Hi Carol,

There is always room to improve, and I wish I had more time to devote to planning the event, but, by the time a few of us were able to get organized (Gayle, Sue and I) we were knee deep in Wikimania and AdaCamp activities. Perhaps it's my fault for failing to reach out to the community (delegation, something I'm working on professionally and personally!) I did hear that a lot of women wished they could have gotten to know those around them in a mixer type atmosphere. Perhaps in Hong Kong we have a chance to try out a few different things. We also didn't expect over 100 women, so that was quite a shock to see for me, and I believe it threw myself, Sue and Gayle for a loop. I also liked the intros - and I do think about half way through a few of us were like "oh crap, this is going to take a while!"

I'm not sure what the situation will be next year in Hong Kong - the venue, the space, etc. I'd love to see a more mixer like atmosphere perhaps than having us on lock down at tables. I'd love to see more WikiWomen step up to the plate and perhaps help plan the event collaboratively next year. (nudge nudge wink wink ! :D)

Hindsight is 20/20 though, and we can only take what we learned from this event and explore ideas for next year in Hong Kong!!

-Sarah

On 7/25/12 6:40 AM, Carol Moore DC wrote:
From http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Feedback#Other_meetups_and_meetings

 The Women's Luncheon on Saturday was something I was very much looking forward to, but it fell short of my expectations. I was enjoying bonding with the women at my table, asking the speakers about their presentations and hoping to form some more solid relationships with veteran and new Wikipedians alike. Being required to sit back quietly while 125+ women each stood up to introduce themselves felt like a waste of an opportunity to build a stronger female editing community. Knowing that the women are passionate about sharing was good, but wouldn't have been more to the purpose to encourage networking so all the women in attendance would be more inclined to stay active and recruit knowing there was a pool of support they could personally draw upon?  [[User:Samarista|Samarista]] ([[User talk:Samarista|talk]]) 17 July 2012 (UTC)

I personally liked the intros.  Perhaps suggest a common topic or two people can discuss at tables?

Or have a separate meetups - a couple at different times, perhaps with different themes. That might answer her concerns ?

Note that in the feedback section two of us mentioned that annoucements of meetups needed to be better.

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Sarah Stierch
Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow
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