London Wikimania Bid
In a nutshell
- Country: United Kingdom
- City: London
- Venue: Olympic Village
- Proposed dates: 31st July - 4th August
- Planned attendance: Any Wikimedian!
- Contact: Panyd or email us
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Introduction
Our city
Our community
Our team
- User:Panyd - Hello! I am an administrator on the English Wikipedia.
- User:Marek69
- User:HJ Mitchell aka Harry Mitchell
- User:ErrantX
- User:EdSaperia - I have many years of event experience, useful london contacts and resources, and lots of free time!
- User:Mike Peel
- User:Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry - where not constrained by conflicts of interest
Conference
Venue
Our sponsors want us to be the first event held in the Olympic Village after the 2012 London Olympics.
Special events
Parties
Wikimania traditionally hosts two parties, one for attendees (capacity of 450-500) and one for sponsors and VIPs (capacity 100). We would like to hold a third event for chapter heads to discuss issues relevant to them.
- Attendees party(ies) propositions
- (location, how to get there, what's cool and relaxed about it)
- Sponsor party(ies) proposition
- (location, how to get there, what's chic and high profile about it)
- Chapter Head dinner proposition
- (location, how to get there, what's chic and high profile about it)
Logistics
Accomodation
Olympic Village
Hotels
The Olympic village has many hotels on site with 17,320 beds in total. There are a wide variety of buildings from luxury to budget.
Hostels
Getting to the United Kingdom
International travel to the United Kingdom is extensive. Access to the UK is provided by 30 international airports providing travel to 200 destinations, 8 ports with international passenger ferry services to Europe, and a rail link to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel.
Train (via Belgium and France)
Eurostar high-speed trains run between London (St Pancras International), Ebbsfleet and Ashford through the Channel Tunnel to Paris (Gare du Nord), Lille and Brussels. During the summer an additional weekly train operates to Avignon and during the winter a weekly service runs a ski service direct to the French Alps. Through tickets and connections are available in Lille, Paris and Brussels from many European cities to most large UK cities.
Journey times average two hours fifteen minutes to and from Paris, and one hour fifty minutes to Brussels. A second class return from Paris to London costs between €85 and €230. While it can be cheaper to fly from London to Paris using a low-cost airline, bear in mind that the journeys to the airports can be expensive and time-consuming.
Ferry
Ferries run from Calais to Dover on a regular basis and a return ticket costs around £40. Journey times average at around an hour and a half. However, there are many other ports in the UK as well and travellers can access British ports from at least seven surrounding countries. Due to the relatively small size of Britain, it is not unfeasible for someone to make the journey from their country to London within 24 hours.
It may be cheaper to fly on a low-budget airline but for the sightseer there are a variety of ways to travel into the country.
Air
- London Heathrow Airport - The busiest airport in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest in the world (depending on measure). LHR serves a vast array of destinations, including long-haul services to Asia, North America, Oceania, the Middle East. For more information on destinations that can be reached from LHR, please see Heathrow Airport: airlines and destinations. The airport is on the edge of Greater London and can be reached by the fast Heathrow Express service, the semi-fast Heathrow Connect or the slower but cheaper London Underground.
- London Gatwick Airport - 30 miles outside of London, Gatwick serves fewer destinations but still has an extremely regular train service into Central London, with a mix of Crossrail services which call at several stations in London (including London Bridge, where attendees can change to the Jubilee Line of the London Underground for the final leg to Stratford); local services to London Victoria; and express services, which also terminate at Victoria. For a list of destinations served by Gatwick, please see Gatwick Airport: airlines and destinations
- London City Airport - The smallest of London's three main airports, but the closest to the conference area, requiring only a short DLR journey to Canning Town, from where Stratford is two stops north on the Jubilee Line. London City Airport's destinations can be found at City Airport: airlines and destinations
- London Luton Airport - Budget airline hub to the north of London; mostly serves destinations in Europe. Regular train service to London St Pancras.
- London Stansted Airport - Also a budget airline hub, also predominantly serves Europe. Direct rail connection to Stratford.
Travel costs
- With many budget airlines and flag carriers flying in to London, flights are relatively cheap from most of the world.
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The prices listed include all taxes and duties and are for a return flight to London leaving the city on Wednesday 11th July 2012, and returning Monday 16th July 2012 [1][2]
Getting to London
Bus
- National Express operate coach services from Victoria Coach Station and other points to destinations across the UK. The company operates direct services to Stratford station from Cambridge and Stansted Airport.
- Stratford station is a major bus hub, and is served by routes 25, 69, 86, 104, 108, 158, 238, 241, 257, 262, 276, 308, 425, 473, 678, D8, N8 and N86.
- London Bus routes 97 and 339 stop in Stratford itself but not at the station.
Tube
- Heathrow Airport has a direct connection to the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, which is considerably slower but considerably cheaper than the Heathrow Express (see below). Passengers will need to change to the Central Line at Holborn, which will take them to Stratford.
- All but one of Central London's rail termini have a direct connection to the London Underground. Different stations are on different lines, but all lines intersect, and Stratford can be reached from every inner-London Tube station without needing to change more than once.
- Although not part of the London Underground network, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and London Overground are both marked on the Tube Map and both serve Stratford Regional station.
- The Tube Map provides a colour-coded schematic of the London Underground, London Overground, and DLR networks. Copies are available for free at every Tube station and most Tourist Information Centres in London, as well as on the Transport for London website.
Train
- Stratford has two railway stations, Stratford International and Stratford Regional (known as such to prevent confusion between the international station 400 yards away and with Stratford-upon-Avon, but officially designated "Straford"). Stratford International is served by high-speed services from London St Pancras (journey time ~10 minutes) and from towns to the south-east of London; ironically it does not currently have an international train service at present, but the government are discussing the possibility of Eurostar services between ST Pancras and Belgium/France stopping at Stratford International after the 2012 Olympics. Services operate from Stratford Regional into Central London and parts of Essex and the Home Counties including an hourly direct service to Stansted Airport. Stratford is also served by London Overground services towards Clapham Junction, London Underground Services on the Central Line as well as serving as the terminus of the London Underground Jubilee Line and the Docklands Light Railway (both of which provide slower but cheaper methods of getting into Central London).
- Central London has 13 terminal stations. Most passengers travelling by rail from within the UK will arrive at one of these and would be advised to change to the London Underground to complete their journey.
- Heathrow and Gatwick airports both have dedicated express train services that run non-stop into Paddington and Victoria respectively, where passengers can change to the London Underground for the final leg to Stratford.
- Eurostar operates high-speed services from Paris and Brussels to London St Pancras.
Taxi
A more expensive option than public transport, especially for those travelling from the airports. There are companies that specialise in private hire between airports and Central London which may be cheaper, but these usually require pre-booking.
Visa issues
The United Kingdom is a member country of the European Union. This means that all citizens of EU member states with a valid travel document (passport or European ID card) are allowed to travel freely within the European Union (including the UK) for up to 3 months. Citizens of other states may need Schengen visa, see the map for quick reference.
Given the high throughput of air traffic, the UK is a highly accessible country with those travelling from within the EU, North America, Japan, South Africa, Australasia or most of Latin America not requiring a visa to visit the UK.
Many people from other regions will also be able to visit the UK without a visa. To determine whether you will need a visa to visit the UK, go to www.ukvisas.gov.uk. The nature of any visa required will depend on your nationality and your current country of residence. The typical cost for a VISA for a short visit to the UK is £76.[3] Wikimedia UK may be able to act as a sponsor for those that require one in order to get a visa.
All the countries below have visa-free access to the EU for at least 90 days.
* - European Union member states
Financial
Budget
Sponsorship
Sponsorship Levels
Confirmed Sponsors
Potential Sponsors
Visa, Google, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla, BT or Telefonica
Miscellaneous
Currency
- The pound sterling (ISO 4217: GBP), known locally as the pound (£) is the currency of the United Kingdom, divided into one hundred pence (p).
- Currency exchange desks are available at all London airports, as well as at the Post Office and most banks and travel agents. Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen, Polish Złoty, Swedish Krona and United States Dollars are all widely exchanged; other currencies are usually exchangeable at the airports.
Exchange rates as of 18 November 2011 (x-rates.com) Currency Equivalent of GB£1 Equivalent in GB£ 
Australian Dollar
1.56 0.63 
Canadian Dollar
1.61 0.71 
Euro
1.17 0.85 
Japanese Yen
121.49 0.0082 
Swedish Krona
10.74 0.082 
United States Dollar
1.57 0.63
Climate
Telecommunications
Timeline
- Rough draft budget - December 2011
- Venue Viewing - December 2011
- Creation of Budget, Bid documents, venue selection, approaching potential sponsors etc - Now-January 2012
- Start working on bid page and forming wikimedia volunteer bid team - Yesterday - We have User:EdSaperia, User:Panyd, User:HJ Mitchell, User:Marek69 and User:ErrantX working on this
- Bidding officially opens - January 2011
- Bidding closes and winner announced - May 2012
- Conference - July/August 2013
Self-evaluation
- Weaknesses of the proposed location ...and how to overcome those weaknesses
- Expense- London can be expensive city at the best of times.
- Proposed solution - Attempt to have whatever we can subsidised by our sponsors. This may mean donations in kind rather than monetary donations.
- Weakness 2
- Solution 2
- Strengths of the proposed location
- Excellent transport links
- Excellent facilities which are more than capable of holding the number of people we need
Notes
- ↑ The equivalent week to the 2013 bid
- ↑ Taken from a variety of price comparison websites including fly.co.uk and skyscanner.net on 18 November 2011
- ↑ UK Border Agency fees