Wikimania 2007/Official requirements for bidding cities

This page lists the official requirements that cities hoping to host Wikimania in 2007 should fulfill in order to be shortlisted. If you want to propose a city, please fill in the required fields below. All applications should be in by September 10th 2006, no application will be accepted after that date. You can request clarifications on the talk page. A first shortlist will be chosen on September 15th. From there, cities will have a little more than one week to complete their application and answer the jury's questions. The final city will be decided on September 24th.

For more general information and brainstorming about Wikimania, you might want to take a look at

both shortlisted cities last year Wikimania_2006/Toronto and Wikimania_2006/Boston

Ground rules to keep in mind

Experience has proved that the following requirements should be followed as closely as possible.

Dates should be from the beginning of July to mid August and should include a week-end.
The maximum number of participants should be 500 people, the minimum 300.
The venue must provide accommodation within walking distance of the conference grounds, preferably with lots of hanging out spaces where wikimaniacs can get together informally.
The venue must have seminar/conference rooms that can hold up to 100 people and no less than 30 people at one time for the sessions. It should provide at least one main hall that can hold up to 500 people. Count on having around 5/6 simultaneous tracks in the program. (ie. the venue must accommodate 500 people at any time in 5/6 rooms).
Geographical diversity -- having 2007's Wikimania in a different city, country, continent and/or hemisphere than 2005 or 2006's -- is a factor in decision-making but explicitly not a requirement. Either Frankfurt or Boston theoretically could be the 2007 host city.

Draft application

Please copy and paste this template for a city application into a page titled "[[Wikimania 2007/xxx]]", where xxx is the name of the city. This page lists the basic requirements for an application, but is in no way exhaustive, you may add to your application all information you feel should be brought to the attention of the jury. Please make sure you give all price quotes with an equivalent in dollar US (USD).

City details

Country:
City proposed: please add your proposal at [[Wikimania 2007/name of city]]
Proposed dates (e.g., Friday to Sunday, with possibility of arriving on the Thursday night and leaving on Monday morning):
Contact person(s):

Conference venue

brief description of venue (room sizes, number of rooms etc.)

Main hall:
Seminar rooms:
Lounge facilities:
Other rooms (organisation, staff, speakers, interviews/press, storage):

contacts with conference venue (emails, price quotes etc.)

Technical facilities
- Existing technical installations
  (on site Audio-visual...)
- Wireless Network implementation

(existing? to be built? easiness of implementation?)

Transportation and visa information

Estimation of travel costs from all continents:
Visa issues (who needs a visa, how easy is it to obtain it)
Distance from international airport(s)and how do we get to the location:

Accommodation

Location of main accommodation facilities

(where can the attendees be hosted. On site, off site, how far from conference venue?)

Room details and price range

(What's the accommodation like? Dorms, B&B, Hotel? Singles, doubles? How much does it cost per person and per day?

Catering (one meal a day, breakfast is a plus)

(Where do we eat, how much it costs)

contacts with accommodation partner(s)

(have you contacted the proposed locations, exchange of emails, price quotes etc.)

Local sponsorship opportunities

Possibility of local sponsorships

Contacts

(no name needed, just "company X, 4000 USD or will provide 300 beds)

Local team

(Who stands behind this bid, who will be able to help locally, names and what they can help with)

Miscellaneous

Anything you feel should be brought to the attention of the jury.

Self-evaluation

Weaknesses of the proposed location ...and how to overcome those weaknesses

Weakness 1
Solution 1
Weakness 2
Solution 2

Strengths of the proposed location

Strength 1
Strength 2

Ongoing bids

this is a template, please edit here

Taipei chosen to host Wikimania 2007

The Wikimania jury has met and are pleased to announce that Wikimania 2007 will be held in Taipei, Taiwan. Taipei had the winning combination of a dedicated and experienced bidding team, a great venue with centralized accomodation and community areas, and strong sponsorship opportunities. Taipei also provides the opportunity to focus attention on the growing Asian language projects and the international aspect of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as learning about other free knowledge efforts and projects in the region.

This was a very difficult decision. Every one of the shortlisted bids this year were outstanding. The Turin bid came in a close second; their team made a great effort to procure two strong locations and extensive government support, and gathered the Italian community together to develop an outstanding bid. Alexandria deserves recognition for bringing the Egyptian and Arabic-language community into the spotlight, and for finding a remarkable venue partner in the Library of Alexandria. London also produced a very strong bid, with a great venue, focus on educational outreach, the diversity of London, and the strong Wikimedia UK team.

Thank you to all of the bidders, including those who did not make the shortlist, for your time and energy in developing these bids. We hope this year's city teams will find ways to build on the contacts and sponsors developed in the bid process for a 2008 bid or for hosting a regional event.

We strongly encourage all who bid this year, and those of you wondering whether your city could have done the same, to consider preparing city bids for Wikimania in 2008 or 2009. Unofficial bids for 2008 should be started now, as the decision on that city will be made this winter (more details on 2008's bid process coming soon; watch Wikimania_2008/Bids for updates).

Now the work for the winners will begin, as they develop plans for the conference next summer. We encourage the entire community to support Taipei over the coming year in producing an outstanding conference.

With thanks,
The 2007 Wikimania bid jury

Official shortlisted bids

Wikimania 2007 candidate cities - shortlist
Continents:	Africa	Asia	Europe
Countries:	Egypt	Republic of China (Taiwan)	United Kingdom	Italy
Cities:	Alexandria ^talk	Taipei ^talk	London ^talk	Torino ^talk

Other Wikimania 2007 bids

City bids which were never completed, or otherwise remained unofficial, have been moved to the talk page.

City bids that were official and did not make it to the shortlist are also on the talk page.