Make way for the youth: a diary from the Wikimedia Youth Conference

Prague, May 15: I landed in the early afternoon at Václav Havel Airport for the first-ever Wikimedia Youth Conference. I was expecting something interesting, useful for what we do on the projects, and enjoyable – and my expectations were more than exceeded!

Thursday was all about welcoming each other, with an informal dinner to kick things off. Then on Friday, the actual conference began: the morning was entirely dedicated to getting to know each other better through facilitated icebreakers, while the afternoon was split between two key topics – the decline in young contributors and users of the Encyclopedia, and the difficulties young Wikimedians face in making their voices heard within the movement. There was also a presentation from the Foundation with data from several major language editions and their impact on youth: Italian was missing, but the results from similar editions were definitely worrying.

These two issues are clearly linked, and I think Italy can offer an interesting perspective: in our local movement, young Wikipedians are genuinely valued and often hold important roles and responsibilities – age is never a barrier. Still, like in other similar societies, Wikimedia is losing ground among younger generations, who are turning to AI for fast (though often inaccurate) answers and to social media platforms built around short, superficial content.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the method used to ensure meaningful engagement in a conference with nearly a hundred participants: we were often split into small groups – sometimes spontaneously, sometimes coordinated by peer facilitators (a big shout-out and thank you to Daryna, Mari, and Nursultan!) – with regular group mix-ups and then joint feedback sessions using forms.

Then in the evening, something spontaneous was born that ended up becoming a nightly tradition (with a special twist on Saturday): game night! It turned into a true cultural exchange, with international card games, the always-classic Uno, and the Mexican “Lotería,” which felt like a cross between our own “Mercante in Fiera” and bingo – it really helped build strong bonds among participants.

And on Saturday morning, the theme was community – us. Both “us” as individuals, discussing mental health risks and the need to care for ourselves by building meaningful connections, and “us” as the collective of young Wikimedians – how we’re perceived by the broader Wikimedia movement and by outsiders, and what we want to ask of the Foundation and our national chapters. It really hit me here: not everyone is as lucky as we are to have a well-structured national chapter like ours, and it’s not easy for those with little organizational experience to navigate the bureaucracy of the Wikimedia movement.

In the afternoon, we dove into another crucial topic: personal growth – how the skills we’ve gained and developed through Wikimedia can help us in our professional and personal lives, and how we can become better role models within the community.

This session included the “skill market,” where we could join short mini-workshops on specific topics. I chose to learn about “personas” – identifying audiences interested in the Wikimedia movement and how to engage them – and about producing short-form videos for social platforms.

We ended the day with two powerful questions: What can I use from today as soon as I get home? And did I discover something about myself I hadn’t realized before?

Then came the surprise of the evening – and a perfect opportunity to apply our on-the-fly organizing skills: I pulled together a full setup to watch the Eurovision final in the game room, saving the night! For the record, Estonia won in our version – I call it a small victory for Italy 🙂 Armenia came in second, Ukraine third – and yes, we even had a makeshift photo podium!

Then… Sunday! A bittersweet day filled with hugs, goodbyes, and see-you-soons with people who had been total strangers just three days earlier and now felt like family. But also a day focused on the present and future.

We went back to talking about Wikimedia skills and what’s ahead, with regional breakout sessions. Representing our Western and Northern Europe group in the final sharing session was the incredibly energetic Ferdinando, who did an amazing job.

In the afternoon, we played Action Bound – a kind of treasure hunt around Prague that ended with a buffet dinner and one last epic game night that went on into the late hours… Then on Monday, it was time to head home, suitcase packed with leftover treats from the now-traditional sweets table – and, more importantly, an emotional suitcase full of new friendships in the movement and intellectual baggage full of reflections on youth, both inside Wikimedia and outside it: those who don’t know us yet, or want to but don’t know where to find our human face.

So I want to say thank you to everyone who made this amazing experience possible: Wikimedia Česká republika, the whole organizing team, all the facilitators, and every participant who made this, honestly, one of the best moments of my Wikimedian journey. I came away not just with new contacts and skills, but with genuine bonds with others in the movement – bonds I truly believe will turn into beautiful friendships.

Because we’re not just bytes on a server – we’re a movement made of people. And events like the Wiki Youth Conference are the best reminder of that.