To me, the cheif advnatages of Montreal over Toronto is the potential for government support, plus the bilingualism. (Wikimania Buenos Aires proved that a non-English speaking city can work and be a Good Thing).
Given that Montreal's bis seems much more advancedthan any otehr Canadian city, I think we should all get behind it and support it. I am sure there is plenty that can be done to help the bid by those who live utside of Montreal.
Tom
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:28:42 -0800 (PST) From: Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-Canada] Fwd: Montreal wikimania bid To: Wikimedia Canada planning list wikimedia-ca@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: 541470.34948.qm@web37401.mail.mud.yahoo.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
As it stands, Montreal would appear to be the better place to put forward. Unofficially this is the year for North America to receive the nod, so we can't afford to have two or three competing bids. Montreal has several advantages right now that I am not seeing from Toronto or Ottawa.
Coren has noted that funding may be available from government sources for Montreal which would be a plus when the jury looks at the bid. The less Wikimedia has to pay, the better. Another area to look into is getting special rates on airfare from a major carrier, which the tourism bureau may be able to help secure. These advantages, combined with the bilingual area, make Montreal appealing. The Wikimedians in Toronto and Vancouver would be able to assist in arranging transportation from their respective areas.
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On 17/01/2010 11:13 AM, tom willis wrote:
To me, the cheif advnatages of Montreal over Toronto is the potential for government support, plus the bilingualism. (Wikimania Buenos Aires proved that a non-English speaking city can work and be a Good Thing). Given that Montreal's bis seems much more advancedthan any otehr Canadian city, I think we should all get behind it and support it. I am sure there is plenty that can be done to help the bid by those who live utside of Montreal.
Tom
In particular, something that would be immensely cool is some group travel thing allowing people from Toronto to travel to and attend cheaper than flying/driving on their own. It's probably a little far for a chartered bus, but maybe Via Rail can be coaxed into a group rate?
Also, I expect some of the potentially interesting corporate sponsors have their HQ in Toronto; my experience has shown that begging for money is best done in person.
-- Coren / Marc
I'm sorry, I may have lost the substance in the thread. What funding has been secured?
2010/1/17 tom willis tompw@hotmail.com
To me, the cheif advnatages of Montreal over Toronto is the potential for government support, plus the bilingualism. (Wikimania Buenos Aires proved that a non-English speaking city can work and be a Good Thing). Given that Montreal's bis seems much more advancedthan any otehr Canadian city, I think we should all get behind it and support it. I am sure there is plenty that can be done to help the bid by those who live utside of Montreal.
Tom
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:28:42 -0800 (PST) From: Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-Canada] Fwd: Montreal wikimania bid To: Wikimedia Canada planning list wikimedia-ca@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: 541470.34948.qm@web37401.mail.mud.yahoo.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
As it stands, Montreal would appear to be the better place to put
forward. Unofficially this is the year for North America to receive the nod, so we can't afford to have two or three competing bids. Montreal has several advantages right now that I am not seeing from Toronto or Ottawa.
Coren has noted that funding may be available from government sources for
Montreal which would be a plus when the jury looks at the bid. The less Wikimedia has to pay, the better. Another area to look into is getting special rates on airfare from a major carrier, which the tourism bureau may be able to help secure. These advantages, combined with the bilingual area, make Montreal appealing. The Wikimedians in Toronto and Vancouver would be able to assist in arranging transportation from their respective areas.
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On 17/01/2010 1:21 PM, Alan Walker wrote:
I'm sorry, I may have lost the substance in the thread. What funding has been secured?
*Secured*? None. As I've said, it's important to not overstate matters at this point. Representatives of all three levels have made noises about some funding, with the Quebec Ministere de la Culture being the most likely and serious. I do, however, have serious lobbying help and it's likely that at least one of those will get some money, and all certain to get some official endorsement from all three.
-- Coren / Marc
Coren has done great work, but I don't think this disqualifies Toronto as a possible location. Do we have any sense of how many interested volunteers are organized in Toronto and Montreal? My vote goes to the group with the most volunteers. I think Coren's work is definitely positive, as well as the idea of using U of T for housing. However, my experience teaches me events need people to organize them and aside from funding to hire people feet on the ground make the difference.
If Toronto was considered, Coren are you able to provide access to your contacts for some tactical advice on securing funding?
2010/1/17 Marc A. Pelletier marc@wikimania.qc.ca
On 17/01/2010 1:21 PM, Alan Walker wrote:
I'm sorry, I may have lost the substance in the thread. What funding has been secured?
*Secured*? None. As I've said, it's important to not overstate matters at this point. Representatives of all three levels have made noises about some funding, with the Quebec Ministere de la Culture being the most likely and serious. I do, however, have serious lobbying help and it's likely that at least one of those will get some money, and all certain to get some official endorsement from all three.
-- Coren / Marc
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On 17/01/2010 1:57 PM, Alan Walker wrote:
If Toronto was considered, Coren are you able to provide access to your contacts for some tactical advice on securing funding?
On the federal level, certainly, but I doubt my friends in the Quebec government will be of much help. The lobby groups that are working with me are those from Tourisme Montreal and the Palais des Congres itself; I would be surprised indeed if they wanted to help the Toronto bid. :-)
-- Coren / Marc
Yes, Montreal has two languages that are consistently used, but Toronto's 311 service has 180 available languages.
http://www.toronto.ca/311/languages.htm
Also, how is Montreal's more advanced than Toronto's? The primary argument for Montreal on the list, has been you're most likely to get government money in Quebec, than in Toronto. (As has been argued recently, the reverse can likely be said for corporate donations.)
Nick/Zanimum
On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:13 AM, tom willis tompw@hotmail.com wrote:
To me, the cheif advnatages of Montreal over Toronto is the potential for government support, plus the bilingualism. (Wikimania Buenos Aires proved that a non-English speaking city can work and be a Good Thing). Given that Montreal's bis seems much more advancedthan any otehr Canadian city, I think we should all get behind it and support it. I am sure there is plenty that can be done to help the bid by those who live utside of Montreal.
Tom
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