The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce support for nine dynamic, community-led conferences through the first round of the Conference & Event Fund 2024-2025. From New York City to Manila, these events will bring together diverse voices and energize Wikimedia communities worldwide in 2025. This funding round’s lineup includes gatherings for educators, young Wikimedians, regional communities, and expert groups within the movement—each with unique opportunities for participants to connect, learn, and innovate together.
A Regional Approach to Knowledge Sharing
Over the last decade, regional Wikimedia conferences have proven to be a catalyst for collaboration among communities within the global regions. Here is a quick overview of what’s to come in 2025:
In April 2025, around 50 community members from Central Asia – namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – will gather in Tashkent for the first ever Central Asian WikiCon. It will be the first international Wikimedia event ever in the region, and organizers will focus on capacity through workshops and training sessions aimed at improving skills in editing, project management, and community engagement.
In May 2025, communities from East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region (ESEAP) will come together in Manila, Philippines, for the ESEAP Strategy Summit. The main objective of the conference is to agree on the next steps for setting up a Hub supporting the Wikimedia affiliates and communities in the region.
This is the first regional Wikimedia event in the Philippines! We’re excited that all 4 groups and several non-affiliated volunteer-editors from our country come together as a team to support the vision of setting up a regional hub a reality.
Imelda Brazal, Executive Director of Wiki Advocates Philippines User Group
In September 2025, over 200 community members from South Asia will convene for the WikiConference India in Kochi, Kerala. The organizers aim to create a platform for the numerous and diverse communities from India and the neighboring countries, showcase their work and success, as well as enhance local/regional collaboration.
October 2025 will see the annual Wikiconference North America will take place in October 2025 in New York City. The organizers hope to welcome around 300 participants from the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, to discuss various community topics, and a diverse and inclusive program.
One of Wikimedia New York City’s goals is to help create a Wikipedia as diverse as the New York City subway and we’re excited to take another step in that direction by hosting Wikiconference North America 2025 in NYC.
Pacita Rudder, Executive Director of Wikimedia New York City
Building Expertise and Innovation Through Focussed and Thematic Events
Besides region focussed conferences, Wikimedia communities have launched a range of theme-focused events, where community members and experts working on specific areas of interest come together.
One of these events will be the WikiCredCon, taking place in February 2025, at the Internet Archive in San Francisco. The WikiCred community is a very specialized community of interest, dedicated to tackle issues related to misinformation, disinformation, and missing information within the Wikimedia movement
With WikiCredCon, we’re excited to gather at the Internet Archive and bring together community, academic, and professional experts on citations, reliability, digital and information literacy, fact-checking, and disinformation.
Jake Orlowitz, member of the organizing team of WikiCredCon
Capacity-building and community growth will be the focus of the event called “Telugu Wikipedia 21st anniversary”, to be hosted in February 2025 in Tirupati, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. More than 83 million people in the world speak Telugu, and it stands second only to Hindi in India as to the number of native speakers.
In June 2025, Wikimedians working in the area of education will meet in Bogotá, Colombia, for the EduWiki Conference, and will discuss how to create global support and collaboration structures within the Wikimedia Movement around education. A bit later in the year, in September 2025, Wikimedia Mexico will convene Spanish-speaking academics and researchers from Latin America for the second Wikimedia congress on education and digital cultures.
In May 2025, Wikimedia Czech Republic will host the first ever Wikimedia event focussing on Youth and youth engagement within the Movement. Around 80 participants between 18 and 30 will come together and discuss how young people need to be addressed to engage with the Wikimedia platforms, what needs to be done to stay attractive for them, and what needs to change. And in case you didn’t know, a recent surveys show that around 40 % of Wikimedia’s active editors are under the age of 35.
When I saw the energy of the young Wikimedians meeting at this year’s Wikimania in Katowice, I felt that we needed to take advantage of this moment to give youth a voice and also support their organizational activities and community efforts.
Klára Joklová, Executive Director of Wikimedia Czech Republic
WMF’s Commitment to support Conference Organizers
All 9 proposals went through a rigorous review process by Wikimedia Foundation staff, as well as volunteers from the Conference Support Committee.The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to provide more structured support for community organizers in hosting these events; that includes advising on program design and development and, especially for larger events, booking travel and accommodation directly.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Conference & Event Fund, you can read more about it on Meta. The submission deadline for the next funding round proposals is February 3, 2025.
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