Wikimania 2022/Scholarships/Wikimedia UK/Report

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

It was wonderful to have the support of the Foundation to deliver a Wikimania 2022 focussed UK event. We were pleased to have investment and support across the community for the event which showed in the range of activity and discussions. We are happy that the goals were achieved and we created a space, in person and online for community members to come together to connect, learn and celebrate. We are happy that 42 community members joined us in person and 103 sessions were attended online. bearing in mind the second day of our activity was in London on one of the hottest days of the year and during a rail strike. As a team we learnt a lot about setting up and delivering a hybrid event which will support a more equitable approach for future events.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
200 community members will access the content virtually and up to 150 community members and new wikimedians will join us in person.	103 Community members online, 42 Community members in person	Prior to the event we achieved a sign up number of 94 registrations through promotion across our mailing lists, newsletter and social media. Our target outcome was too high, however we hadn’t factored in a train strike which impacted in person attendees on our second day and a heatwave over the two days, which will have impacted in-person and to a lesser degree online engagement. We had known the timing (UK holiday period) would reduce our engagement.
Engaging new community members.	Yes	We were pleased to meet new community members. In-person and we were able to support queries and introduce people to longer standing community members and hopefully pave their way to engaging across the community. We wanted to reduce barriers to attendance and ensure it was a welcoming event for new Wikimedians, so it was great to receive the following feedback: “The event was extremely enjoyable with interesting content and a welcoming atmosphere.”
All attendees will have the opportunity to connect and network with each other.	Yes	Feedback from attendees shows that they were able to connect and network: “It was good to meet some - at least online, if not face to face, since I did not travel to London for the event during the train strikes and heatwave.” “Speaking and socialising with people was very rewarding” “The space was well allocated for the number of people present, and I enjoyed the vibe” “Good informal discussions & the balcony bar was good (although would have been difficult for those with mobility issues).”
New and current community members will have learnt or developed new skills	103 attendees across all sessions.	There were 103 attendances across all the sessions. 40 attendees for our ‘Wikidata for Beginners’ and ‘Wikidata for Wizards’. On a scale of 1 to 10, 100% of respondents were likely to recommend ‘Wikidata for Beginners’ training to a friend or colleague. 80% of respondents were likely to recommend ‘Wikidata for Wizards’ training to a friend or colleague.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?

Engaging the community through pre-event surveys to co-create the event activities ensured it was an agenda that everyone would find engaging.
We strived to ensure the agenda had content to interest all levels of knowledge, expertise and interest in Wikimedia; from the positive feedback this was achieved.
The location, London House, worked well and was familiar to previous event attendees and easy to find for newcomers. We are conscious that we did receive feedback about accessibility of the outside space and so will keep this in mind for future events.
We delivered a post event survey to understand how the event had been received and how we could improve next time.
Delivering a hybrid event was positive and definitely what the community wanted “Enjoyed the in person interactions and the programme.”
71% of respondents said the in-person format was ‘Quite good’ or ‘Very good.

What did not work so well?

We trialled a new virtual platform from Zoom (Zoom Events) which we felt could deal with the complexity of the event we were running. In reality it cost more staff time and did not live up to expectations in terms of functionality or ease of use for participants. “There was a bit of confusion, however, about going into online meetings, only to be advised to go back to the main online room, although people were on hand in the incorrect meetings to advise people to go to the correct ones.”
With staff delivering much of the content and technical support we didn't capitalise on the opportunity to film the event and interview guests, this could have been used for future multimedia. For future events (budget permitting) we could hire externally to ensure that we capture the event more effectively.
43% of respondents said the online format was ‘Quite good’ although 15% said it was ‘Quite bad’.
We received feedback that we had not engaged enough with the global content, however it was difficult to plan the activities and timings without advanced notice of Wikimania sessions. It would be useful if funded events were engaged earlier by the COT to extend the reach of Wikimania and ensure opportunities for the community to connect. “Talks were ok but not much participation or interaction with the global Wikimania.”
Next time we would look to have focussed online and in-person activity with the opportunity to come together at key points.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

£4601 was the total spend for two days of virtual and in-person Wikimania UK activities. This was the £3824 awarded from 2022 grants and the £776 carried forward from the Wikimania 2021 grant. As outlined in our budget the larger costs related to event space, refreshments and attendee swag. We spent less on refreshments than anticipated, however more was spent on travel expenses and honorarium than the original budget.

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

We factored the underspend from the 2021 Wikimania grant in our costs for 2022, there are no remaining funds.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

It was vital to co-create this event with the UK community and we thank them for their input, support and attendance. We are grateful to those who joined to deliver training, discussions and Lightning Talks. We felt it was really important to cover expenses and offer honorarium to those who gave their time and expertise for this event, in this way we break down the barriers and ensure a wider range of voices are heard.