Wikimedia Conference 2014/Bids/Learnings

In the hope that the Wikimedia organisations keep the hosting choice an open process, we would like to propose a number of potential process improvements, and we would invite all the bidders and other interested parties to provide their own feedback.

Feedback from the location committee

Individual members of the location committee have identified the following as potential improvements to the process. We present these as possible considerations in designing future bids.

Set out clearer expectations about what needs to be included in the bid – even if the process is meant to be simple, the bids need to be robust, and the organisations bidding need to have the experience and capacity not only for bidding but executing the conference.
Have a venue section as the first section in the bid, describing the features of the potential location.
Match bid questions to the logistics criteria (e.g. have the bidders confirm that their potential venue has the requisite amount of rooms in the required sizes, etc.)
When defining the composition of the committee, a seat allocation should not be given to a representative of the previous organising chapter if they are considering applying to host the conference. More generally, it would be good to exclude anyone from an entity that’s considering applying.
Bidders should establish initial contact with proposed venues to check for date availability and price (without necessarily entering into discount negotiations at the bidding stage). It should be clear what info about the potential venues can be provided to the committee confidentially if need be.
Include not only an estimation of the ticket prices but also the travel time for the participants.
Have all the bids use the same currency .

Feedback

First of all, congratulations to WMDE. I have one small concern which has been discussed quite a bit over the years. Should this conference be held in Europe only given that bulk of our chapters are based there? Is it fair to expect other chapters to travel to Europe year after year, especially with Wikimania back in Europe in 2014? If everyone is serious on promoting Africa or the Global South, we need to show it by giving everyone a chance to hold such international events. Maybe one solution to have a fixed rotation with every alternate conference in Europe and outside. That would mean it moves out of Europe in 2015 but returns in 2016 and so on. AroundTheGlobe (talk) 09:36, 25 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]