Wikimania 2022/Scholarships/Wikimedia Venezuela - Wikimedia Small Projects in Spanish/Report

Goals

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

Wikimania Venezuela: The Wikimania festival in Caracas was one of the many local events around the world that revolved around the 2022 edition of Wikimania. This would not have been possible without the collaboration between Wikimedia Venezuela and Wikimedia Small Projects in Spanish; their joint efforts made this festival a reality.

It was organized a Wikimania in-person meeting, it served three purposes:

The first was that this event was the WMVE's comeback to in-person events after two years of the pandemic, so it was a meaningful event for the community that hasn't seen each other in person after a long time.
The second was that this event was the first WMSP's presenctial event.
And the third was to celebrate our internal and external community, who have been accompanying us throughout this time, plus the event served to integrate new members and new allies of the Wikimedia projects to our communities.

This Wikimania in-person meeting provided us with invaluable experience because it was the first event that was organized for two affiliates from our country. It was a challenge to get our communities back online after such a long time, but we managed to get high participation and were able to meet with community members again.

The grant provided the whole expenses of the event, this means scholarships for people out of Caracas, the venue and the food, goodies for the attendees and for the speakers, and stationery costs.

The Event's Organising Committee
Speech from Luis Carlos Díaz: Human Rights on Social Networks
Raysilut Valero giving her lighting talk.
Luis Serrano talking about Cybersecurity
Carlos Mora talking about Small Projects
Wikimania 2022, Day 2. Live Broadcast

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
15-20 persons participating	24 persons had attended Wikimania Venezuela 2022	We had over 40 people sign up to attend the event. We considered that there are always people who sign up and don't attend, so we thought we would reach 25 people. At last, there were 20 people attending the event in person, plus an average of 4 people online during the broadcast of the event.
10 newly registered users	19 newly registered users.	We had 9 new memberships in WMVE and 10 new memberships in WMSP.
50 content pages created or improved, across all Wikimedia projects.	69 content pages created or improved, across all Wikimedia projects.	We can break this down into: 3 Pages created, 16 Pages improved, 1 Wikidata item created, 6 Wikidata items improved and 43 Uploaded files
6-8 participants will receive childcare support to support their participation at Wikimania.	3 participants received childcare support to support their participation at Wikimania.	Although childcare support was offered to all participants, only three requested it
10 participants will receive hardware support	No participants received hardware support	No hardware support was required, as we rented a venue with the necessary capabilities and equipment for a successful event.
10 participants will receive data packages to support their participation at Wikimania	20 participants received data support during their participation at Wikimania	Data support was provided during the days of the event in all facilities where participants were located, through partnerships and agreements between service providers and Wikimedia Affiliates. 7 of the participants received data packages while the others enjoyed unlimited connectivity at the Venue, hotel and shared spaces.
10 participants will receive Printed artwork, conference swag/merchandise for event participants	20 participants received Printed artwork, conference swag/merchandise for event participants	Each attendee of the event received a pack with printed artwork, stickers, diary and a small tote bag. In addition, five of the participants received a t-shirt alluding to the event.
10 participants will assist to 2 in-person meetups that will coincide with Wikimania activities	20 participants assisted to 3 in-person meetups that will coincide with Wikimania activities	The event took place during the days of the Wikimania 2022 activities. So all the meetings coincided with the same ones.
Wikimedians from at least 4 states of Venezuela will participate in the activities.	20 Wikimedians from 5 states of Venezuela participated in the activities.	We can break this down into: 4 people from Merida, 7 From Miranda, 1 from La Guaira, 7 from Capital District and 1 from Carabobo

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?

The atmosphere of camaraderie during the events was exceptionally good. Even though there were veterans and almost inexperienced newcomers, the group behaved in a friendly, uniform and synergistic manner.
The variety in the presentations and talks has provided an opportunity to understand and explore ways to contribute to Wikimedia projects from various perspectives, as well as to understand possible difficulties that may arise.
The facilities provided for the participants to follow the event smoothly were very helpful in giving each person the opportunity to list and see what was presented.
The snacks, drinks and refreshments provided made it easy to follow the project throughout the day.
Most importantly, all participants took notes on the presentations, which will serve as a melting pot of ideas for improving the activities and projects of the participating affiliates.

What did not work so well?

As usual in this kind of organised events, small technical problems (such as the stability of the internet connection) appeared, but they were quickly solved and the events ended smoothly.
There were some mobility difficulties, due to the weather and the location of the Venue.
The biggest inconvenience was with the international banking transactions (PayPal-AirTM-Banks), which were challenging and time consuming. We underestimated the lengthy process involved and did not have an efficient way to collect financial transaction data beyond invoices for payments made. This resulted in some transactions having higher than expected bank charges and it forced us to make several changes in the planning of the event.

What would you do differently next time?

We would request payment details from suppliers at the planning stage by requesting PayPal or other online payment systems. This would not only simplify the transaction process, but also prevent us from using significant funds in bank charges.

Finances

Grant funds spent

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

A total of $3484.59 was spent on the following:

Administration and fees $767.24
Equipment and tools $47.34
Food and beverages $426.46
Logistics and space $536.21
Printed artwork, conference swag/merchandise for event participants $670.21
Personnel expenses $157.35
Travel and lodging $879.77

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

There are no remaining funds. $ 29.59 was spent over budget which was paid from Wikimedia Venezuela funds.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

Wikimedia benefits from its global community of dedicated volunteers- we are very proud that we were able to support them in participating in Wikimania this year and are truly grateful for your support.