Hong Kong is the venue Wikimania 2013

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on Bristol’s (ultimately unsuccessful) bid to host the annual Wikimania convention in 2013 (news passim).

James Forrester, Moderator of the Wikimania 2013 Jury, has sent the following email to the Wikimania mailing list announcing the 2013 winning bid as Hong Kong.

On behalf of the Wikimania 2013 selection Jury, I can announce that we have awarded the conference to Hong Kong. Congratulations to the bidding team and to the London team who also did a particularly excellent job.

There were five official bids: Bristol, Naples and Surakarta, as well as the two finalists of Hong Kong and London. The Jury and the bidding teams discussed them in three public IRC meetings in April. We determined that Hong Kong and London were the strongest contenders, and decided to focus on these two as the finalists. After further e-mail enquiries, and considering evaluation by Wikimedia Foundation staff, a final, private meeting was held to reach a final decision.

The Jury was pleased by the high quality in both the final bids, and required over three hours’ discussion to reach the final verdict. We considered each bid according to the criteria, focussing on following factors: Venue, Program, Geo-location & Logistics, Local Opportunities, Accommodations, Team & Chapter, and Budget & Finances. We found consensus that the Hong Kong bid was the stronger, especially
because of their strong advance planning; solid support by the local Wikimedia Chapter, the community, local government, and a partner organisation that is experienced in planning conferences; and their good
combination of venue and accommodation.

The Jury has confidence that the Hong Kong bidding team will pull off a magnificent Wikimania, and we are pleased for our global community to return to Asia once again. With a motivated group of volunteers who have experience in organizing smaller Wikimedia activities, and a partner with experience in organizing larger-scale events, they have found a good mix to create a successful conference. The Jury did also identify some weaker points in each the bids, and will be happy to share those privately with the teams so that the Hong Kong team can use that to their advantage in organizing Wikimania 2013, and the other teams can use the feedback to improve their bids for a future year.

We thank all candidate teams – the process is gruelling and requires a very substantial time investment. They are all to be commended for their submissions.

Congratulations Hong Kong! We in Bristol hope your event is a great success. 🙂