Grants:Project/Rapid/WM PT/WikiCon Portugal/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2019-20 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/WM PT/WikiCon Portugal.
• You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
• You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Absolutely, we were able to have about 40 participants from the Wikimedia community from Portugal not including some great speakers from elsewhere that made this the the largest event we have organized. We tried to keep our expectations low because it was the first time that we were organizing a national conference and we were not sure if people would be interested or enthusiastic, but of course they were and everyone seemed to find the conference of some use and interesting.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
20-30 participants	~40 participants	We were able to get around 40 participants. Wikimedia project editors, OpenStreetMap enthusiasts, other FLOSS communities joined as well.
5 organizers	4-5 organizers	As this was a long process, the main organizers would be more active throughout all the organization steps, but we had numerous people helping out along the way. I would particularly wish to acknowledge our colleagues from ANSOL that helped us get wifi during the event, as the venue only had one cable connection.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

• What worked well?

We were able to get many participants through word of mouth as we have been working on many collaborations throughout the year, and we kept encouraging people to sign up. It was great the we were able to get so many great speakers about the different projects people have been working on and the workshops provided by Asaf Bartov will for sure foment participation in Wikidata. It was also great the we were able to discuss the Wikimedia 2030 recommendations just as they were about to be launched, and we were grateful that Lucas Teles and Francesc Fort were there to lead that discussion.

• What did not work so well?

It was difficult to keep on schedule particularly on the first day, due to some initial technical difficulties, and because we needed to change venue in one of the days to a nearby location but we had some buffer built in to the schedule, so we were able to accommodate all the talks and workshops we had planned by moving a talk to the last day.

• What would you do differently next time?

We would have liked to have recorded the session or even livestream them, but we did not have the budget for it. Something for next time.

We would also appoint someone to post updates on our social media during the conference. Luckily the participants were very active on Twitter for example, so people were able to follow #WikiCon_Portugal to keep updated.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Type of expense	Ammount (in Euros)
accomodation	862.42
travel	568,92
bank transfers	6.64
other	38.64
Total	1476.072

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

Remaining funds from this grant have been returned to WMF in the amount of 312.70 USD.

Yes, there is 287.38 euros left. We would like to use the remaining funds to kickstart some initiatives after the COVID19 pandemic is declared finished, hopefully toward the end of the year or early next year (definitely after the September 15 mark, as determined by the WMF), such as our No municipality without a photo project or Equal street names initiative. Both these projects gathered a lot of interest from participants at the WikiCon, so it seems adequate to use these funds towards these goals.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

• Wikimedia Commons category for WikiCon Portugal
• #WikiCon Portugal on Twitter