Grants talk:Conference/ARE/Wikiarabia 2022 in Dubai

WMF feedback and questions

Dear Reda Kerbouche and ARE team,

Thank you so much for your proposal. I was very happy to see that even though international travel is still not possible, you decided to continue with a hybrid approach to the conference, and still interested in making the effort to gather the community. I find that very motivating and crucial to find ways to keep the community engaged and active, even from afar, or even in smaller local scale.

I reviewed your proposal, and have some follow up questions and comments to share.

• Conference date - I'm not clear how long will the event be, for how many days/nights? You still have a bit more time to decide on the exact date, but I highly recommend you will do that ASAP because there are more community events happening in November 2022, and I wouldn't want any events to overlap.

  We decided to host the conference on 28th-30th October.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Community input:

• 95 responses is very good for an event that size.
• Wikiarabia steering committee to be established - AMAZING! That is so important. Just to make sure - you mean to have a general Council/ committee to lead the future efforts and strategy of the region, right? Can you please elaborate on how you intent to do that? Will the committee be elected during the conference? Do you already have any guidelines, execution plan or criteria to share?

  The Wikiarabia Steering Committee is responsible for supporting the organization of future Wikiarabia(s), providing a unified voice for all organizations and providing non-financial resources to all who associate with Wikiarabia. The committee will be made up of one representative from each of the previous Wikiarabia organizers, a representative from the current LOC, 2 volunteer slots will be opened to all members from the MENA region, and at least one WMF liaison role. The committee is our answer to constant confusion within the Wikimedia Arab communities deciding on who to organize the next conference. A process will be announced at the next Wikiarabia to initiate a steering committee to support a smooth and easy process for choosing the future organizers. The guidelines and execution plan will be worked out in the future months.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

• Development of editorial and technical skills - Are you thinking about having active learning or training sessions? If so, will those only be a part of the in-person gathering, or do you plan on having those as part of the online component as well?

  We are planning to do all the events in hybrid (physical and virtual), we will host the event in person and invite people to join virtually as well and online (the same time with two sessions online and offline). We are planning to organize active learning and training sessions to the community in UAE and all the Arab community joining us online.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

In general - I would love to hear more about your program design. What kind of sessions are you planning and how will the online component look like.

• I'm also interested to better understand how will other communities in the region be involved. WikiArabia is traditionally a regional platform. This time, I understand that given the no-travel restrictions, the conference will focus more on the local community in the Emirates. But how will other communities in the wider region be involved? Will online participants only be 'watchers' or passive attendees, or will it still be organized as a regional event with the active collaboration of other Arabic communities? and how will you do that?

  The conference will be a regional platform as it has been usually, we will involve all the wider Arab community actively online and those who wish to join us physically will be more than welcome. We will propose to the key players in the Arab community and those who are not UAE based to help us building the programs of the conference, we will organize a committee from the entire MENA region. Our speakers will also be from all over the MENA region, everyone will be actively involved in the sessions and workshops whether they join in person or online, we will have volunteers dedicated to organizing the virtual interactions and make sure that all the online contributions and questions are answered. Sessions will be live-streamed which will enable everybody to attend. facilitators will be on hand to work with everyone's questions.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Resources:

• As I've mentioned before, I'm always a bit concerned regarding team's capacity when I see the team is rather small. I know you plan on having more volunteers for the organizing team, just make sure you outline all the capacities you need, and be sure not to overload the team.

Event budget:

• Human translators - Why would you need a translator for? Is the event not entirely in Arabic? Do you expect to have non-Arabic speaking participants?

  Most of the sessions will be in Arabic however, some of the sessions will have speakers from the Global Wikimedia movement, therefore we would require a simultaneous translators.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

• The venue rent fees are a bit on the high side. I guess you intend to use the Hilton hotel conference venue as well. Have you considered other less expensive alternatives for venue or accommodation in Dubai? I'm quite concerned that the venue is so much more expensive then the hotel rooms themselves (3 times more). Have you tried to negotiate with the hotel about this?

  We have special relationship with the proposed venue as we used them for our Literature Festival, and they quoted us their preferred rates. In an operational point of view, this will make the preparation and logistics for the Conference a lot easier for us since we plan on doing it as both physically and virtually. And of course, it will make it a lot easier for our guests as we will book them in the same hotel. I know the prices might look expensive, but this is less than the market rate for 5-star venues in Dubai. We do want the event done in a good standard and notable venues as we intend to invite VIP and influential guests to attend in the hopes that this will raise the awareness to Wikimedia projects and initiatives and what we are doing on a local level. We are also happy to look at other options for comparison reasons.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Also - what does it include? would you need break rooms, and smaller work spaces?

It will include 2 ballrooms and 2 smaller workshop spaces.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

• Staff costs (positions) is another very big expense in proportion to the entire budget. Can you please elaborate on the roles and responsibilities of the positions? More specifically for the 7 months Production officer (I'm wondering if 7 months is not a bit much. Especially as you also have 5 months pay for Administrative officer) and the Communications officer position for 4 months (what will this role include. Is this for internal wiki communication with participants? or is it more for local publicity needs? And if so, what is the expected impact you will have by hiring this service? Fundraising; local awareness' other?).

  We looked into reducing the administrative officer salary by 1000 AED/month so it will be 3000 AED/month for 20 hours per week. Honestly, this is the lowest we can get in terms of salaries in the UAE, as the living standards here are quite high.

• • Also we looked into changing the production officer role into an Operations coordinator and that will be for 5 or 6 months before the Conference with a salary of 5000 AED/month for 20 hours per week, the Operations coordinator’s role will include: Developing and track overall conference timeline, Organizing logistical elements of the conference, including sourcing and organizing required materials, creating badging system, Ensure all session requirements including AV and technical requirements are identified, tracked, managed and communicated.
  • For the communication officer, their role will include more local publicity and social media plan as well as support in communication with all the participants.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:50, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

When considering a grant budget, we have to think about the number of people attending the conference, especially when it's an in-person event. For such an event that will host only 35 people, the budget is very high. This is the kind of budget we normally approve for events with around 100 participants (for an offline event). I ask that you will try to take another look to see if and how can you reduce the total budget ask.

Thank you again for submitting this proposal. The overall vision is clear and I'm excited for the opportunity to continue and support the important platform of WikiArabia, and your role in establishing the Middle East and North Africa hub and the steering committee.

Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 14:01, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

Hello @CAlmog (WMF): I left you the answers to the questions above. warm regards. Reda Kerbouche (talk) 09:53, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

In-Person Wikiarabia 2022

Hello @CAlmog (WMF),
As the WMF allowed us to organize a face-to-face event. Our group has done a thorough study on the budget and those we want as an event, and we decided to update the information on the application page. Please keep us posted if there is any question about our modifications
Warm regards Reda Kerbouche (talk) 17:56, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Grant approved

Dear Reda Kerbouche and ARE team,

Thank you for your work on the grant request and for responding to our comments. We are glad to inform you that we have reviewed the final proposal and we are happy to support it in the amount of US$97,200.00. You can expect an email in the next few days with more instructions and next steps. I will also circle back soon to schedule our first meeting. Looking forward to working together! On behalf of the Conference Grants Committee and Community Resources team.

Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 16:20, 6 May 2022 (UTC)

Additional costs for the conference

Hello @CAlmog (WMF): & all,
We want to ask for an additional grant as ticket prices have risen a lot in a short period of time and due to these changes we have calculated this amount USD 6758,14. we will be very grateful if you approve it Reda Kerbouche (talk) 11:59, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Reda Kerbouche, thank you for your request and for the detailed information and revised budget you shared via email. Your request for an additional USD 6758,14 is approved. CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 16:37, 1 September 2022 (UTC)