On 27 Jul 2011, at 13:04, Thomas Morton wrote:
It will take at least a year to put together a good
bid, especially if
we want to line up sponsors in advance of the bidding. (If we put a
large budget in the bid with no evidence that we'll be able to fund
it, we don't stand a chance. If we try to do a low-budget conference
in the UK, we'll end up putting most of our effort into keeping costs
down rather than running a good conference.)
All those reasons seem sensible :)
In terms of money/cost - is this where WMUK could earmark some of the underspend?
I'm 100% sure that the chapter would part-fund a UK wikimania - but it would need to
be in conjunction with external sponsors. The money would come from the appropriate
year's budget, though, not the current one (which covers spending between 1 Feb 2011
and end Jan 2012). Funding to support the creation of the bid over the next 6 months (e.g.
travel to meet potential sponsors, scout out venues, etc.) would fall under the current
budget, if this would be of use.
BTW, Seddon started a draft bid page for 2013 in Manchester, which is at:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Wikimania_Bid
that might form a useful basis to start developing an official bid, either for 2013 or
later.
Thanks,
Mike