Wikimedia Summit 2024/Event report
The design of this event report is inspired by Wiki Movement Brazil User Group Report 2024
Outcome Evaluation- Description
Lessons Learned- Description
Financial Reporting- Description
Overview - Main Facts
Date and location:
The 3 day conference took place from April 19-21, 2024 in Berlin (Bildungs- und Kulturzentrum Peter Edel). Sessions from the main stage were livestreamed on the event platform and are available on Commons.
Main goals:
The event had two purposes:
#1 - Bringing people together to make significant progress on the design of the future Wikimedia governance.
#2 - Discussing the future of global affiliate gatherings, because Wikimedia Summit 2024 will be the last of its kind.
Outcome:
During the three-day event, participants drafted a series of statements on the future of our movement's governance and identified 21 deal breakers in the last draft of the Movement Charter. Additionally, a group of volunteers came together to design a concept for the future of affiliate gatherings.
Main target audience:
This year’s Wikimedia Summit was open to affiliate and hub representatives selected through an application process, movement committees (AffCom and Movement Charter Drafting Committee) as well as representatives of the Wikimedia Foundation (board and staff).
Organizers:
The Wikimedia Summit was hosted and organized by Wikimedia Deutschland in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation. The event was co-funded by both organizations; the majority of the budget was provided by the WMF. The teams spent 12 months planning the event. Responsibilities around the event planning was structured in the following manner:
- High level decision-making and oversight: A Steering Committee was set up to organize the Wikimedia Summit, with representatives from both the WMDE and WMF to make joint decisions on program design and event logistics.
- Conference team: Laura Klemens (WMDE), Louisa Meyer (WMDE)
- Program team: Eva Martin (WMDE), Nikki Zeuner (WMDE)
- Event platform and travel support: Planning and execution of event logistics were managed by Wikimedia Deutschland in collaboration with an external event agency (KWERTZ GmbH, Berlin).
Tools used:
The virtual event platform created for the 2022 Wikimedia Summit was used again and adjusted to this year’s needs (https://www.vistream.online/summit2024). Additionally, the following tools were used during the pre-engagement and the conference:
- Zoom was used to host the pre-engagement session in August/September 2023.
- Slido was used for voting purposes
- A Google Doc Diary with live updates on the conference program and summary of previous sessions.
- Wordly is an AI based translation used for live English subtitles during the event.
Language(s) spoken during the event:
The conference’s working language was English. For the first time, live interpretation from English to French (and vice versa) was offered. In addition, AI-based translation in the form of English subtitles was provided in the breakout rooms and on the main stage.
Full event documentation:
Here you can find the details of the 2024 Wikimedia Summit program.
Participant feedback survey:
A feedback survey was sent to all participants on the last day of the event. The results can be found in this slide-deck.
Contact report authors for further questions:
- Eva Martin (WMDE) for the programmatic aspects
- Laura Klemens (WMDE) for the logistical aspects