I had the golden chance to attend the Bangla Wikiconference 2024 and what’s more is that I was on the volunteer team. I volunteered so that I could learn something. Now, when I started writing this, I understood that I have indeed learned many things that people can learn only through experience. The funny thing is I have never been to a conference before and I never knew how operations’s teams work. I was lucky to have some amazing seniors to guide me properly.
Pre-conference work
A one-hour meeting every Thursday night without any physical work was really boring. I was a part of the operations team, so at the first phase all I needed to do was keep myself updated about all the work that the scholarship and programs team does. I diligently followed our meeting schedule because I have to come up with something to not lag behind as a newbie. We got the updated news in a jiffy when the meeting started. And then we began to converse with each other with various stuff like how’s life treating you etc. Sometimes our meeting time exceeded; however, we kept gossiping. This happened at the early stage of our meeting. But later on, it helped me. When there was much important stuff to discuss and after an hour our meeting still went on, no one complained; they understood each other’s situation properly.
While the scholarship team was making decisions, we were brainstorming as to where we should arrange our conference. I was not experienced with this stuff, so I browsed online and asked my uncle for suggestions so that I could participate in the conversation. Well, at last my suggestion was not chosen, but I have no regrets because the place we have chosen at last was awesome. The place was Dream Square Resort. We went there to see if everything was alright and if we could arrange our conference there. We made some questions regarding our conference and asked them one by one. We found the service very satisfactory at that time. After that, there were tasks like ordering and preparing all the materials needed for the conference, gift items, and sorting tech gadgets. They were not smooth sailing, but we pulled it off brilliantly (that’s what I think). At last came 14 November. The day was very hectic. We left early with all the logistics. We reached the resort after a 3.5+ hour journey. That day was spent familiarizing ourselves with all the people we interact with virtually. It was nice getting to know the people whom you know online.
At the conference
The challenge started the next day. We had a scheduled time to start the registration and the session at 8.30. Unfortunately, we had some issues and we started a bit late. It was covered with utilizing the gap programs the team kept in case of emergency. People were very obsequious when the session had started. They listened quietly and it was a happy and friendly environment.
The content of the sessions was very helpful. There was an engaging session of Rocky Masum where we all participated in a random quest to find out the problems,solutions and good points of some sister projects of Bangla Wikimedia. There was a session of Sujata Didi where she taught us how some Wikipedians translate some contents wrong, and it created awareness among us. The first speech of Foyzul Latif sir made me think from a different perspective. Panel discussions about wikibarta, the talk about the future of patrolling, about wikiloves butterfly, about the Wikinondini session of Dolon Prova, the integration of AI in wikipedia and how AI is using Wikipedia—all of these were insightful.
The checkmate session of Maruf and Shakil Vai and the session of Aishik Vai about lexeme were awesome. And the parallel session about how to spread the wikimedia movement to the student community by Delowar Akram Vai was mind-blowing. If not for the time shortage, there were potentials of positive discussion. The short project of yahya Vai, where he created a new script and showed it to us went straight over my head (I literally don’t know about scripts; what can I do?). The surprising thing is, even though I am not a coder guy, I really enjoyed the hackathon.
Special thanks to those who insisted on doing a hackathon. And the session of Anup Sadi Vai about the river was really concerning. Last but not least was the session of Shabab Mustafa; he really gave us some topics to brainstorm till the next conference.
Night Activities
We played football, created new games like footbasketball where you have to do a 3-point shot from a certain direction with a football, badminton etc. And my roommate was suffering from a cold and fever, so I had to keep reporting about his condition from time to time. At 11 pm, we fixed our meeting about what happened and how to make our conference better than before. We self-criticized there and learned from the mistakes. There were a few issues; we tried to fix them by talking with the staff of the resort. And the gossiping after the meeting continued on. As I am not a night owl, I had to leave early(?) at 2 AM. But others continued till 4 AM! I still regret why I was not there with them; I might have missed some valuable experiences.
Post-conference
On 17 November, we were all ready to depart, but everybody kept talking because they wanted to savor the last moment of gossiping to their heart’s content with people who shared the same interest. The bus was late to depart despite it coming early. We heard Bengali songs. Our Nepali friend Himel Da sang a Nepali song. Everyone enjoyed the moments in the bus. At last, everyone left. I had a job delivering luggage in our wikimedia office and helping Himel Da book a hotel for him to stay in. When I returned home, it was almost 6 p.m., and I was totally exhausted.
The learning
This conference really brought all of us together. The bond is now stronger. And it is as if the community has turned over a new leaf. Everyone feels motivated to work.
Through this conference, I learned resource management, event management, leadership, and gained confidence. I learned what it means to be a true wikimedian. The experiences I gained are immense. The late-night Adda, hearing experiences of senior Wikipedians, exchanging insights and ideas with fellow-minded people—all of these are precious memories that I won’t forget.
