Talk:Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018/Bids/Serbia

Some questions

Hi Bojan, hi WMRS colleagues!
Thank you for your great bid, it was pleasure to read it. While reading it, I got also some questions:

• You seem to count with 80 people to be covered via a possible grant, as you count with 40 double rooms. There will be also participants with a need or wish to stay in a single room, even being self-payer (e.g. WMF participants). Even if you don't have to pay for those from your budget, do you consider reserving them in the same hotel?

  We are aware that there will be participants with a need for a single room. We will certainly make every effort to meet the needs of all participants within the budget. Of course, the plan is also to reserve single rooms within the same hotel for self-funded participants and participants to whom this option is more appropriate. The hotel has 88 rooms, of which 48 are double (with separate beds) and 40 are single rooms.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

• Checking your budget, there are two similar budget items: "Coffee snacks" (3.2.) and "Refreshments at the venue" (4.4.). Are those the same, one mentioned as expense, another as a possible in-kind donation? It would be good if you could use the same name for the budget items, so it's easier to compare them and to understand the overall budget.

  Within the "Coffee break" item, we included coffee, water, juices and snacks for the conference. We plan to arrange a potential donation from domestic manufacturers of refreshing beverages, which will reduce the costs for this budget item. That is why we first called it "Refreshments at the venue". We have changed that and now we use the same name for this budget items.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

• "Every session and social event will be documented with photo and video materials. For this occasion, Wikimedia Serbia will hire a professional cameraman.": This sounds more like recording a summary video of the whole conference, but not recording/filming single conference sessions. Is that correct? What is the purpose of it?

  We wanted to document the opening of the meeting and each session that will be held at the conference. For this reason, we have planned to hire two cameramen: one that will record in a larger room and the other for the smaller room.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

• What I did not understand, if there are really only two rooms in the hotel (a bit down you have written “Wikimedia Serbia will provide a room that can serve for smaller meetings and workshops.”) What we have learned from Warsaw and Dilijan is that we need some flexibility, and there were always groups of people that wanted to have additional/separate meetings or so. So are there two or more conference/workshops rooms available at the venue?

  The hotel has another room with a capacity of up to 40 people. Also, foyers and several spaces within the hotel can be used for smaller gatherings and meetings.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

• Have you considered cuts on your "promo package"? Do we need "T shirts, calendars, bags, folders, stickers, badges, magnets, maps, program, pens, name tags"? What’s the difference between badges and name tags? Please don't forget that we are using Movement (as in: donor) money for these costs, and I would advise to try to save as much as possible.

  Although promo materials can give a better impression to the conference itself, we decided to reduce the cost of promo packages for participants and exclude the printing costs of calendars, t-shirts and magnets. Badges and stickers will be our donation, and we will try to get the maps as a donation from the Tourist Organization of Serbia. When we talk about the difference between badges and name tags, these are badges, and these are name tags.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

• The bid focuses obviously mostly on logistics, which is the purpose of this bidding process. Have you, however, considered to change anything in the program design, compared to previous CEE meetings? Will there be a conference team member focusing on program or at least liaising with a possible volunteer program team?

  Our Project and Community Manager, Ivana Madžarević, will focus on the conference program. Ivana is currently on a shorter vacation, but you can get more information from October 10 when she returns to work. We also thought about suggesting that one of our board members be in the program committee.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Here I am. When we talked about organizing this conference, we've got the impression that main work will be focusing on logistics and communication with participants. We would definitely have one person responsible for the communication with the Program team and I'm going to do that work in order to have better conference. We'll try to have one more person as a part of the Program team which, I think, will be the winning combination. In addition, we've already wrote a report from Warsaw where we stated some possible changes for the next conference and also wrote about some possible improvements. --IvanaMadzarevic (talk) 10:35, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

• If you use two currencies in a budget, please state the exchange rate used.

  1 EUR = 1.1973 USD (exchange rate on 30/08/2017).--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Please take my questions only with the intention to improve the bid :) Thank you, --Cornelius Kibelka (WMDE) (talk) 08:34, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Dear Cornelius, thank you for your questions and suggestions. We are here for any further questions regarding our bid. Best, --Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:56, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Questions and comments by Misosoof

Dear Serbian partners,

First of all, thank you for your interest in organizing CEE Meeting again next year and for completing this proposal. This is highly appreciated! I have couple of questions and comments related to your proposal:

Questions

• Wikimedia CEE Meeting is known for late night sessions, discussions and activities. Is there a room rental foreseen for that purpose in the hotel or it is not in your plans? Does this reflect in your budget?

  This is stated in the bid: Wikimedia Serbia will provide a space that can serve for smaller meetings and workshops, including the late night sessions. Also, the WMRS office will be available.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

• As I see in your proposal, WMRS does not plan to cover local transportation costs for participants. What is the rationale?

  Local transport costs in Serbia are affordable and we felt that it was not necessary to include such a type of budgetary expenditure. Taxi cost from the airport to the city center is 15-20 EUR and the city bus transport is 1.25-2.5 EUR. If the participants come to Belgrade by train or bus, there is no need for such expenses because the hotel is two minutes walk from the bus and train station. Certainly we will provide all the participants with logistical support.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

• I would like to hear more about the venue. What kind of rooms do you plan to rent? What is their capacity? How easily can they be rearranged for various type of sessions (from auditory to circle to u-shape)?

  Concerning the conference itself, we plan to rent the following rooms: Conference Hall “Viktoria” and Conference Hall “Gloria”. By clicking on the link you can see the capacity of the rooms rearranged in various styles. We also got assurance from the hotel staff that we can (re)arrange the rooms as we see fit.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

• You state in your proposal that wifi speed is 27 MB/s (download, I presume). Could you also comment on wifi capacity - how many log-ins does it support? Do you have any plan B in case there will be problems with wifi?

  The capacity of the internet is 250 devices, but we definitely have a plan to get additional internet support to ensure the smooth running of the conference. Also, it turned out that we were mistakenly informed about the internet speed in the hotel. We will have accurate information until the deadline for submission changes..--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

  We got confirmation from the hotel that the exact speed of the internet is 30Mbps.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 14:59, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

• The main financial difference between your proposal and the one by Wikimedia Ukraine is lodging costs. Have you also taken offers from hotels that are a bit cheaper? What are their quotes?

  For logistical reason, we searched for the hotels in the old city center. Hotel Queen’s Astoria belongs to more favorable hotels that meets all the needs for accommodation of participants and conference. Cheaper option was Hotel Slavia Garni (3 stars) with the price of 55 EUR for a single room and 60 EUR for a double room. In this table you can see all offers. Also, there’s a possibility that Hotel Queen Astoria will provide free conference rooms if we take their offer. Venues in other hotels are not free.--Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Comments

• There is a column related to foreseen time allocation of team members in the table. I think that it would be good, if you found time to fill that in, so we can understand what is the expected use of human resources for your event and we are ensured that you have thought about it prior to actual organizing.
• It would be also great if you could add specific roles to team related to organizing the meeting, not just their general roles in your organization. Thank you!
• Thank you for adding spreadsheet for international travel calculations. Very helpful!

Thank you for your time and kind attention! Best regards, --Misosoof (talk) 09:19, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Dear Misosoof, thank you for your questions and comments. We will definitely add specific roles and foreseen time allocation of WMRS team members until the deadline for submission changes. Best, --Bojan Cvetanović (talk) 15:04, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Dear Bojan Cvetanović, thank you for your swift reply and detailed answers! At least to me it gives a much better insight to your proposal and having a comparative table of price quotes is helpful in understanding accommodation costs. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! --Misosoof (talk) 03:25, 13 October 2017 (UTC)