The global Wikimedia community hosts an annual event called Wikimania every year. This year, Wikimania took place in Nairobi, Kenya. Isla Haddow-Flood, OEGlobal’s Director of Communications, attended as part of her ongoing participation within the Wikimedia movement. In total, Wikimania Nairobi had over 2,376 participants taking part from more than 135 countries—776 in person and over 1,600 online. The conference scheduled more than 200 sessions driven by over 350 speakers.
It was a very busy Wikimania! While there, Isla hosted a session finessing the various Governance Models across the African Movement; she was one of the contributors to a GLAM-focused panel on Decolonising knowledge on Wikipedia; and discussed the intricacies and challenges of hosting Wikimania (she was part of the Wikimania Cape Town 2018 team) for online participants in Reflection on 20 years of Wikimania. She also facilitated and supported the creation and production of WikiAfrica Hour’s Wikimania 2025 Morning Briefings – daily live shows that bridged the gap between online and in-person participants by interviewing attendees and presenters on their experiences, presentations, and expectations of the event.
On the first day, a Higher Education Networking Meetup took place. An annual feature of Wikimania, these meet-ups enable Wikimedians working in Higher Education to gather and discuss the intersection of their Wikimedia and Open Education efforts with other involved individuals. This year, organised by User: OhanaUnited, we were able to chat with open educators from Canada, Ukraine, South Africa, Japan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Greece and many other places. They were reminded of OEGlobal’ upcoming tour and to take part in OEWeek 2026! Join the Wikipedians in Open Education Telegram group here. Other Open Educators, including a few OEAwards winners, such as Lucy Moore and Florence Devouard, were also in attendance at Wikimania.
Isla was honored to be part of the event closing ceremony to announce the winners of the photographic and media contest Wiki Loves Africa 2025. It was a fantastic conference celebrating the world’s largest and most accessed OERs. The next Wikimania will be held in Paris, France, from July 21 to 25, 2025.
All images from Isla Haddow-Flood unless otherwise indicated and available on Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA licence.