Wikimania 2020 bids/Perth

After submitting bids for 2008, 2017, 2018, and 2019 we are again submitting a proposal for WMAU & Perth to host Wikimania in 2020.

City proposed: Perth, Western Australia.

Proposed dates: 14 to 19 July 2020.

Pre-conference: 14, 15 July

Conference: 16, 17,18 July

Un-Conference 19 July

Number of participants: Up to 1,000 participants.

Contact person: Gnangarra (talk)

Personal safety of participants

Wikimedia Australia adopted a Safe Space Policy for all events that also incorporates the principles of the WMF Friendly Space Policy[2]. Perth is multi culturally diverse with only 38% of the population having both parent born in Australia. 25% of the population practices no religion and 45% are practicing christians the remain 30% practice other religions.ABS Stats 2011 2016 census data not yet released

Discrimination

Western Australia is covered by both State and Federal Law, and Australia was one of the first signatories of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

WA acts
- Western Australian Disability Services Act 1993
- Western Australian Equal Opportunity Act 1984
Federal acts
- Age Discrimination Act 2004
- Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
- Disability Discrimination Act 1992
- Racial Discrimination Act 1975
- Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

More information on these acts are available from Australian Human Rights Commission [3]

Personal safety of attendees is more than legislation. Perth has a low crime rate and it is safe to walk the streets ([4]). All major religions have multiple places of worship be it Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Confucian, Sikh, Hindu, or the Church of Scientology. Perth has a strong LGBT community.There are no restrictions on dress and people can safely wear religious dress or insignia. In the past week here in Perth we had the yearly Pride parade, which has been held since 1989 [5].

Australia and Western Australia have politically stable democratic Governments.

Availability of affordable accommodation

Conference Venues

There are several potential conference venues depending on number of participants, and preference for type of venue. All venues options are capable of hosting 1000 attendees with 10 streams though the Perth Convention Centre has the capacity to extend the number to 2000 attendees. Each venue options would enable additional support from the Perth Convention Bureau with obtaining sponsorship, promoting the event, and providing information on visa applications. I have consider each of the Universities they provide an additional layer of complexity with transport between accommodation and venue as student accommodation would be limited due to the timing only being around a semester break not an end of year break making unlike to be available.

Crown towers: Large venue with the everything contained within the one area, all very new and the rooms very flexible in layout the ability to change that layout during breaks. A 10 minute walk from the venue across parkland will get you to the free transit zone and cat bus services [ https://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/Portals/0/Asset/Documents/Tickets%20&%20Fares/PERTH_CAT_Map_2013-2.pdf Transperth map], closer bus train services are available for minimal costs (currently AUD$2.20 [6] ). The Crown has the physical capacity for all attendees to stay within the complex in 3 star or higher accommodation.
- Notes: There is a casino within the complex though discretely away from the conference area. There are approximately 35-40 food options(all tastes catered for) within the complex additional event space available across the venue for sponsors to hold their own gatherings. We could consider using the theatre space for opening and closing plenaries, though would require a little bit of herding to get everyone there. Crown has offered discounts on rooms for attendees.
Esplanade Fremantle: Its a heritage listed building capable of hosting 1000 a people though realistically this would make the place feel a little cramped and we would need to utilize the ability to reconfigure rooms to enable wider stream choices. The venue would be better to consider a lower attendee number somewhere in the 700-800 people range. Its centrally located within Fremantle(Freo), Freo is very pedestrian friendly with a unique character including significant colonial history. In addition the area in which the venue is located is being considered for World Heritage listing. Fremantle already has a World Heritage Listed Prison within that complex there is a part that has been turned into backpacker accommodation, there would some novelty value to the community in accommodating WMF staff or scholarship recipients in the prison. Freo also has a Cat service that provides free bus to get around the area and has a lot of accommodation options as well.
- Notes: Esplanade would be venue with compromises in capacity juxtaposed with the heritage characteristics and the Freo life those who attend will find it a very unique experience. We have support from the City of fremantle the Fremantle Town hall would be available for a social event and the Roundhouse Perths oldest colonial building has already been offered to be venue a gathering. The Roundhouse also has a time canon that is fired at 13:00 everyday we would be able to have guests fire the canon preceding, during, and after the event. Esplanade has also offer discounted rooms for attendees.
Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre(PCEC): This is purpose built exhibition and conference centre facility wise it has all the bells and whistles even a gong(actually a chime) to call people back. It has digital signage that we can change, every room is monitored from a central location enabling adjustments. Of the three venues it has the largest capacity would easily expand it to over 2,000 people running a dozen streams. Its atop the Perth Bus Port and Elizabeth Quay train station it sit in the middle of the Free transit area, and directly serviced by the Cat buses. There is a hotel on site plus hundreds more from backpackers to 6 star all of which have free transport access to the venue.
- Notes: It has everything we need, this a purpose built facility it capable of doing everything well. Catering is via contracted third party. PCEC has no hotel facilities the nearst hotel is with 50m of the building though the availability of free public transports negates any issue

CBD-based accommodation

Within the Central Business District (CBD) of Perth there are 30 backpacker accommodation places [7]. As an example the Perth City YHA has 233 beds [8]. According to Tripadvisor there 252 accommodation places within the Perth CBD area including backpackers, serviced apartments, and B&Bs [9]. During the July-August winter period it is low season in Perth which means that most accommodation places reduce the standard rate and all accommodation places have further discounts for groups [10][11].

Fremantle accommodation options

Fremantle Would provide a combination of conference venue and Notre Dame Australia University. Fremantle has significant accommodation options including a backpackers in the World Heritage listed Fremantle Prison. Fremantle has easy access to rail transport from the CBD (30 mins).

Accommodation within short distance to venue

We have a choice of venues from conference centres to hotels or universities where we could host the event. Choosing a conference venue is more expensive than a University, but two of the possible conference venues are within the Perth CBD giving us access to free transport from all potential accommodation options. Should we choose a University option we would then incur a logistical component from the accommodation to the venue as the on site accommodation at the Universities is unlikely to be available. Australian student accommodation is not as readily available during our short mid-year (July) break, compared to the end of year break.

All Australian accommodation options are required to be accessible by people with disabilities, and are smoke free.

Transport

All of the potential CBD venues are within a 10-15 minutes walk of accommodation, close to free CAT bus transport services [12] a fixed route service that operates in 2-5 minute intervals. Perth also has a Free transit zone [13] that means all public transport within the Central Business District of Perth is free to travel on.

Reasonably priced catering/service charges at event

The time frame of the request for information and the instruction that WMF would like to seek out its own quotes means we havent approached venues for more detailed costings. Perth is a multicultural city and food would be of a variety to ensure all attendees needs are catered for including any medical, religious or personal choices.

Strength of organizing committee's core team

Core committee all resident in Perth WA;

Gideon Digby - 10+ plus years of contributions to the projects, Vice President Wikimedia Australia and part of the foundation of the Australian chapter in 2008. 25 years of experience in Tourism Transport industry work on coordination of logistics for multiple events. Co-ordinated the WA leg of the conference and lead WMAU during its most successful year which included the WikiData Tour Downunder. Initiated the first meetup in Perth in 2007, since then started and lead many outreach projects including 2 WikiTowns, WLE in Australia, multiple workshops and WikiTakes events. I have also done media interviews about the Wikimedia projects and activities along with news requests when issues involving the use of Wikipedia content occurs. If have attended 2 Wikimanias Washington and London, in Washington I learnt about QRpedia project, in London I shared my experiences with that project, in Perth I look forward to enabling attendees to experience those outreach projects first hand.

Jennie Buchanan - Jennie Buchanan is currently pursuing a PhD in Community Development, and working with many remote Indigenous communities. Jennie has a background in youth studies and has taught in the Indigenous Studies program at UWA and the Community Development program at Murdoch University.
The Noongarpedia team are developing the first Australian Indigenous Wikipedia, currently in Incubation. Her position involves liaising and developing relationships across Indigenous and non Indigenous groups involved in Noongar language, archival work and knowledge production. In collaboration with Wikimedia Australia members, Jennie is involved in introducing interested individuals, regional and metropolitan communities, language centres and schools to the possibilities of Noongarpedia. This includes hosting open community wikibombs along with other team members. A key consideration of the work is how other small or minority language groups can make use of Wikipedia to strengthen language and knowledge transmission and digital capacity in communities.
Jennie’s teaching roles include the design, teaching and assessment of tertiary units and delivery of practical field trips. This has involved organising and overseeing numerous ‘on country’ camps for up to 500 tertiary students at a time. These camps are designed to introduce students to Indigenous and Western scientific ways of understanding ‘country’ and natural ecology. Jennie has skills in working with numerous government and non-government organisations, Indigenous elders and scientists to run workshops and talks for student groups. As well as developing academic content, Jennie undertakes logistical work such as arranging travel for large groups, accommodation, transport, catering and contingency plans.
Jennie has worked with communities and schools in metropolitan and remote settings on sustainability values education and place mapping. http://www.kidsplacemaps.wa.edu.au She has sat on community school management boards and has been involved in recording the history of community development practice in WA http://whatnow.net.au. Her work has explored using and adapting digital technologies across age groups. Jennie¹s research interests and publications relate to how we can creatively use digital mediums to enhance the voices and experiences of children, young people and indigenous communities across the globe.

Dave Palmer - Professor at Murdoch University work in the Community Development area

Local there are number of active contributors who are part of WikiClubWest and have the technical skills to support the necessary wifi, media, and any legal matters, these are also skills and volunteers we can access through the already established University networks.

Additional support to the committee not in WA;

Steve Crossin - Former WMAU President, Committee member, tech guru, former WMF contractor.
Pru Mitchell - current WMAU President, education and GLAM professional, and experienced conference organiser
Robert Myers - current WMAU treasurer

Venue's Network Infrastructure & Connectivity

All proposed venues have wifi services and are connected to the NBN fibreoptic service with sufficient capacity. We also have access to the technical resources of three universities to support the event and ensure every major accommodation location has good wifi services and capacity. All accommodation facilities provide good wifi service. Additionally the Perth CBD area has a free wifi service available throughout provided by The City of Perth.

Close proximity of venue to international airport

Perth(PER) has both international and domestic flight service including direct service from London, Johannesburg and major hubs of Asia. Some US passengers may arrive via Sydney or Melbourne where they'll pass through customs before completing their journey. Distances from the airports to the CBD:

Perth Airport T1 - 19km (20 mins)
Perth Airport T3 - 15km (20mins)

Using the Fremantle option will add up to 15 minutes or 10kms from the airport regardless of the terminal of arrival.

An airport meet and greet service with a bus to provide transport to hotels for attendees would be part of the event.

Regular direct nonstop flights from London(LHR) to Perth are available - with flights from other European airports expected to be available from 2019.

Visa

Attendees will need a visa subclass 600 https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/visitor-600 which can be obtained online, these are processed within 48hours though it is recommeneded that people allow at least 30 days. For visa applications letters of support from Wikimedia Australia, Perth Convention Bureau(WA Government) can be provided to all attendees to assist in your visa applications. The Perth Convention Bureau has recommended migration agents to provide additional assistance should it be needed.

also see https://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra/Wikimania_2019_-_Perth#Visa for approved visa countries

Sponsorships

We have the support of the Perth Convention Bureau with a commitment for event support and funding should we choose one of the three commercial venues. All conference venues offer reductions for charities and WMAU as host chapter is a registered Australian Charity. We have sponsorship to provide an airport to hotel bus service 24/7

Perth Convention Bureau is a service provided the State Government to support conventions in Western Australia, it offers a number of assistance packages. The PCB has bid support to assist with materials for the bid and enable a site visit which includes travel, accommodation and venue visits. PCB provides support for advertising and marketing of the event including videos and give a ways. PCB has a number of corporate sponsorship options available upto A$66,000 for marketing(details forwarded to Ellie via email) and offers further assistance in obtaining additional sponsors. PCB can also supply letters from the State Government supporting the event and provide help with visa applications maximising the number of participants.

Find support from local chapters, governments, universities, venues and NGOs

WMAu chapter has expressed support for hosting Wikimania in Perth. The School of Art Murdoch University has indicated its support for Wikimania to be in Perth and offered to help with recruitment of volunteers and resources for the event. Perth Convention Bureau and the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre have both supported this and previous bids. PCB is willing to provide financial support to help with the event, PCEC has indicated that as a Charity there would be significant reductions in the costs for the event, both of these will be subject to outcome of negotiations.

How would locating Wikimania in Perth promote the mission of the WMF and its global movement?

WMF mission statement[14]

The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

Holding Wikimania in Perth, Western Australia would cause the WMF to have engaged with every Continent, engaging in Australia would also further empower the region with 300+ Australian Indigenous cultures and languages poorly covered. This engagement would be complimentary to work already started with the Noongarpedia project that has established Wikitonary and Wikipedia projects currently in the incubator stage, the first Indigenous Australian language project. Wikimedia Australia is working on replicating the project in the Indigenous languages and culture in the Northern Territory, and planning towards further activity nationally. The Indigenous cultures in Australia are dominated by intangible knowledge sources the process will be able to be replicate world wide by bringing people here they will be able to experience this first hand.

The Southwest of Western Australia is also one of the most significant biodiversity hot spots on the planet, so much of that knowledge has yet to filter through all projects and be disseminated globally. Locating Wikimania in Perth, Western Australia offers many opportunities to experience ways of disseminating knowledge through outreach projects that specifically engage in reuse like the WikiTowns of Toodyay and Fremantle. Noongarpedia as a language that started with asking the question of why there was no Noongar language Wikipedia has already grown to over articles and had unexpected knowledge sharing outcomes. This would be the first time that attendees at a Wikimania could actively experience the result of such outreach projects themselves as part of Wikimania. The opportunity of practical experience of outreach would empower attendees to consider replicating or developing new projects.

Direct impacts arent always measurable with instant numbers and immediate results. Australia is readily accessible by air to Asia, in particular the subcontinent and middle east countries that would increase the movements engagement with those communities. Oceania has been the 3rd highest contributing region for donations for many years, there is significant gap between the two highest contributing regions and Australia. These contributions could be increased through the very publicity such an event would attract. Perth is home to many of the largest mining companies, all of whom are generous supporters of charities and education programs. The fundraising team being here, along with the many faces of the project, would open opportunities to secure new sources of philanthropic donations. Most of these mining companies work in some of the most disadvantage regions around the world by creating relationships programs like Wikipedia Zero could find new supporters and alternative access to areas where education has had limited reach especially in Africa and South America where Australian resource companies have significant reach in to those communities.

The theme would be around Indigenous knowledge and supporting emerging communities to empower a greater depth to the sum of all knowledge.

Note Exchange rate predictions Nov 2018

According to the latest data predictions there is an expectation of the Australian dollar to US dollar exchange being 1 = 1.4 to 1.5, Euro would shift from 1euro = AUD1.6 to 1.8 and uk pound 1uk = 1.75Aud to 2.0 AUD, such changes will make all costs lower for those paying from outside Australia. ([15])