EMWCon Spring 2023

The Enterprise MediaWiki Conference Spring 2023, or EMWCon Spring 2023, will be held April 19-21 in Austin, Texas in the United States. EMWCon will be a three-day conference featuring discussions of topics related to "Enterprise MediaWiki", i.e. the usage of MediaWiki software by and within companies, non-profits, governments, and other organizations. The intended audience of EMWCon Spring 2023 is anyone who uses, or would like to learn more about, MediaWiki within organizations.

This is the 8th EMWCon. EMWCon began as a spinoff of the Semantic MediaWiki Conference, or SMWCon, which is an annual conference held each fall in Europe. EMWCon and SMWCon are both three-day conferences with similar topics of discussion, though EMWCon has a broader scope.

Much like in 2022, we intend to hold the conference in a hybrid manner. For those who cannot attend in person, there will online/virtual capability that is intended to be as integrated into the conference as much as possible. All presentations will be available on Hopin live and we are accepting talks from remote speakers. There is no cost for online/virtual attendance. However, in-person attendance is encouraged!

Event details

 * Dates: April 19-21, 2023
 * Times: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM CDT
 * Location: Hilton Garden Inn Austin Northwest/Arboretum

To book a hotel room at the conference venue, please book directly through our special link under. Please do not use Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Booking.com, or Hilton.com to book a room at this hotel.

Registration
To register for EMWCon, please go to the EMWCon Spring 2023 page at Eventbrite (coming soon) or click the button below. Tickets come with breakfast, lunch, & snacks for all 3 days of the conference and one social dinner (Thursday night). There is no cost to attend remotely.

The early bird registration deadline for in-person attendance is March 19, 2023, after this date the early bird discount will no longer be available.

The cost for the three-day in-person event is: (If you would be paying your own way, go with the lower rate. If your company or organization is paying, the regular rate applies.)
 * $450 - Regular Rate
 * $250 - Students and Freelancers

In addition, information about accommodations for anyone who requires them can be found under.



Local accommodations
Everyone is highly encouraged to stay at the conference hotel; this helps keep down conference costs. A discounted group rate of $129 per night has been negotiated.

To get this rate, your room needs to be booked by March 30. The rate allows your room to be cancellable up to 6:00pm CDT on the day you are supposed to check in. Furthermore, no payment is due until you check out. Only a credit card is required to be on file.

We recommend booking four nights between Tuesday, April 18 and Saturday, April 22.

'''If you intend to stay at the conference hotel, please book using our group rate. This keeps conference costs down.'''



The above link is programmed to book a room for 4 nights (between Tuesday, April 18 and Saturday, April 22). You can click on this link and adjust the number of nights you wish to stay before booking.

To reiterate: Bookings are not charged until the day of check-in. You can modify or cancel the reservation at your pleasure up until 6:00pm (18:00) CDT the day you check in. Hilton.com will ask you for your credit card simply to keep it on file, but it won't be charged when you make the booking.

The deadline to book rooms has been extended to March 30, 2023.

Room sharing
If you would like to share a room, please add your name below:

Shared room signup:
 * Name

Sign-up
Also, feel free to add your name to the informal registration signup, below:

In-person

 * Yaron Koren
 * Bryan Hilderbrand
 * Jeffrey Wang
 * Ike Hecht (WikiTeq)
 * Vincent Brooks (NASA/Cimarron)
 * Dwan Humphrey (NASA/KBR)
 * James Hare
 * Brian Wolff (WikiTeq)
 * Daniel Scherzer (WikiTeq)
 * Rich Evans (NASA GRC-ATF)
 * Cindy Cicalese (Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Mat Nadrofsky (Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Linh Nguyen (Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Add your name here

Online

 * Gary Foster
 * Alex Tanchoco
 * Erin Nebres
 * Musaddam Idriss
 * Phil Keith
 * Wolfgang Fahl
 * Bernhard Krabina (KM-A)
 * Add your name here

Talks
To give a talk, demo, or lightning talk at EMWCon, please add its title below.


 * "Canasta Updates, Spring 2023" &mdash; Jeffrey Wang
 * "For the price of 15 cups of coffee a day: thoughts on EMW sustainability" &mdash; Yaron Koren
 * "To Be Determined But Probably AI Coding And Such" &mdash; Ike Hecht
 * “MediaWiki @ Microsoft” &mdash; Jeffrey Wang (Microsoft)
 * "Introduction to Enterprise MediaWiki" &mdash; Daniel Scherzer
 * "Synchronizing your own MediaWiki and SemanticMediaWiki content with Wikidata" Wolfgang Fahl

Lightning talks

 * A short demo of PageProperties (Thomas)
 * (Maybe) "How to use GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT to write code and unit tests" &mdash; Jeffrey Wang (Microsoft)
 * (Maybe) "Training a bespoke question & answer chatbot to search wikis" &mdash; Jeffrey Wang
 * Add yours here

Social activities

 * Weekend before conference - Activities to be coordinated based on interest
 * Tuesday night - Arrival social night
 * Wednesday night - Social night
 * Thursday night - Conference dinner at Iron Cactus at the northwest corner of 6th St. and Trinity St. (Google Maps)
 * Friday night - Farewell social night
 * Weekend after conference - Activities to be coordinated based on interest

On social nights, individuals who have rental cars are encouraged to provide rides to individuals without rental cars. However, for the conference dinner, alcohol will be served; it will be an open bar. You will have the option to drink beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails. As a result, it is highly discouraged to drive to the dinner unless you will refrain from alcohol consumption and are also willing to find street parking. Also, attendees who are under the age of 21 are still welcome at all social activities, but they need to contact the Local Chair so we can make arrangements for you to still be included in/accommodated at all of our social events.

We encourage those who have the time to spend extra days in Austin to take advantage of the opportunity! There will most likely be optional social activities happening in Austin, TX during the weekend before and weekend after the conference. Please let the General and Local Chairs know if you are interested in any activities before Tuesday night or after Friday night. The chairs are organizing optional social activities for anyone who is interested. Social activities will only be scheduled if enough attendees show interest in it.

Except for the conference dinner, none of these activities are officially part of the conference. If the activity costs money, each person would be responsible for paying for their share of the activity (except for the conference dinner, which comes with your ticket).

Sponsorship
The current sponsors of EMWCon are:

Become a sponsor
If you are interested in sponsoring EMWCon 2023, please contact Ike Hecht, the conference sponsor chair.

Premier ($600)
 * Your logo (large), link, and description in the sponsorship section of the conference website.
 * Your name will be mentioned during the conference and your logo (large) will be visible during talks and conference breaks.
 * Your name will be included in all upcoming announcements of the conference (e-mail, social media).
 * You will have the opportunity to discuss selected topics or demonstrate your products/services or show your short video in breakout sessions during coffee breaks.

Contributor ($250)
 * Your logo (small), link, and description in the sponsorship section of the conference website.
 * Your name will be mentioned during the conference and your logo (small) will be visible during talks and conference breaks.

Frequently asked questions

 * Are there vegetarian/vegan options for food during the conference?
 * Yes, vegetarians/vegans (and anyone else with dietary requirements) will be accommodated at each meal service. Please let us know during event registration so we can ensure you are served a meal tailored to your diet. In addition, for meals not provided by the conference, Austin has many great vegan options in the city, including food trucks that only sell vegan food!


 * Can I change and/or cancel my hotel reservation penalty-free? Do I have to pay in advance for the hotel booking?
 * Bookings are not charged until the day of check-in. You can modify or cancel the reservation at your pleasure up until 6:00pm (18:00) CDT the day you check in. Hilton.com will ask you for your credit card simply to keep it on file, but it won't be charged when you make the booking.


 * How do I get from the airport to the hotel?
 * Realistically, you will need to go by car. (The public transit infrastructure in Austin is not sufficient to bring you to the hotel in a reasonable manner.) Usually, a decent chunk of the conference attendees get a rental car. Most likely, you can carpool with fellow conference attendees in their rental cars. Alternatively, you can take a rideshare from Austin–Bergstrom International Airport to the hotel. More communication will be sent about airport carpooling as the conference approaches.

Visa assistance
Please view on Wikipedia the visa policy of the United States. If your nationality is not included in the Visa Waiver Program and you need assistance with applying for a B-1/B-2 visa, please contact the Local Chair if you need an affidavit of this conference.

The United States will no longer require proof of vaccination as of April 10, 2023 (source).