I help plan technical events at the Wikimedia Foundation. I think we’ve improved in making them more welcoming and inclusive over the course of my time there. We just recently filled to capacity on registration for an upcoming event, and I thought I’d share a few things we’ve done:
- A friendly space policy
- Event info page shows photos of people of different genders, allows people to opt in to sharing their names/attendance
- Registration form doesn’t ask for sex or gender; instead, it asks what kind of t-shirt we should provide (including a “None, thank you” option) and “If you need accommodation: would you prefer to share a room with a woman or with a man?” (options: “women’s rooms”, “men’s rooms”, “either will be fine”)
- We’ll aim to document as much of the event as possible in realtime text
- We’re ensuring that at least one of the social events is not booze-oriented
- I’m working to ensure people can put whatever names they prefer on their badges, including handles/nicks for those who don’t want to share their wallet names
- Free to attend, and we provide travel sponsorships to encourage participants from far away
- Hostel very near the venue
I failed at:
- childcare – just didn’t put in the time to ensure we could provide this
- ensuring our venue is accessible to those with disabilities (I’m not sure, and didn’t emphasize this as a key criterion when my contact in Berlin was scouting venues)
- clarifying many of the points above to prospective attendees
- and probably more
What have you done to make your geek events more welcoming?
