Talk:Wikimania 2013 bids/Bristol

Bid Supporters (Expressions of Interest)

Latest comment: 13 years ago12 comments12 people in discussion

Bringing Wikimania to Bristol would be great for the city. Bristol Airport will work with the team to provide information on travel options and give a warm welcome to all visitors flying into the South West. Bristol Airport 10:17, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

1 - Nice idea i like it Killerb 00:35, 6 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

2 - Destination Bristol is proud to support the Bristol bid. Working with businesses in the tourism, leisure, hospitality and retail industry across Bristol and the west of England, we can help the team bring this fantastic event to the city. We can offer a simple delegate accommodation booking system, provide advice and create opportunities for Wikipedians to fall in love with this incredible city. Destination Bristol 15:34, 29 December 2011 (UTC)Destination Bristol 15:31, 29 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

3 - Dsoundz Media ( Samdownie 13:24, 5 January 2012 (UTC) ) is a WikiMedia member, and helped to to organise the Wikipedia 10th Anniversary day in Bristol and London in January 2011, by helping with the live webcast, the blogging, audio capture and event organisation in Bristol. Also helped to set up a blog to take note of the day's events. Samdownie 13:22, 5 January 2012 (UTC) Is proud to support the WikiMania Bid for Bristol 2013, and aim to help make it successful.Reply

4 - Great idea! Bs5er 13:53, 7 January 2012 (UTC) As stated on the page itself, I shall raise the bid at the next Bristol Wireless monthly meeting. I can also contact Bristol Hackspace and Bristol Dorkbot informally. They're more than likely to be supportive.Reply

5 - Either Bristol or London would be an excellent venue for such an event, good facilities and good transport links. This proposal would be supported by Stone King, charity lawyers whose HQ is in Bath and second office in London. Jonathan Burchfield, head of SK's charity team

6 - Girl Geek Dinners Bristol offer our support to the bid. Some of our members are very keen to participate and we have lots of ideas to contribute.

7 - Great idea! tonycoll 13:15, 9 January 2012 Yet again, Bristol proves that it's among the world's most innovative cities.

8 - It'd be great to add this to the panoply of events in the Bristol calendar, especially ones that promote public engagement. The British Science Association is all about promoting openness about science in society and affirming science as a prime cultural force through engaging and inspiring adults and young people directly with science and technology, and their implications. As the Chair of the Bristol & Bath Branch, I'm enthusiastically in support of this proposal. JohnBradford 15:08, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

9 - |- |MrMattAnderson - Great idea and I believe we have the skills and the ground swell of support to make this bid successful for this highly digital and creative city! #LoveBristol MrMattAnderson 15:55, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

10 - Jason Thorne Great initiative, in favour of the bid Jason Thorne 16:56, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

11 - Doormatt fantastic idea, fully support this Doormatt 22:00, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

12 - The Marriott hotels in Bristol would be delighted to support in attracting this event to Bristol. The Marriott have over 500 rooms in Bristol, in addition to extensive conference space, and would be willing to offer favourable rates to attract Wikipedians to this great city.R Powell 13:55, 10 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

13 - Bristol24-7 is happy to support Bristol's bid and can help to promote it on our pages

14 - Rich Smith (MTCD) Would be fantastic to see it in Bristol, I live about 30 minutes train journey from Bristol and would totally support the event! - Methecooldude 17:48, 27 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

15 - Great idea. Tom Bennett

16 - Really hope this happens, good luck MacTheDog

17 - I support this project. cjlcs50 Lionel Stanbrook--Cjlcs50 15:48, 14 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

18 - Voscur support the bid and will offer help in whatever capacity we can

19 - Great stuff! Hope it happens! T.Rawlings, PM Studio Resident

20 - I support the bid - it would be fantastic for Bristol to get this! Andrew Tibber

21 - I support Bristol's bid. - Kaspar Bumke.

22 - I support Bristol's bid whole-heartedly! Jaya Chakrabarti, A Mayor for Bristol

23 - I support Bristol's bid. Dave Jarman, University of Bristol Enterprise Education Manager.

24 - This is a great idea and I whole heartedly support Steve and this bid - AnaKronschnabl, CEO FluffyLogic

25 - I support his bid as enthusiastically as I can. There is no city in the world with such an exciting cocktail of diversity (industrial, cultural, social, ethnic) with such great transport links, a beautiful mixture of architecture, countryside, history, culture - and one of the largest research clusters in the UK. What greater source of exciting knowledge can you find in one place? Nick Sturge, Centre Director, SETsquared [1]

26 - Brilliant! I support Bristol's bid and would be happy to help where I can! Sarah Weller

Planning On-going discussions/developments

Latest comment: 13 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Meeting with Destinations Bristol- 29/12/11 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• Agreed that Destinations Bristol would back the bid in principle and offer 100% help in organisation of all logistics to get partners on board for the bid
• Agreed that Destinations Bristol would support the bid and play a key coordination role in liaising with the Wikimania bid committee if Bristol is successful
• Destinations Bristol has been mandated to get involved by the Leader of the City Council's Office Cllr Barbara Janke so has support of city
• Destinations Bristol would be a 'single point of contact for all hotel/accomodation and booking arrangements for all Wikimani delegates (it does this already for the city)
• Destinations Bristol would help in the approach to all venues and in negotiating favourable deals to hire venues, block book hotel rooms, to provide microsite booking information for the event which it would manage on our behalf
• Destinations Bristol would coordinate all contacts with tourism/places of interest that the bid team felt would enhance the quality of the Wikimania experience (museums, theatres, restaurants etc)
• Destinations Bristol would secure support from the Bristol Balloon Festival that overlaps the proposed Wikimania event and ensure that sponsored balloons, balloon rides were a practical and definate benefit for any Wikimania delegate that wished them

Meeting with Bristol Airport - 05/01/12 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• Bristol Airport outlined the city’s accessibility via the major international hubs of Amsterdam, Paris CDG, Brussels and Dublin. Each is served by multiple daily flights to and from Bristol, making connections to Bristol accessible for travellers from all over the world. In addition, those travelling from the US via Dublin have the added advantage of clearing US customs in Ireland on their return journey, arriving in the US as domestic passengers.
• Agreement on the part of the airport that Wikimania can have a 'welcome desk' at Bristol Airport manned by volunteers (both ours and the sirports own) who would assist and help Wikipedians arriving in Bristol and those leaving
• Agreement that Wikimania can have/place its own branding inside the airport on and around the welcome desk
• Bristol Airport to consider a package of benefits for Wikipedians, such as Fast Track security, retail and catering discounts and a concessionary fare on the Airport Flyer Express bus service to Bristol city centre.

Email from Bristol Balloons after initial meeting - 05/01/12 (all agreed in principle - subject to further discussions)

• The following estimated charges would apply to the 3 day event to get the idea off the ground;-
• Hire complete 4 passenger balloon with plain envelope (including a trailer) = £500
• Hire a 4 x 4 vehicle at about £100 per day = £500.00
• Addition of ‘D’ Rings or Velcro to balloon for 6 banners = £250.00 (16mt of Velcro for each banner)
• The manufacture of 6 banners (4 sq mt each) = £200
• Design and application of artwork to the banners = £????
• Bristol Balloons ‘Day Rate’ to operate and staff the balloon = £800/day = £2,400

Grand Total = £3,850 Option to ‘join’ the 100 Club for the weekend (see link = £2,000 See link - http://www.bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk/content/26/the-benefits.aspx

Would this mean we could sell places in the balloon? I suspect a few wikimanians would be up for that. WereSpielChequers 10:25, 9 January 2012 (UTC) Oh yes! That's the general idea...balloons fly dawn & dusk so it does not interfere with the conference. There'd also be some sensational views out over the Avon Gorge around the suspension bridge. I also think it'll make for amazing PR if we could get Jimmy in a balloon with a few famous uber-geeks Steve Virgin 12:18, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

Discussion section below

Bristol vs. London

Latest comment: 13 years ago5 comments4 people in discussion

• Support Bristol, although as a resident, I have a conflict of interest. I don't currently hold membership, but will update this when that changes. Holding the event in Bristol is likely to offer the following benefits over London:
  1. Reduced cost (venues for organisers, accommodation for attendees)
  2. Potential support/sponsorship from independent creative businesses to balance large corporate entities
  3. Compact city
     • permits easy access to surrounding geographical areas
     • has potential to involve all city's stakeholders
  4. Potential to arrange (subsidised) shuttle buses via discussions with FreeBus

-- Trevj 20:43, 21 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

The cost saving will be more than cancelled out by the added cost of getting there. For most people in the world, you have to go via London to get to Bristol, so it inevitably costs more. --Tango 01:23, 22 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

That depends on how long people stay in the area (significantly different cost of hotels). I think other issues are far more important. e.g. Facilities (East London Tech City sounds like it's gonna be awesome), the availability of volunteers to organise it and the helpfulness of useful people like the council and the owners of the facilities. Yaris678 10:34, 24 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Two airlines (in particular) have significant presence in Bristol KLM and EasyJet. It should be no problem to involve all the weight of the city in discussions that involve heavy discounting on plane seats/chartering for pre-booked flights out of Amsterdam (that has frequent flights into the city). There would be the full weight of the city behind this bid, that would include contacts at City Cabinet level with the airport authorities directly. Local businesses would step up and back the bid and I'd expect major levels of sponsor support from groups that have already done so before and have seen value from backing the event. There is already genuine city-wide enthusiasm and support from many groups (as mentioned in the Potential Sponsors section). There is likely to be a Wikipedia Society in the University of Bristol in the coming months, that would support the planning for the bid. There are other vehicles of support that tap into the digital media community (Bristol Media), the world class natural history broadcasting team at the BBC Natural History Unit (via our friends at Bristol Natural History Consortium) and many others.

While recognising that an event in the Olympic Village is hard to overcome, the costs could come in under half of the other event, there would be city-wide (if not region-wide) mobilisation of support behind this event.

Hotels issue - hopefully we can kill that one off too - plan is to get agreement to base 99% of all attendees in the University of Bristol Halls of Residence...so no buses to venues, all in 5-10m walking distance - and a lot of good bars, cafes, green spaces and things to see outside the Wikimania event itself Steve Virgin 00:21, 26 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Template:Culture in Bristol lists some places not already mentioned. I've also copied in the self-evaluation titles from the London bid, so it's not forgotten. Sorry for not actually adding any content there ATM. -- Trevj 19:53, 28 November 2011 (UTC) thanks Steve Virgin 17:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Move to Meta?

Latest comment: 13 years ago6 comments5 people in discussion

Hey. :-)

What's the plan about moving this to meta? Other bids are piling up there and it'd be good to have them developed on a more high-visibility wiki for others to see...

Jdforrester 17:48, 23 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

As suggested at Talk:London Wikimania Bid#Move to Meta?, I think the idea is that we decide on a single UK bid, before moving it to meta. Yaris678 10:27, 24 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

James - this is still in embryonic stage - can we do it in a week or so time - it is unfinished...rushed in a single couple of hours prior to a Board meeting...would like some time to think it through more carefully - say 2 weeks? Then I'd be delighted to put it across to metaSteve Virgin 15:41, 25 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

I'm in London but I think Bristol might work better for Wikimania - in a smaller city it will be a bigger deal. --Filceolaire 19:34, 26 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

That depends how big a deal you want to make it! London has a lot more access to international media. Is this being a big deal high on our priorities for this conference though? EdSaperia 15:30, 14 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

That really does not have to be the case (the idea that London is the only place where news happens). When Bristol hosted the Jimmy Wales Wikipedia 10 birthday talk on Jan 13 2011 - the next morning there were just under one thousand news items on Google news about the event. We had 3,500 people watching the talk live - some 20-30K more watched the talk from around the world subsequently. It has been placed on many talk channels across the world so I have no idea of the final total. The bristol day was in the Top 10 of Twitter for some ours (as we had a team of volunteers in the Bristol Watershed tweeting and blogging about the even after having a coffee with jimmy Wales). It was in top 3 on Twitter nationally that morning. For this bid we have a professional web based news service called Bristol News/24/7 offering its services for free to 'act as newswire hub' - we also have plans to engage the media in interactive ways involving the Balloons and thought leading Wikipedians - plan is to create a Balloon Debate with a real life balloon and famous people, streamed live while flying over the Bristol gorge - and getting people to vote online to decide who/or what gets thrown out or kept in the balloon. I think this might be pretty engaging with the world's media, wouldn't you? Then there is the full support of the local city council (Leader Barbar Janke and team have already endorsed the bid). This means we'd have a fully paid professional communications team working for a city 'at our disposal' for support/advice/drafting/contacts and anything we wished - so the idea that London is the only place that the press will pay attention to is quite frankly nuts Steve Virgin 13:24, 14 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

Other Languages

Latest comment: 13 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion

2013 will be directly after Washington - another English speaking city. What links does Bristol have with projects in other languages besides English? Are there any Welsh Wikipedians, for example, on the list of supporters? --Filceolaire 11:32, 27 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

• Reasonably-sized French community, probably partly due to universities, Airbus and partner companies. This means that the Ecole Française de Bristol (not a state school) is sustainable. There's also the local Alliance française, [2]. The twin town in France is Bordeaux, but I don't know the current status of the Bristol-Bordeaux Association[3], [4]. There are apparently other twin towns in Germany, Portugal, Georgia, Nicaragua, Mozambique and China. HTH.

-- Trevj 19:37, 28 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

The Bordeaux link is very strong - regular farmers markets in the summer, trade delegations etc - given the intra-city connections developing that tie for the bid (if successful) is a superb idea Steve Virgin 17:38, 30 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Record of Meetups

Latest comment: 13 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion

It looks as if there's only been one! A while ago I unofficially created Bristol 2, for the Wikipedia at 10 event. Are there any others which should be noted? It's a good job that Cambridge isn't in the running! -- Trevj 11:38, 29 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

No - there was one in May 2010 following on from the Annual Fund Raising Conference listed on the page - then there has been a series of events (see above) at which a wide variety of Wikipedians and would be Wikipedians have got involved. There was also around 30 volunteers 'working' during the Jimmy Wales talk in January 2011 - tweeting, blogging and assisting with the organisation where needed. Bristol has tended to 'do events' over just WikiMeets - the testimony is visible on the page above Steve Virgin 15:49, 5 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Is the "testimony" what's included at Bristol Wikimania Bid#A city with a track record of support to our movement? Is it worth discussing whether any of them would qualify for being retroactively classified as WikiMeets (even "fringe" WikiMeets tagged on to more prominent events)? (Sorry, if this is a distraction which is unnecessary to pursue.) Thanks. -- Trevj (talk) 01:58, 11 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Well we had a UK AGM there, that certainly should count as a Bristol meetup. It was a bigger event than most of the London events I've been to. WereSpielChequers 22:02, 2 January 2012 (UTC) Wikimeets - you could argue they were all 'Wikimeets' of sorts...just look a bid odd and hyperactive. Big difference between what we were doing and a WikiMeet is that we had a specific activity (training, teaching, explaining, discussing or something of that nature) rather than just meeting as a group of like-minded friends for a drink and a chat. There was one of those in May 2010 (on the saturday evening of the Fund Raising Conference. Steve Virgin 12:27, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

Accommodation

Latest comment: 13 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Halls of residence sound great and this sort of thing worked well in Haifa and Gdansk, except that some of it was 20 minutes walk away in Gdansk, and Haifa was a coach journey. So how far will they be from everything else? Currently the bid reads like everything is easy walking distance except the Accommodation. Also we have people on varying budgets including some who will expect a 5 star option - I'm pretty sure Bristol has such but can you confirm and add, including again the proximity to the venues. WereSpielChequers 00:38, 8 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

Good questions - am working on confirmation of this now - in theory as follows: University of Bristol based at the top of Park Street - it connects to Harbourside by a 5-6 min walk down hill. The majority (if not all) of the venues will be no more than 10 mins walk. Accomodation - student halls are on the Downs near Clifton (mostly) - that's about 15 min to 20 min walk. There are other student places right slap bang in the city run by a private company called Unite - who we will be talking to. Hotels - through Destination Bristol we will have a single point of contact, single point of booking for all travel and residence. So 'it is taken care of' and our Bid team just coordinates with them and does not have to do much of the donkey work at all. They'd also be the 'hub' for me now in contacting all interested parties, venues, universities and other bodies to meet them and to woe them onside for the bid. They have been instructed already to offer full support by the Leader of the City Council Barbara Janke (hence we have the city swinging 100% behind the bid). Steve Virgin 12:24, 9 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

Geonotice

Latest comment: 13 years ago5 comments2 people in discussion

Don't we want to request a Geonotice like London have? -- Trevj (talk) 15:33, 23 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

sounds like a good ide - can you put it in motion? Steve Virgin (talk) 20:29, 24 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

OK, but I'm already neogiating another event notice there too. What dates would you suggest? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Trevj (talk) 11:44, 28 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

I'm now proposing a combined London/Bristol notice. -- Trevj (talk) 12:06, 28 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

great idea Steve Virgin (talk) 17:02, 1 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

Bristol/London and the position of the chapter

Latest comment: 13 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion

Hi,

While preparing a bit, I cannot help but wonder if you could perhaps clarify what is the position of the chapter in this bid - considering that there are currently two Wikimania bids from England. Is the chapter actively supporting either bid, is the chapter indifferent and will it support either city equally if selected? Will there be a choice at some point? Will either bid be explicitely organized by the chapter, or not at all? Effeietsanders (talk) 16:44, 23 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

Hi - the Board has not discussed this issue as of 24th March so no 'choice' has been made. The community can of course do so and make any choice it wises but no formal process has begun to my knowledge yet Steve Virgin (talk) 20:28, 24 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

Dear All, please see below for the statement from Wikimedia UK Chapter:

The chapter is pleased that two high quality UK bids have emerged and wish them luck. We will await the choice that the global community and Wikimania Jury makes. If one of the UK bids is selected, we will begin negotiations to see what support may be needed from our resources. We have four full-time members of staff, including both event management and communications professionals, an office based in central London, and trustees based around the UK, including in Bristol. We feel that, as a fundraising chapter with a vibrant community behind us and several major events (such as GLAM-WIKI 2010) behind us, we have the ability to support a UK bid.
Daria Cybulska (talk) 13:11, 28 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for this message. I would like to dig a little deeper here (will post the identical question on the London page): will the Wikimedia UK chapter be the official organizer of Wikimania, if either bid gets accepted? If not, what role exactly does Wikimedia UK and the bidding team see it take on? Effeietsanders (talk) 10:44, 4 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

IRC Public Meeting

Latest comment: 13 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Dear bidders,

As outlined in the timeline on this page, there will be a public IRC meeting on 14:00 UTC coming Saturday on #Wikimania on Freenode IRC. I look forward to meeting you then. Effeietsanders (talk) 15:47, 4 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

The meeting is taking place RIGHT NOW. --თოგო ^(D) 14:13, 7 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

Questions for the Organizing Committee

Venue

1. How many simultaneous tracks are possible?
2. Which hall will be used as a main hall? How much doe it sit?
3. How many breakout rooms are there? How many people are exactly in each breakout rooms ?
4. What is the distance between the various halls if not in the same building?
5. Will lunch be at separate buildings or at one ___location?

Answers:

• What is the distance between the various halls if not in the same building? AND Which hall will be used as a main hall? What capacity is there?

Bristol has a number of venues that can accomodate parallel sessions all within very close walking distance of each other. This means it is simple to move from venue to venue without wasting time. The University of Bristol campus and its buildings are all located within 5-10 minutes walk of the city centre (see google map link attached) [5] The Victoria Rooms would be one of the two principal venues (marked D on the previous google map). The Victoria Rooms was the venue for the only public lecture/talk that Jimmy Wales gave for Wikipedia 10- and was attended by a capacity 750 people on the day, with another 3,500 watching on live web stream. A second venue is at the Wills Memorial building which no more than a few hundred metres from the Victoria Rooms and holds around 800-850. [6]. For some simultaneous tracks we would use the Watershed [7] and the Arnolfini [8] which is almost opposite the Watershed across the harbour

• How many breakout rooms are there? What capacity do these breakout rooms have?

1. Victoria Rooms has four breakout rooms: Harley Room (30 people), Victoria's Room (80), Recital Room (150) and Lecture Theatre (150) -
2. Wills Memorial Building has two rooms - Great Hall (800), Reception Room (200)
3. Watershed has Cinema One (200), Cinema Two (45), Cinema Three (100), Watershed One (30), Watershed Two (45) and Watershed Three (120)
4. Arnolfini has Cinema/Theatre (220), Dark Studio (50) and Light Studio (40) - its galleries can also be hired for drink receptions

• How many simultaneous tracks are possible?

Given the proximity of 'main venues' (listed above) and other venues within the University of Bristol campus, there is very little limit on the number of possible simultaneous tracks. The only factor would be budget. Proximity is not an issue, neither are facilities they are, in many cases, university owned, as such, negotiable.

• Will lunch be at separate buildings or at one ___location?

Lunch can be budgeted for in the University of Bristol's own catering facilities - also within walking distance of the main venues. The University has a dedicated Conference and Exhibitions team that would see to it that all is catered for [9]

Local vicinity

1. Did you contact the hotels and checked availability?
2. What will be the cost of the student rooms pledged by the university? How many persons per room? What will be the cost per person?
3. What are the expected hotel costs?

Answers:

• Bookings for Accommodation, Travel and Tourism

There will be a single point of contact, managed by Destinations Bristol, for all travel, tourism and accommodation arrangements in and around the city during the event, in conjunction with advice from the Wikimania Bid team. This includes: the provision of a knowledgeable and friendly team that provides a one stop shop for all conferencing needs, it includes securing venues - providing an online delegate accommodation booking service – coordinating site visit arrangements – providing information and materials for delegate packs - expert suggestions for bespoke social and partner programmes - and link up with any extra relevant event services providers. The provision of specialist assistance for the Bristol Wikimania team will smooth the process by which Wikipedians travel to and stay in the city.

• Did you contact the hotels and checked availability?

Destinations Bristol is in regular contact with hotels and accomodation providers and can leverage the size and number of delegates expected to attend Wikimania to secure favourable rates on hotels or other forms of accomodation. The University of Bristol has already committed to between 300-400 places in student residence accomodation. Destinations Bristol would secure additional student accomodation in the city centre from Unite [10]. There would also be spaces booked at the city's Youth Hostel Association houses. [11] Hotel chains have already offered varying degrees of support, one, the Marriott chain, has already registered its support on the bid page [12] . Others have committed to support the bid verbally but not yet added their name to the Supporters section. So, in conclusion we'd expect to secure favourable rates on hotel accomodation throughout the city thanks to Destinations Bristol's expertise and long-standing connnections with all of these hotel groups in the city.

• Destinations Bristol - our relationship

Destinations Briatol's [13] involvement in organising the event is a little like having our 'own event management company' working for us for free. Its job is to organise events of the scale that we seek to offer Wikipedians. The Bristol Wikimania Team would have full access to these services at little or no cost. This commitment is already in place as Destinations Bristol is already wortking with the Bristol Wikimania team. In practical terms, Destinations Bristol is in touch with all relevant destinations across the city now. They have done the same for hotels across the city. They have also committed to provide a single online point of web access that would be available to the Wikimania organisers. This website would be a valuable one stop shop for *all* hotel, travel and venue arrangements, leaving the Wikimania organisers to concentrate on building up the shape and nature of the conference itself.

Jimmy Wales Bristol University Wikipedia 10

• University of Bristol Conferences and Hospitality team - our relationship [14]

The University of Bristol team partnered Wikimedia UK in the organisation of Jimmy Wales' talk for Wikipedia's 10th Birthday at the University of Bristol, so there is an established relationship between the Bristol Bid team and the Conference and Hospitality team.

The University team would advise, assist and guide the Wikimania Bid team at all stages in achieving an optimal use of the venues at is disposal. The cost of venues on the day and catering would need to be met through the Wikimania budget, but all consultancy advice in terms of set up, reservation and best practice usage would all be free.

Visas

1. Is there government support for the conference? Can they ensure Visa assistance support?

Answers:

These will be provided after conversations next week

Conference organization

1. Will there be hacking days?
2. There is only one "net" day for the conference – with chapter's meeting on day 1. Why so little?
3. Why the VIP party over lunch?
4. Will dinners be provided as part of the conference?
5. Who are the 10 VIP's?
6. Will you cater for various dietary needs (lactose intolerants, sugar free etc.)? Will you arrange vegetation food? Can you arrange Kosher food? Halal food?
7. Why the VIP reception is a bit too expensive. Why so much?
8. What is "technical" item in the budget? Is there budget for recording the tracks?
9. What is "travel for VIP" comprised of? How many will there be? Who will they be?
10. How many Keynotes planed?
11. Any ideas who they will be?
12. Will you be using a production company? An event manager? Will the "Conference consultant" be a professional firm? Or just one worker?

Answers:

• Will you cater for various dietary needs (lactose intolerants, sugar free etc.)? Will you arrange vegetation food? Can you arrange Kosher food? Halal food?

The University catering services deals with this full range of dietary issues on a daily basis. the Bristol Bid team and the wider Wikimania community will collaborate to identify special dietary need in advance of attendees arriving and work with the University of Bristol Conference Services will liaise with its catering services to ensure these needs are properly met.

• Will there be hacking days?

The shape of the Conference agenda is very open to improvement so the short answer is 'yes.' We have several groups in Bristol keen to lead or to get closely involved in the organisation of hacking days at Wikimania: Bristol Hackspace [15], Bristol Dorkbot [16] and Bristol Wireless [17]. Members have attended or been involved with the organisation of Wikimedia UK events in the city over the last two years. They are committed to continue this process if Wikimania came to Bristol in 2013.

Additional Answers:

These will be provided after conversations next week

Comments

• Expect much higher attendance at the attendee parties (One of the parties in Haifa had about 700 attendees). VIP/sponsors – about 80 attendees,

As degree ceremonies are held in the Wills Memorial room for hundreds of graduates and it has an 800 capacity, this should not be a problem. Equally, there are no end of venues that can host anything from 50 to a few hundred that Destinations Bristol could help us secure and that would all be within walking distance of other venues.

• Bristol Zoo [18],
• Riverboats can be hired with bar and buffet to entertain guests [19], (Wikimedia UK's Global Fundraising Conference in Bristol in May '10 had evening entertainment on a riverboat for delegates)[20]
• SS Great Britain [21]
• The newly opened £30m museum M-Shed [22]

All of these venues are also within a few minutes walking distance of the city centre, making it accesible as a tourist attraction or a venue for a sponsor event or a breakout session.

Update

• The Bristol team has begun to answer the above questions. After the holidays we will complete the task.