Wikimedia Austria wants to expand it's tech community and hosting the 2016 Hackathon would be a great catalyst for us in this regard. We also believe that Vienna will be an exceptional venue for the Hackathon - situated in the heart of Europe, Vienna has been becoming a hub for Central Europe's lively and dynamic IT community. Due to a longstanding successful cooperation, Wikimedia Austria's proposal is supported by the City of Vienna and the Austrian Federal Chancellery as well as by like-minded communities.
According to a survey by Mercer, Vienna has been the leading city concerning quality of living for several years in a row, one important aspect was Vienna's status as one of the safest metropolitan areas worldwide. Vienna is also LGTB friendly and proud of it - not only during the yearly LifeBall or currently as the host of the Eurovision Song Contest. Public transport in Vienna as well the Hackathon venue stand out due to high accessibility standards.

Date

If we hold the Hackathon in March, we will be eligible for subsidies by the City of Vienna (approx. 1800 EUR). As Wikimania will be pretty soon (in June) in 2016, this might be a good thing anyhow, as we probably don't want two Hackathons only 4-6 weeks apart.
After consulting Rachel, we came to the conclusion, that the Easter weekend (March25-28) would not be desirable for most people and rather aim for the weekend before that (March 18-20).

Location

We have a venue (Jufa Wien City) that would be very interesting and available at that time. It is possible to work and sleep at the same venue and it caters to our needs concerning rooms based on the experiences of previous hackathons. The venue is family friendly and would have facilities for child care in case there is demand on the side of the participants. From the venue it takes only 10 mins to get to the city center, approx. 40 mins to the airport and 15-20 mins to the major train stations in Vienna. Our current option on the venue is valid until May, 31.

Internet bandwith

The maximum possible internet bandwith for this location is 250 Mbit/s Download and 25 Mbit/s Upload with UPC (http://www.upc.at). Other options include mobile internet with a bandwith up to 150 Mbit/s.

Costs

Rooms

All prices include breakfast:

• Single: 60 EUR
• Double: 80 EUR
• Three bed: 96 EUR

There are also some rooms that can host four people.

Venue

The venue would be free of charge in case of a complete booking of the venue (approx 300 PAX). Starting from 150 PAX the costs would be reduced. The full costs for the rent of the main room would be 300 EUR per day and 150 EUR per day for each of the smaller breakout rooms.

Catering

The hotel also offers in-house catering and will be individually designed to take into account the requirements of our international and multi-cultural guests. They also put emphasis on fresh, regional produce.

• Standard buffet: 14 EUR per Person
• Snack buffet: 9 EUR per Person
• Drinks: 4,50 per Person

Team

Wikimedia Austria regularly hosts events for the German-speaking communities, the biggest one was WikiCON 2012 in Dornbirn, Austria with approx. 250 participants. Manuel Schneider, who was the project lead for this event, also organized the 2014 Hackathon in Switzerland.

The current core team consists of the following people with the respective general assignments:

• Alexander Wagner (@AleXXw), Manuel Schneider (@80686), Claudia Garád
  • Project lead from hosting chapter/organization
  • Logistics (venue/accommodation)
  • Finances

• Philip Kopetzky (@Braveheart)
• Beppo Stuhl (User: Regiomontanus)
  • Outreach/fundraising/engage local communities

• WMAT office (Annemarie Buchmann, Raimund Liebert):
  • Scholarships (Co-owned by WMF and local group)
  • Visa support
  • Travel support
  • Communications

Additionally, we would most probably hire a part-time contractor (event manager) for a couple of months to support us with the Hackathon.

Partners

• Letter of Interest by the City of Vienna
• Letter of Interest by the Austrian Federal Chancellery
• Financial support by Vienna Convention Center
• Open Knowledge Foundation
• more to come

Once we know whether we will host the event or not, we will get in touch with further possible (corporate) sponsors and partners.