Wikimania Committee/Minutes/2022-05-26

Session overview

Following last discussion (see here), Butch will share and talk through the results of the poll that was carried out to check on the appetite of the ESEAP region to host an in-person Wikimania in 2023.

Topics:

ESEAP Poll
Risk management introduction
Next steps ESEAP Wikimania 2023

Attendance

Butch, Iolanda, Gnangarra, Ivan, Lisa, Joël, Winnie, Andrew, Deror, Phoebe, Florence, Linda

Summary

Linda is the Foundation Risk Principal for the Foundation. She will be supporting assessment of risk, and helping us to get all of the relevant information that could aid in getting to a "yes" for hosting Wikimania in a host location.
The ESEAP poll showed general interest and support for the event to come to ESEAP. Nice to build the excitement that there had been in 2020. Good consensus that the community wants to do it.
We should look at potential cities in the ESEAP region and then look at performing a holistic risk assessments for each place.
There are different models of hosting and organizing the event and we can talk to ESEAP about parameters for deciding e.g. flights, hubs, visa, covid, and other considerations. After covid we hav different tools and resources to review things in greater detail.
The Steering Committee has always ben in favor of in-person Wikimania's. Foundation teams can fully support, media attention can attract new contributors. And there are plenty of options to consider in the region it can strengthen the local community a lot
To aid long term decision-making the Foundation can help look at what the next 2-3 years could look like, could risk assess and kick off planning earlier, with built in touch points for re-assessment.

Discussion

Need to target the big hubs - Australia was suggested as tricky because of multiple flights.
Strong contenders as potential host destinations in the region - Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila have many direct flights to other hubs
It would be great to have a number of cities that are up for assessment and then we can look at them. For Bangkok - it could be in future years, if it doesn't work for 2023.
If there isn't enough capacity, we respect that to not go there. Especially if there is a need for boots on the ground.
Don't think we need to cross a city off a list if there isn't a strong community. We can use local consultants and walk in venues like the Hyatt in Montreal - hand over the logistics to other parties.
The foundation offers a full support team so can help places that want to grow and develop
Volunteer communities are usually fairly robust if there is a collaboration with a university
The net positives of getting Wikimedians getting together they always overcome logistics issues :)
A lot of countries have associated risks, need to do the risk assessement but need to look at the wider value, if it just was about risk assessment many places may not happen
We need to do a visa assessment in addition, concerns about LGBTQ rights, who will be able to enter the country easy or not. Vaccination shots for entry to countries - yellow fever for instance for Thailand and Singapore. Thailand require visas to most African and Latin American countries unlike Indonesia and the Philippines.
There is much to evaluate but metrics to evaluate would be helpful, visas can be a risky matter, as are LGBTQ rights
It's better to have full resources and support for the community - we should try to respond and support them
Planning ahead of time can help with the risk of local communities' burnout, as we get to resource properly
Let's ask the ESEAP region where they would want Wikimania to be hosted, with the information that will be provided in the risk assessment

What's next

Butch will be coordinating a meeting with the regional ESEAP team and the Foundation to
The Foundation (Linda) will be creating a Matrix that is looking specifically at the following destinations in the region: Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, South Korea