First Impressions of Attending ESEAP Conference 2026

The East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Wikimedia Conference (ESEAP Conference) is a regional conference organized by the Wikimedia communities in East, Southeast Asia (also known as the Far East) and the Western Pacific Region. The conference aims to bring people in this region to share their views, challenges and best practices in their communities as well as individual efforts in the Wikimedia movement.

ESEAP Conference itself has been held five times, 4 times in-person and once virtually due to the Covid-19. As a relatively new contributor, I actually have applied for ESEAP Conference scholarship twice: in 2024 and in 2026. The first application failed but luckily the second one succeed.

The fifth ESEAP Conference was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on 15–17 May 2026. It’s held in a hybrid format. The conference took place at Kaohsiung Exhibition Center and some sessions could be participated online. Undoubtedly, it’s an awesome experience to be able to attend this conference in person (on-site). It’s also my first time visiting Taiwan and meeting wiki contributors from the ESEAP regions. There were many new faces that I hadn’t met before, but I did’t feel awkward at all. It’s such a proof that Wikimedians adhere to the friendly space policy. I felt good and welcomed, especially by the local organizers.

As far as I know, this is the first time that ESEAP Conference scholarship applicants have been encouraged to submit their applications in English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, or Tagalog. There are also dedicated sessions for women, youth, and the ESEAP Hub. The theme of the 2026 ESEAP Conference, “A New Era for the ESEAP Hub: Pioneering a Shared Future,” has truly been well realized.

The ESEAP 2026 Conference agenda included short presentations, submissions, poster sessions, cultural visits, night market explorations, meetups as well as social and exchange forums. I attended several sessions that piqued my interest, such as Wiki Women Summit Icebreaker and Introductions, ESEAP Community strategies and advocacy for women in Wikimedia: Roundtable and Panel, Mapping the Wiki women’s movement, The UCoC Ecosystem Five Years On: Insights, Challenges, and Opportunities for ESEAP, Everyone needs offline access – even if they think they don’t, OpenRefine for all: The Powerful Tools to Work on Open Data and Wikidata, and many more. I joined International collaboration for the Yokohama Editathon as well as Fitting Sign Languages into Wiktionary and Decolonize of Name of Species sessions for I served as a room assistant there.

During this conference, I gained new knowledge, great tools which helped me contribute better to wiki project and, of course, new acquaintances. For me, the most exciting moment was when we attended the social dinner. There, we enjoyed food together, sang and danced together, and took photos with the other attendees. It was truly a blast!

My first impression of the ESEAP Conference was very positive. The organizing team worked very well to ensure the conference ran smoothly. They’d ensured that all conference attendees wouldn’t experience any problems from the pre-travel until they returned home safely. Even, when I had some leg problem, the organizers immediately helped me resolve it and arranged a taxi for transportation between my hotel and the conference venue. This is great and in line with Wikimedia’s movement to be inclusive and open to all contributors. The local organizers were very responsive in handling these unprecedented circumstances, and I greatly appreciated that. Thanks to God for this precious journey!

See you at the next ESEAP Conference, Folks!