WikiIndaba conference 2023/Learnings

WikiIndaba conference 2023 which was the first hybrid WikiIndaba conference, held between 3 and 5 November 2023 in Agadir, Morocco, was a great opportunity to bring together the Wikimedia community in Africa, and from other continents, to exchange ideas and learn and motivate each other, and to discuss past experiences, current projects and future plans. In this spirit, this page can serve as a post-mortem mainly for organizers to put together learnings and feedback from each other and from the community, especially attendees, so as to determine what worked and what didn't. Allm prticipants are welcome to add their feedback as well in the appropriate section (non-anonymously), though they can also send feedback anonymously through this form.

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Please remember that the goal of this page is to learn from mistakes, and gain experience in organizing and managing Wiki events, not to point fingers or assign blame. The successes and failures belong to the organizing team as a whole. We hope the learnings from WikiIndaba conference 2023 will help teams organizing future WikiIndaba conferences (starting with WikiIndaba conference 2024), as well as other events and conferences, especially in hybrid form.

Organization

General aspects

What went well

• Venue: overall good service, facilities and beautiful location.
• Early preparation: the core team had enough time to focus on logistics, including requests, visas, accommodation and transportation

What went wrong

• Internet was terrible at the hotel in the rooms, and barely usable at the conference hall with so many attendees.
  • How to fix it: make sure the venue has good Internet, or include providing good Internet to attendees in the budget (e.g. through agreements with local Telecom providers); when testing the Internet quality, take into consideration that there will be 100+ attendees all connected at the same time, not just one or a few people; have a dedicated Internet for conference halls, especially for Zoom (we acquired one Internet box for the main hall only from the second day); ensure interpreters too have good Internet connection

Volunteers and staff

What went well

• Self-motivation: The organizing team members were very motivated and driven to ensure the success of the event.
• Communication in the core team: The core members had already met and known each before, and have been communicating over several months before the event (in regards to the event preparation), so misunderstandings or issues of communication were few to none.

What went wrong

• One of the main issues was the low number of volunteers. There was therefore more work to do for each volunteer, and more potential for mistakes. This is not to say that mistakes would not happen with a larger number of volunteers, but they would be less likely if each one could get more rest, and focus on one task at one location at a time. Some of the organizing members and volunteers may also want to take part in the sessions, and may even need to present or organize workshops. Including the core organizing team, we had 10-12 people who helped on various tasks.
  • How to fix it:
    • If we consider that the conference unfolded over 3 days in 4 halls/rooms, and that each volunteer would need to rest half a day each day, the actual staff needed would be something like 20-25 people.
    • Have volunteers on standby: at least one or two volunteers who could intervene at a moment's notice when needed, for example to assist other volunteers, take their place if required (e.g. in case of absence due to illness) and if unexpected and urgent tasks appear.
• While there weren't particularly big technical challenges (except due to Internet issues that could not be solved on the spot), there wasn't enough time to prepare the setup and test all equipments while simulating the real conditions of the conference. Some volunteers came early to the venue, but not enough to do all necessary preparations.
  • How to fix it: Volunteers should come earlier (two or three days before any participants) to get familiar with the venue, test the equipments, make plans together and get basic training on various tasks.

Other suggestions for improvement

• Have a person responsible for volunteers: they should be a coordinator during the event, and set up training plans and distribute tasks before the start.
• Each volunteer could document setups, tips and tricks as they go (e.g. on a meta page, or a private document), so that other volunteers don't have to learn things from scratch.

Technical aspects

Wiki Indaba Technical set up

Technical setup

What went well

• Quick intervention: in most cases, the tech team was able to intervene fast to fix issues that were within its power to fix (e.g. software and hardware setup and configurations).
• We used Zoom Events which was relatively easy to setup up, affordable, and allowed simultaneous sessions which can be streamed and recorded, in addition to setups for interpreters who worked remotely.

What went wrong

• Not enough preparation time on-site: as mentioned above, more time should have been alloted to the organizers and volunteers, especially on the technical side, to arrive earlier and do more testing and planning, and set up redundancies and backup plans. This may be due to budgetary constraints, as well as the core team being overwhelmed with other organization aspects such as logistics (e.g. accommodations, visas, transportation), in addition to underestimating the technical requirements for a smooth-sailing hybrid conference.
  • How to fix it:
    • Have a technical lead in the core organization team, who visits the site beforehand and assesses its viability and requirements from a technical point of view. Make sure to discuss all technical requirements (sound quality, live streaming, etc) with the technicians at the venue, to coordinate the provision of proper equipment on time, preparations, and prices if need be.
    • Make sure the technical team has enough time to check all halls where presentations and events will take place, and can do all necessary testing beforehand
    • During testing, document all the setups on a meta page or a shared document, and distribute it among the technical staff
• the mic for the audience was not directly connected to the streaming setup, which made the sound muffled for people online, when someone from the audience spoke. A mic for Zoom streaming was provided for speakers, but often they didn't place it properly, or put it down alltogether using only the hall mics.
  • How to fix it:
    • Make sure the speakers are well informed about such setup details to avoid misunerstanding, i.e. that they should keep the streaming mic close to their mouth
    • Use a different setup, preferably with bluetooth
• On the second day the Internet issue in the main hall was fixed, by acquiring a dedicated box. Unfortunately, the setup was changed, and due to a small issue with the configuration that could have easily been fixed, there was echo in the room, and the audio for Zoom was turned off as a quick fix. The person who did the setup was busy in another session, and therefore could not intervene in time.
  • How to fix it:
    • Document all setups in detail and make sure all technical staff is informed about any changes to the setup
• There was a configuration issue that led to YouTube live streaming platform confusing the sessions (e.g. the live stream of Amzmiz appeared in Tahanaout streaming and so on). Since all volunteers had their hands full, and could not focus to solve this issue, YouTube streaming was simply turned off, knowing that the recordings would eventually be re-uploaded to the platform.
  • How to fix it:
    • Test the complete streaming setup beforehand, and do not assume that such platforms "know what they're doing", and that things would work out smoothly on their own. A simple live stream setup is not necessarily the same as the setup for multiple simultaneous live streams.
    • Have more volunteers ready to take over when such unforseen issues arise.
• Some of the equipment requested at the Wiki Indaba Hackathon was not provided by the venue staff in time
  • How to fix it: make sure you have a list of special requirements from all speakers and organizers, and inform the local staff at the venue about those requirements in time, or acquire them directly. Keep track of deliveries and provisions.

Interpretation

What went well

• The two interpreters (Jana for French <-> English, and Naceur for Arabic <-> English) were wonderful team players, and had great motivation to ensure the success of the event on their side, in order to include people online who could not attend in person.
• They were generally well informed about the topics of the conference and the terminology used in the Wikimedia movement
• A volunteer from the technical staff was available to check the sound quality of the streaming and translation, and communicate with interpreters when something didn't work, potentially summarizing key points in text form on the chat, when the sound quality was bad, to keep the interpreters and online attendees in the loop.

What went wrong

• Interpretation was sometimes difficult, for various reasons that have already been mentioned such as poor Internet in the main hall, mic setup, but also speakers who had difficult accents or spoke too fast
  • How to fix it:
    • Inform speakers beforehand that they need to speak as slowly and clearly as they can
    • Make sure to fix technical issues that can decrease sound quality
    • As much as possible, have interpretation in small rooms, instead of big halls or amphetheaters

Other suggestions for improvment

• Invest in interpretation booths
• Hire an interpretation agency if possible

Feedback from participants

You can also check the reporting page where news about the event in the press, and articles and podcasts by participants are listed.

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