[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2007 - get ready for the third edition.

[Kelly Martin]

On 8/16/06, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wikimania 2006 just closed its doors a week or so ago, and it is
> already time to think about the next edition.

Actually, it was time to do that about six months ago.  We really need
to be planning these things more aggressively.  In my opinion, we
should know where the next year's Wikimania is going to be before we
start the planning for the current year.

I used to work for a non-profit that held an annual meeting in various
random places around the world.  They planned their annual meetings
three years ahead, so that at the start of the 2004 annual meeting
(which was held in Honolulu) they knew that the 2005 annual meeting
would be held in Charlotte at a specified convention facility, and
that the 2006 would be held in a specific city but not any specified
facility, and were down to two or three candidates for 2007.  Now,
their annual meetings are somewhat larger than ours (a typical year
would draw 4000 to 5000 attendees), but our current planning
timetables are far too compressed as it is and will only get worse as
interest continues to rise.  We should be planning at least two years
out.

I strongly urge that we should begin discussing venues for 2008 not
later than October of this year (by which point we should have 2007's
host city decided), and 2009's host city not later than February of
next year.  Going forward, the host city for year n+2 should be
decided not later than May of year n, and the venue decided not later
than May of year n+1.

Kelly

Kelly