On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 3:10 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Ellie.

On the topic of event safety, I am wondering if there is a standard checklist that WMF uses when narrowing potential sites for Wikimanias and if you could make that checklist public. Perhaps it is public already but I don't know where to find it.


​This is what we were using for the past few Wikimanias.    It is public.  I reference it in the recent posting as well.  I will be updating this since we are no longer doing the competitive bidding process but it does have a lot of information and is pretty accurate.​
 

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_judging_criteria

Regarding Wikimania goals and strategy, I'd like to suggest that WMF take a look at what our friends in WMDE have done with the Wikimedia Conference to increase focus on specific topics and to make conference outcomes a bit clearer and more measurable.


​WMF funds with a grant this conference and works closely with WMDE.   There was a proposal a couple of years ago to have a paid program and events coordinator who would provide continuity year to year and liaise with other conferences/groups.  There is also paid meeting planner as well as staff support from the WMDE itself.

I also like that WMDE devotes significant staff support to the conference, which decreases the burden on volunteers; I would like to see a similar shift for Wikimania so the event is less dependent on heroic efforts from volunteers. I realize that there is financial cost involved with increased staff support for conferences; this is one area in which increased expenditure makes sense to me.


​We started that in London and Mexico City Wikimania with my position and a paid local coordinator (Esino Lario was an exception where the local team received a grant and handled pretty much everything.)  ​
 

I look forward to hearing about further developments.

Thanks,

Pine


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--
Ellie Young
Events Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
c. 510 701 8649