Talk:Wikimania 2009/Official requirements for bidding cities

US-Dollar

Shouldn't we use template for currencies? I don't know, you much 10.000 Euro will be neither in 2009 nor in 2008. --84.163.249.224 21:21, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Infobox okay?

In our bid package, we've used an infobox for the basic information. Is that okay? Bogotá has done the same now, too. It seems to be a good way of getting the information off to the side. -- Zanimum 15:40, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

It's beautiful. Anything that makes it easier for the Jurists.Cary Bass ^demandez 19:47, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you muchly! Also, is it okay to split off some of the content to separate pages, like so? There's a bit of a summary on the main bid page, but this helps us avoid being over the 32K recommended limit for article size. The intention is not to hide it, but to not distract people with info about Kiribati and Nauru. -- Zanimum 20:23, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

"Internal" speakers: fees or free?

General question here about speakers, that I'm sure all bidders would be curious about... While outsiders definitely receive speakers fees, have past Wikimanias paid Wikimedians who speak or on panels? Or do they receive no fee, but hotel accommodation on the Wikimania budget? Or do they speak completely out of the generousity of their heart, and the chance to say they spoke at an international conference?

(Not knowing how grand our purse-strings will be, the latter is obviously the most desirable, but if renumeration of some sort is standard, it would be nice to know a rough rate, so we can include that in the budget.) -- Zanimum 20:33, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, there was no discount for speakers in accommodation and conference attendance as well as other academic conferences. No monetary reward too. Speakers at Taipei got some present ... a small cute local product basically which the local team got from sponsors. (For me, cute little wooden artifacts for my two presentations). Rather discount was determined if the attendees made their reservation. But scholarship committee may have taken into consideration if applicants would give speech.

As for invited speakers, I'd like someone to give details. -- Aphaia 14:01, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the info, Aphaia! Yes, it would be nice to also know about invited speakers, too. Anyone have an insight into this element? -- Zanimum 16:07, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Why is the attendance 300-500?

I imagine a Wikimania in the middle of Europe or North America could easily get over 500 attendees. Does this imply they would actually have to limit tickets sold? Is Wikimania seen as being explicitly that big and no more?

If so it rather implies that multiple, region-based conferences will be the next step. pfctdayelise 13:52, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

While I noticed the main hall size requirement, but I hadn't noticed that strict attendance range. I agree that would be nice to know more about the logic behind the cap. All tickets have to be bought in advance? Otherwise, people might drive 100 km, thinking there's no need to pre-book, and be turned away at the gates. -- Zanimum 16:31, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

>All tickets have to be bought in advance?

No. All three past confs had on-site attendees. The rough estimation of the number is around 80-100 based on income from on-site fees. It was barely between a quarter or one fifth of the whole attendees.

Since I am not the person who gave this requirement, but I here endorse it: We have roughly only the experience to have held conferences with around 350-450 attendees including on-site registering people, and this stats isn't including press people. So from the past experiences and our management capacity I feel it reasonable assumption. The Boston conf in 2006 had less than 500 attendees even including around 80-100 press people. While it was 2 years ago and we had a progress, but I am not sure I share the guess about size with pfctdayelise. --Aphaia 18:12, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

From my blog based on stats THD had given, for your information: Wikimania 2007 had

• 371 registered attendees (including invited people, so I understand)
• around 80 people registered on-site: some of they may have been all three days but perhaps not.
• 91 local volunteers spared their time in the audience when they were not in station
• Also there were press people (-100?) around here and there while not everyone of them were there all three days.

I couldn't give the details, New York Times said around 400 people attended Wikimania 2006 (it may have included press people).

So I think the proposed number, 300-500 regardless where it is, makes a sense. The sum of stats doesn't make 500 and exceeds, but our experience says they all don't come in a rush but rather sporadicly. --Aphaia 18:21, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree that 3-500 is a good figure to use as an estimate, but the current wording suggests that 500 is a required maximum, i.e. you cannot let any more than 500 people come. As for experience: well, if we never host a conf bigger than 500, we'll never get that experience, will we? :)

The idea of a cap may be that if it is bigger than that, it will be too impersonal. I understand that reason, but if that's what the idea of it is, someone should say so, or otherwise justify setting an explicit maximum for Wikimania attendance. pfctdayelise 13:36, 16 January 2008 (UTC)