On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 1:27 PM, James Owen jowen@wikimedia.org wrote:
Harel,
We as a community and the people on this list who care about Wikimania need to do our part, to put in some work and actual hours, maybe have some face to face meetings... and find way to elevate some of the pressure for the local teams, and to help them realize what to do with their new found energy once the conference is completed. Maybe we discover the best way is to hire outside organizers who are managed and supported by a local team,
maybe we create a system where Wikimania bidding teams get a grant to hire a staff person for a year to help with organizing, there are many options we could explore.
I would be very open to having help with some of the event planning.
Speaking from experience organizing conferences for the government, we did have an event planner working with us to help negotiate with the venue, the caterer, etc., to scope out the venue and handled logistics for travel / scholarships. The help with negotiating costs helps offset the cost of hiring the person.
My role for myself and my colleague were to organize the program (where knowing about the subject matter was important) and we had ultimate authority to make decisions.
If we could hire her (or someone) to help our local team in DC, then I would be much more comfortable with going forward with a bid for Wikimania.
Though, having such help doesn't alleviate the need for a strong local team of volunteers to handle key aspects of organizing.
Cheers, Katie (@aude)
But in general we need a group of 5-10 individuals to really do some work and think of this strategically, a Wikmania committee not to manage the bids, or organize wikimania but to be responsible for the future of the conference.
James Owen Executive Assistant & Board Liaison Wikimedia Foundation Office +1.415.839.6885 x 6604 Mobile +1.415.509.5444 Fax +1.415.882.0495 Email- jowen@wikimedia.org Website- www.wikimediafoundation.org
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