WikiConference India 2025/City Selection

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From 15 October 2024 to 30 October 2024, the City Selection process was open for the community to show interest in hosting WikiConference India in their respective city. The final decision was announced by the City Selection Group on 2 November 2024. WCI 25 will be held in Kochi, Kerala.

The process used for this decision is documented below.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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The Core Organising Team (COT) for WikiConference India 2025 is seeking interest from Indian communities who would like to host the event. As hosts, the communities would help the COT with localised support, as well as handle certain on-site aspects of executing the conference.

Interested communities/groups are welcome to look at the requested criteria (and suggestions below). Any group may submit their interest using this page by 30th October 2024.

Venue Selection Criteria

For selecting a venue city for Wikiconference India 2025, it should meet these criteria -

1. It should be a metro city in India.
2. It should be well connected to major hubs in India (for example: international airport, direct flights/trains to state capitals)
3. It should preferably not have hosted Indic Wikiconferences before (Mumbai - WCI 11, Chandigarh - WCI 16, Hyderabad - WCI 23)

Based on our analysis, multiple viable cities could meet all of these (for example, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata).

Additionally, based on past WCIs, the venue should meet the following -

1. The chosen venue should be ideally a hotel, with lodging and conference facilities for participants in the same venue. The venue should be able to support 150-200 participants.
2. There should be enough conference halls and meeting space to support at least 2 tracks of programs, opening and closing ceremonies, and other events during the conference.
3. The venue should be well connected - It should be near the rest of the city, and be within reasonable distance to the nearest airport and railway junctions.
4. There should be a community of local Wikimedians willing to support the conference.

Expectations from Host Community/Group

The Core Organising Team will host WCI25 with the Host Community. The expectations from each city's host community or group are -

1. On ground and localised support to plan parts of the conference with the rest of the Core Organising Team.
2. Recommendations and support for choosing local vendors and service providers (eg: Local sites, city tours, printer services, A/V support etc).
3. Venue/Site reconnaissance and feasibility.
4. Scouting for local partners, institutes or organisations who could add impact and sustainability to WCI25.

Overall City Selection Process

We plan to organise Wikiconference India roughly around September to October 2025. For that, we will select the venue city by the following process -

1. There will be a Selection Group of Indic Wikimedians. In case of any decisions, they will take the final call.
2. For any city to host WCI25, they should submit a tentative plan below. The plan should have
   1. Rough dates for WCI 25
   2. Tentative Venue(s)
   3. List of Wikimedians willing to support the event (ideally 5+)
   4. Brief description of plan (connectivity to major locations, team members, expected climate, vague venue budget if any, etc)

Submissions will be open till 30th October 2024. Community members may comment on the cities and ask for particulars till then. If multiple cities submit this plan, then the Selection Group will choose a final city in a few days.

The Selection Group for this process will be comprised of -

• Babitha Shetty (Tulu Wikipedia)
• Santhosh Notagar (Wikimedia Commons)
• Soni (English Wikipedia)

Submissions

Kindly use WikiConference India 2025/City Selection/Interests to make a submission using the sample provided below. Once done, please add an entry here. The usual format is * '''[[WikiConference India 2025/City Selection/Interests#Kochi|Kochi]]'''

• Kochi
• Bengaluru

Sample City Submission

• Name :
• Rough Dates :
• Tentative Venue(s) :

Rough Plan

(Any additional details here)

Wikimedians willing to support the conference

• Listed here

Discussion

Discussion about any cities will happen on talk page

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.