I am told London is one of the cheapest cities in the world to get to, and the European community is very large; I am hoping we can convene more of the community than has ever been in one place before. Certainly the higher the ticket price, the fewer people will attend, and in fact the WMF has given us strict limits on our maximum prices. I am very proud to be able to offer a cheap tickets, but it's meant that we're spending a lot of our time working on fundraising (which is not as straightforward a process as it sounds, as it turns out corporate sponsors don't particularly care about supporting The Mission), and depending on our fundraising success various aspects of the event may not be as good or professional as they could be: it turns out catering companies don't particularly care about supporting The Mission either.
Given the size of the community as a whole, I continue to be amazed at how small the conference has historically been. Wikimedia is a fascinating thing, so much so that millions of people have volunteered their time to take part. My hypothesis is that there are large groups of Wikimedia participants who are not really aware of the conference, or for one reason or another do not feel welcome to attend, or are unsure of whether the content will be interesting to them; perhaps some people edit articles about a certain subject because they are interested in that subject, not because they're interested in the act of editing. Wikimania - at least from my impressions of HongKong - is really a conference about meta, which makes sense. What else would Wikimedians discuss when they are together except for what it means to be Wikimedian? A lot of the work I have been doing over the past year has been trying to unpack what "meta wikimedia" is, for people who either haven't really considered it in abstract terms, or for people who are interested in the structure and process of knowledge but have never considered Wikimedia to be relevant to them (e.g. librarians, data scientists, etc) - this train of thought lead to this Wikimania's five themes; Social Machines, The Future of Education, Free Culture, Open Scholarship and Open Data. They're the most concise expression I could find for the subjects that were discussed at Wikimania last year, using only words non-wiki*edians would understand. Something I'm very keen to do this year is have high quality livestreams of the talks, and have the recordings edited and posted online as quickly as possible. I am sure the number of people who would be interested in watching these talks far exceeds those who are able and willing to physically travel to the event. I would very much like to advertise these livestreams during the conference as centralnotices, but the infrastructure to do this and support the resulting traffic might be something that we can't afford. I'm not really sure if this answered your question... just some thoughts I've been mulling over recently. *Edward Saperia* Chief Coordinator Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org> email <[email protected]> * facebook<http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> * twitter <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> * 07796955572 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG On 24 March 2014 05:12, Samuel Klein <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Ed. Since I know your team has thought a lot about who you want to > attract: a restating of Lodewijk's Q: how do you expect your pricing to > influence who attends, from the city / region / around the world? > On Mar 23, 2014 9:24 AM, "Edward Saperia" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> A word from the trenches; >> >> I am very keen to keep Wikimania prices low. It's not quite decided yet, >> but I think our ticket prices will be less than $100, which compared to any >> conference of comparable size is absurdly low; it would be worth buying a >> ticket for the catering alone. It's not unusual for large conferences to >> cost fifty times this. >> >> However, for the past six months a significant amount of the (volunteer) >> Wikimania team's time has been dedicated to fundraising, so there is a cost >> to this. >> >> *Edward Saperia* >> Chief Coordinator Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org> >> email <[email protected]> * >> facebook<http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> >> * twitter <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> * 07796955572 >> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG >> >> >> On 23 March 2014 22:03, Lodewijk <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> As Wikimedia movement, we have the luxury to approach this question >>> backwards. Instead of thinking about how we will pay for the event (we have >>> many sponsorship opportunities and even a good amount of donations), we can >>> look at who we would want to attend the event. We could design our pricing >>> system such to accommodate that. >>> >>> So, maybe we should first answer that question - what would our ideal >>> attendance look like? >>> >>> Best, >>> Lodewijk >>> >>> >>> 2014-03-23 13:48 GMT+01:00 maarten deneckere < >>> [email protected]>: >>> >>>> Two general thoughts that I think are important. >>>> Firstly, most attendees will pay the conference fee themselves. You >>>> cannot compare with the general conference where those (high) fees are paid >>>> by the university or company of the attendee. >>>> >>>> Secondly, selection of Wikimania 2015 location is a voting process with >>>> the public, as such bidders will try to keep to conference fees as low as >>>> possible. >>>> >>>> I personally support Chan's "four group" hierarchy: Non-Wikimedian >>>> price, Wikimedian price, Partial scholarship, Full scholarship, and his >>>> hesitance to raise general prices. >>>> >>>> Maarten >>>> Wikimania Cape >>>> Town<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015_bids/Cape_Town> >>>> >>>> >>>> 2014-03-23 2:54 GMT+01:00 Deryck Chan <[email protected]>: >>>> >>>> Wikimania indeed has a tradition of setting artificially low entry >>>>> prices for the reasons Nicholas described earlier in this thread. Of >>>>> course, there's nothing to stop Wikimania 2014 from raising ticket prices. >>>>> I should remind though that until 2013 we basically have a hierarchy of 4 >>>>> ticket prices: >>>>> >>>>> 1. Non-Wikimedian price: supposedly the full cost (but is still >>>>> effectively slightly subsidised) >>>>> 2. Wikimedian price: substantially subsidised entry and food, for >>>>> those who've paid a lot to travel to the venue from the other side of the >>>>> world >>>>> 3. Partial scholarship: for those who can almost / just about afford >>>>> to attend Wikimania on their own budget, but would use up their savings >>>>> unless their air travel was subsidised. The partial scholarship encourages >>>>> them to go to *more* Wikimanias. >>>>> 4. Full scholarship (for those who simply can't afford Wikimania) >>>>> >>>>> In 2014, the partial scholarship is removed, so I would hesitate to >>>>> raise the Wikimedian ticket prices, lest we disincentivise "medium-income" >>>>> Wikimedians (particularly students) from attending. However, by all means >>>>> consider raising the non-Wikimedian price, or even have a "donor price" >>>>> (full cost + £100, say?) with a shiny badge to let generous attendees pay >>>>> more! >>>>> >>>>> Deryck >>>>> >>>>> Deryck >>>>> On 23 Mar 2014 08:07, "Charles Gregory" <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> My impression was that the prices took into account that (a) most >>>>>> members of the Wikimedia community are volunteers (b) most attendees have >>>>>> paid many hundreds, if not thousands of US$ in airfares/accommodation >>>>>> costs >>>>>> to attend, on top of the ticket price. Volunteers also have to use up >>>>>> their own annual leave (or forgo wages) if their Wikimedia activities are >>>>>> not on behalf of their employer. >>>>>> >>>>>> You could get away with having separate rates. The other conference >>>>>> I have experience with, Linux.conf.au, has rates which differ by >>>>>> almost an order of magnitude: Professional $899, Hobbyist $399, Student >>>>>> $99. (These prices are Australian dollars, which is approx USD +/- 10%) >>>>>> (IMHO the Hobbyist rate here is still a bit high for a volunteer.) This >>>>>> conference is, however, a major source of income for Linux Australia, >>>>>> whereas Wikimania is indirectly supported by donations to WMF. >>>>>> >>>>>> Regards, >>>>>> >>>>>> Charles >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Nicholas Bashour < >>>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> For Wikimania 2012, I remember that we wanted to make sure the >>>>>>> largest number of people could attend. DC was an expensive enough city >>>>>>> that >>>>>>> we felt if registration prices were too high, it may discourage some of >>>>>>> the >>>>>>> people who didn't get scholarships from attending. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> That being said, there's no reason why future Wikimanias shouldn't >>>>>>> offer various pricing options, like higher "individual sponsorship" >>>>>>> registration for those who want to sponsor on a smaller level, student >>>>>>> registration, etc. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Sincerely, >>>>>>> Nicholas Michael Bashour >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>>>>> >>>>>>> > Am 22.03.2014 um 19:21 schrieb Samuel Klein <[email protected]>: >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> > Proposed prices for Wikimania tickets continue to seem artificially >>>>>>> > low. I'm not sure what the benefit to this is. Could people who >>>>>>> have >>>>>>> > run events in other contexts comment on how you set ticket prices? >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> > In my experience, tickets are set at roughly what it costs for each >>>>>>> > person to attend. Then there may be different sorts of tickets: for >>>>>>> > local supporters & volunteers, for school groups, for students & >>>>>>> > community members, presenters, VIPs & sponsors. Sponsorship helps >>>>>>> > ensure how many tickets of each type there are. Last-minute >>>>>>> tickets >>>>>>> > are more expensive. >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> > This has a few benefits: >>>>>>> > * tickets fully cover the cost of food and materials >>>>>>> > * tickets contribute significantly to covering the cost of the >>>>>>> event >>>>>>> > * scholarships and reimbursements for attendance (for scholars, >>>>>>> > professionals, academics all getting covered by their home >>>>>>> > institutions), in paying for tickets, cover the full cost of those >>>>>>> > people attending the event. >>>>>>> > * more accurate headcounts in advance. >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> > Warmly, >>>>>>> > Sam >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>>>>> > Wikimania-l mailing list >>>>>>> > [email protected] >>>>>>> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>>>>> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>>>>> [email protected] >>>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>>>> [email protected] >>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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