Talk:Wikimania 2021/Event design process narrative

Longer duration and no clashes

One of the constraints of an in person Wikimania is time, some people have little holiday time available, everyone has costs per day for food and accomodation. So we keep Wikimania short, and we run most of the presentations and events in multiple concurrent tracks. Despite the best efforts of the organisers to theme the tracks, at every Wikimania I have been to there have been times when I have wanted to be in two sessions at the same time. With a virtual event you can overcome this - every event can have its own unique "live" slot, and of course some room to overrun. Yes I know that most of us will be watching recordings on catch up, but there is something about a live audience and the questions that this provokes. WereSpielChequers (talk) 08:49, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

"Follow the sun" might help with this, but even at Wikimania, we need to sleep sometimes. Rich Farmbrough 10:23 23 February 2021 (GMT).

"Follow the Sun" would certainly work with some of the language communities. But given the lack of hotel costs, there is no need to go for a short, multitrack Wikimania. WereSpielChequers (talk) 17:40, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Languages

Wikimania is overly focussed on English. Yes we've had host languages, a thread for the host language and even sometimes simultaneous translation so that Buenos Aires for example was both an English and a Spanish event. But mostly Wikimania is in English. And if I, a stereotypical monolingual Brit has noticed that, what must those members of the community who are not fluent in English think? A virtual Wikimania is an opportunity to do a 300 language Wikimania. To invite everyone making a presentation to submit that presentation in different versions for each language they are comfortable presenting in. To invite every multi lingual Wikimanian to record translations/adaptations of presentations they found interesting in one of their languages into other languages they are fluent in. To challenge every language community in the movement to hold at least one event - even if just a translated presentation or a hangout where people active in that language can meet whether they are active in wiktionary, wikinews, Wikipedia etc. WereSpielChequers (talk) 08:49, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Presentation coaching and editing

As a community we tend towards geeks who have a lot they could present, but who rarely make presentations. We then invite people to present in a language that may not be their strongest. It could make a huge impact on quality, and on the enjoyment of both speakers and presenters, if we had a service available in the run up to and during Wikimania where people could rehearse their presentation in front of a small review group of people who between them had both Wiki skills and presentation coaching skills. Plus a bit of editing of recorded presentations so that live ones can be upgraded wih recordings that miss out the unwanted pauses and replace mistakes with rerecorded content. WereSpielChequers (talk) 08:59, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Breakout meetings

Despite great presentations and sessions, the most value at Wikimania seems to come from chatting in bars, lounges, sitting on steps, in dining rooms, museums, airports, buses and taxis and in auditoria post-session. What is the magic sauce for these chats? I suggest the following candidates:

1. Randomness - whoever is at the lunch table you join, queueing for coffee, sharing a dorm, on the same flight
2. Discoverability -
   1. You see someone you want to talk to - either by badge name or face
   2. You overhear an interesting snippet
   3. You were at the same session
3. The ability to join (and leave) easily
4. The ability to call people into a discussion

Also discussions are semi-private, rather than semi-public. Discussion is much freer than on a Wiki talk page, where everything you say can (and probably will) be used against you.

It would be useful to see how much these feature can be replicated in Wikimania 2021.

Rich Farmbrough 10:37 23 February 2021 (GMT).

Unlogged, unrecorded zoom breakout rooms might help. WereSpielChequers (talk) 17:41, 23 March 2021 (UTC)