding is that WMF is doing a strategic review of Wikimania. If that is correct, considerations like the ones you raise about location could be included in the scope of that review. I'm pinging Ellie with the hope that she can provide information about the status of WMF's thinking about Wikimania, perhaps in a new thread. Wikimania involves significant amounts of time and money, and I am hoping that WMF will develop ways to align Wikimania with WMF and community strategic goals.