Various conferences are taking place within the Wikimedia movement on many themes. One of them is the Wikimedia Youth Conference, organized for the first time this year. “How to attract young people to Wikipedia?” was the main scope of the conference held in Prague from May 16-18, hosted by Wikimedia Czech Republic and supported by CEE Hub. Participants worked on questions such as “how to make Wikimedia projects and activities more accessible to young people” and attended various sessions that contributed to their personal development.
In this post, I will share what I learned at the conference, my experiences and my thoughts about the future.
A new excitement
As an active member of the CEE Youth Group since its establishment, I was very excited to be at such a conference with young people from my region and other regions. Because coming together with young volunteers helps to create greater synergy and collaboration. We can also think about the questions together and address them from different perspectives. Hosted by Wikimedia Czech Republic, which has hosted previous meetings of the CEE Youth Group, and with the support of CEE Hub, this was a conference where the energy of the youth was very well felt.
Statistics on youth and Wikipedia
How much do young people participate in Wikipedia and what do they do? Do they just read Wikipedia, or do they do more? We learned about them in the presentation “Youth Participation on Wikimedia Projects Today”.
The presentation started with a statistic about which Wikipedia language versions young people read, followed by a breakdown of young editors by age group and various statistics about young administrators, organizers and developers.
For example, in 2024, there was an increase in editors, but a decrease in organizers and administrators. The year with the highest number of these two is 2022.
Personal development
I can honestly say that the activities in some of the sessions contributed a lot to my personal development. For example, a wellness wheel activity showed me that I had neglected some things in my life and we talked about them in small groups. Yes, I realized this there, when I was discussing it with my friends. One of the first things I did when I got home was to think it over and take action to rectify the situation.
Another thing that I think contributed to my personal development was the “My Journal” that was given to us and that we filled in individually throughout the event. In this journal, we answered various questions about youth, we also wrote about what kind of leader we want to be and created plans for ourselves for the next 6-12 months. Now it’s time to follow this plan and achieve the goals…
Explore different perspectives, learn new things about the movement
One of the interesting points of the conference for me was that during lunch, people could set up a table for the topics they wanted to talk about. I really like this idea.
At a table I was invited to, we talked about the process of creating the brand identity of a youth project and exchanged ideas. Although I had planned to set up a table on the first day, on the last day I set up a table on “Design and Wiki” and invited the participants to eat together at my table and chat about this topic during lunch.
I also participated as a facilitator in some sessions and got to know the views of other participants on the relevant questions. This led us to learn and reflect on the answers to the questions from different perspectives.
In addition, I participated in some Skills Market sessions, such as “Meeting Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation”, “Graphic facilitation & visual thinking” and “How to do a short-form video content?” These sessions provided me with information on topics of my interest.
Brainstorms for more collaboration
In addition to the happiness of getting together with my volunteer friends I had met before, it was very exciting for me to meet young volunteers from my region and other regions.
Meeting them, evaluating existing collaborations such as the friendship project we have realized jointly between Malaysia and Turkey, and talking about future collaborations between communities and WikiClubs motivated me even more and kept my excitement alive.
Social time
One good thing about the youth conference was that there was a lot of fun and socializing. We prepared for the day with the warm-up games we played at the beginning of the day.
Especially on the Eurovision night, it was very enjoyable to watch the contest with many Eurovision-loving friends. In addition, the interactive games we all gathered together and played on the last night provided us with very enjoyable and unforgettable moments.
Outcome and future
I would say that the youth conference was a very important milestone in the movement. This conference not only included things that would contribute to our personal development, but also provided an opportunity for participants to collaborate and share their experiences with each other, such as joint Wiki edit-a-thons and events in the future. During the conference, in addition to the activities to support our personal development, we also sought answers together to the relevant questions within the scope of the conference, which was actually the most important point.
I’m already excited to take part in a youth conference again in the future, to learn new things, to develop ideas/think about issues together and to share my experiences with other participants.
I would like to thank everyone who has given us all these opportunities and helped to organize the Wikimedia Youth Conference 2025 Prague.
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