Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Celtic Knot: Wikipedia Language Conference

Hello User:Stinglehammer and thank you for your request. Before anything else, I would like to understand something better. You are stating that this is a Wikimedia UK conference, can you explain to me what Wikimedia UK's involvement in this is exactly? Thank you! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 12:35, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Delphine (WMF). I work as the Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Edinburgh and am the conference organiser. The residency is a partnership between Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh. As such Wikimedia UK support my efforts through providing advice, organisation, networking, support materials etc. As Wikimedia UK have a lot of contacts and projects related to the conference's core themes we are making use of their network to assist with the event reach, securing participants and event preparations etc. Hope that helps. Stinglehammer (talk) 14:23, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your responses, Stinglehammer! Could you tell us more about University of Edinburgh's involvement in this conference? We encourage our grantees to secure in-kind donations in the form of food, venue space, or staff time during the event, so we'd would like to better understand to what extent you may have pursued this with the university, if they have not already subsidized some expenses. Thanks for your reply! Morgan Jue (WMF) (talk) 20:23, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Morgan Jue (WMF) the University of Edinburgh are providing the lion's share of the conference expenses in terms of providing funds to help pay for the venue, staff, student volunteers, keynote speakers and providing the venue itself (the University of Edinburgh Business School) and administration support. The Rapid Grant proposal is purely to address a funding gap to ensure we have enough funds to pay for venue + catering between the University of Edinburgh funds and the WMF Rapid Grant. Many thanks, Stinglehammer (talk) 15:32, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Hello Stinglehammer and thanks for this information. More questions from me:

1. Just trying to clarify here. As I understand this, The University is providing support for either the rooms or the food, right?
2. The catering for lunch is quite expensive, but I am going to venture that you have to go through the University's caterer and can't look elsewhere for better/lower prices? Can you confirm this? Also, what are your safeguards with the caterer if for example only 50 people show up?
3. 100 people is a rather ambitious number for a first conference, how confident are you that you are going to attain that number?

We would really like to support this event this but feel that the cost is a bit high, so we are looking at only fund a portion of the catering, for example around £10/£11 per person (lunch and coffee break). We are looking forward to your answers to help us make a decision. Delphine (WMF) (talk) 15:32, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, sorry for non-reply, have been off on annual leave for last week. In answer to your questions...

• Yes, the University is part-funding the conference on this basis. We are restricted to using the university's caterer. I will confirm prices and insurance with the university caterer however. We attained approx. 60 attendees for a recent Open Knowledge network event so believe we can attract attendees in the 60-100 bracket. As I say, I'll double-check with the university caterers about prices and numbers and will come back to you shortly.Stinglehammer (talk) 17:56, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

@MJue (WMF) and Delphine (WMF): I have confirmed prices with the Edinburgh First caterers (the university's approved caterers) and they have confirmed a unit price of £2.25 for Tea, Coffee & Biscuits. At 100 attendees for 3 x tea & coffee sessions this comes to £675. Lunch (finger food) comes to £11 per person so for 100 attendees this would be £1100. Total for the day therefore = £1775. They would need the final order details confirmed by Tuesday 27th June. However, it is not an issue if we want to sign the booking contract for minimum number of guests (60 for example), then increase later in the week. Unfortunately, they cannot refund for food which has been over ordered. Any soft drinks are on a sale or return policy however – so we would only be charged for the soft drinks which are consumed / opened on the day. Hope that helps. Stinglehammer (talk) 09:52, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Stinglehammer this helps tremendously. Can you please update the budget accordingly in the request so we have the final numbers? I understand the over-ordered bit, of course, you will have to make sure to monitor registrations to make that final decision :). As soon as you've update the budget, please ping us again. Thanks!Delphine (WMF) (talk) 10:27, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

@MJue (WMF) and Delphine (WMF):Apologies for the long delay. Was awaiting some budgetary decisions at the University of Edinburgh end and got word at very end of last week during the Open Education Resources conference. It looks like we will have enough within the budget supplied by the University of Edinburgh not to need the WMF Rapid Grant after all. Many thanks for all your assistance and advice. Stinglehammer (talk) 09:52, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Proposal withdrawn

Hi Stinglehammer. Thanks for the update and it's great to hear that the University will be supporting your activities. Hope it all goes well! Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:57, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Hello Stinglehammer, it is great news that the University will be supporting this event, I am looking forward to see its outcomes! Best. Delphine (WMF) (talk) 05:36, 11 April 2017 (UTC)