Wikimedia Apps/Team/Philadelphia 2017 offsite

Basic Info

Philadelphia, October 17-19

Location info:

Old City Collective, 222B Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Hotel info:

Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, 400 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Travel info:

Please see Travel's offsite page for flight itinerary and hotel reservation details [Now updated].

Admin contact info:

Megan Neisler, mneisler@wikimedia.org

Lani Goto, lgoto@wikimedia.org

Goals

Introducing and getting to know each other, especially for new team members

Engage together in discussions and activities across functions and across apps

Make some medium term plans and commitments for the apps

Proposed Agenda

The first two days will take place in the shared event space. The last day will be out and about in Philadelphia

Tuesday, October 17

9:15 - Breakfast

9:30 - Grace: Welcome, generate working agreement

10:15 - Josh: General agenda

10:30 - Grace: Get to know each other:

Journey lines
Working styles and giving good information

11:00 - Break

11:15 - Josh: App strategy overview and team product self-evaluation

12:00 - Lunch

1:00 - Rita+Carolyn: Apps design vision

2:30 - Break

2:45 - Josh: Growing the app audience, a marketing/growth hack brainstorm

3:30 - Create-a-thon: Taking Wikimedia to a New Place

Grace: Create-a-thon intro and ground rules
Long break and brainstorming mixer
Grace: Commitment ceremony

Evening/Night - Hacking and creating!

Wednesday, October 18

Note that "divergent group work" is a fancy way to say brainstorming and ideation, "Convergent group work" is a fancy term for "planning and decision making" :P

9:15 - Breakfast

9:30 - Create-a-thon continues/hacking wraps up/finishing touches, work time for those who need to "catch up" with the outside world.

10:30 - Grace: First day retro and Create-a-thon share out

11:00 - Josh/Chris K: Divergent group work on Editing and Community in apps

12:00- 12:30 - Lunch

12:30 - Cynefin team building activity

1:30 - Josh/Rita: Divergent group work on Explore and recommendations in apps

2:30ish - Break

2:45 - Josh: Convergent group work to define feature goals for next 3 - 4 Quarters

3:30 - Corey: Convergent group work on technical roadmap

4:00 - Break

4:15 - Josh: App awareness brainstorming

4:45 - Grace: Closing ceremony/retro

6:30 - Team Dinner: Mission Taqueria, 1516 Sansom St, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102. The restaurant is a 30 minute walk from the hotel or 10-15 minute taxi. Please plan your departure time accordingly.

Night - Karaoke at Yakitori Boy. We have an 8-10 person room from 9-11 pm. Come hang out, sing, or just watch!

Thursday, October 19 (Activity Day)

Morning - Free time: Historical tours, museum visits or just work time

12:00-1:30 Lunch: Meet at the Reading Terminal Market, 51 North 12th St,  Philadelphia, PA 19107. 15-minute walk from the hotel. Meet at the corner of Arch and 12th Street.

1:30-2:00: 25 to 30-minute walk from Reading Terminal Market to Museum.

2:00-3:00 Mutter Museum guided tour, 19 S. 22nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Note: No backpacks or photography are allowed on the tour. Please leave any large bags at the hotel before you depart.

4:00-: Free time. Axe throwing for some...Reservation at Urban Axes from 4pm-6:30pm for those who signed up.

Create-a-thon

A create-a-thon is like a hack-a-thon, but open to any creative activity, rather than focusing on technical creativity only. Created things can be lightning talks, demos, drawings, stories, media, art, sites, or even an interpretive dance. The only 2 requirements are that you cannot work on what you are currently paid to work on (no work on existing apps) and that you fit in the "theme" of Bringing Wikimedia to a New Place. That can be bringing our tech or information to a new app, platform or medium in a new way, bringing our values or way of doing things to something not-Wikimedia, or even bringing one part of Wikimedia to a new venue within Wikimedia.

Our hope is that anyone can participate and all will feel welcome to add their creative ideas and work to the mix, even if thats not building an app. The format of the create-a-thon is as follows:

Introduction and kick-off: The MC will introduce the theme (Taking Wikimedia to a New Place) and review the ground rules
Mixer and brainstorming: Some time, over a beverage, to think and talk with other about ideas you might create
Commitment ceremony: participants decide if they want to "commit" to an idea. Committing to an idea means providing a brief description of the idea. People who don't want to commit to an idea can then sign up to "collaborate" on one or more ideas. Committing means you "own" the idea and will present it the next morning, collaborating means you want to help.
Work time! Participants will have from 4 PM to 10:30 AM the next morning to work on their creation.
Share-out: each committed participant shares their creation.

Unlike some hack-a-thons there are no prizes, winners or losers.

Group Sign Ups

Axe Throwing

Urban Axes

$35 per person

4-630 PM Thursday

2019 E Boston St, Philadelphia, PA 19125

https://goo.gl/maps/C6R8z5pq5WU2

(Fill out your waiver early: https://urbanaxes.checkfront.com/reserve/document/?template_id=1&id=MRZA-041017)

Rita
Dmitry
Monte
Cooltey
Josh
Anthony
Tilman
Corey
Mikhail
Matt
Open
Open

Karaoke

Yakatori Boy

9-11 PM Wednesday

211 N 11th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107

https://goo.gl/maps/hJPsvCyuR482

Carolyn
Sharvani
Rita
Josh
Corey
Dmitry
Open
Open
Open
Open

Things to do on your own

History & Culture

So this is the neighborhood where we are staying, it has like history and stuff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City,_Philadelphia

The Liberty Bell… duh. It is about 2 blocks away from the hotel. You can see it for free, there can be a line.

https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/libertybellcenter.htm

Independence Hall - No the Liberty Bell isn’t here, it is across the street. This is free BUT you need a ticket/reservation. I would reserve soon if you really want to tour it:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehall.htm

If you like money, the US Mint is across the street from the hotel and has free self guided tours. It is actually fun, you see the process and history of coins being made… and a shop to buy copies of course.

https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/philadelphia/tour-information

You can send a post card from Ben Franklin’s Post Office, so why not? (Also there is a Ben Franklin museum and square next door):

http://www.philadelphiafaithandfreedom.com/franklinpostoffice

If you are morbid and want to see where Ben Franklin is buried ($3 to enter)…

http://www.christchurchphila.org/about-the-burial-grounds/

Less morbid… Christ’s Church is around the corner (on Church St 🙄).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Philadelphia

Barnes Foundation - Cool art museum. Subject of the Art of the Steal.

https://www.barnesfoundation.org/

Nature Walk on Forbidden Drive

https://www.fow.org/visit-the-park/activities/

Italian Market

https://italianmarketphilly.org/

Magic Gardens

https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/

Fun

Barcade

80's and 90's arcade games + beer

http://barcadephiladelphia.com

Terror Behind the Walls

Haunted house in the Eastern State Penitentiary! Pretty fun actually ($20):

https://www.easternstate.org/halloween/schedule

Yakatori Boy

karaoke!

http://yakitoriboy.com

Independence Beer Garden

A Beer Garden ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

http://www.phlbeergarden.com

Buffalo Billiards

Pool, Shuffleboard, Darts, Skeeball, Foosebal

http://www.buffalobilliards.com/philadelphia/

Brauhouse

German Beer Hall (Also a good restaurant):

https://www.brauhausschmitz.com

Frankford Hall

German Beer Garden, open air… next door to Fette Sau BBQ

https://fettesauphilly.com

SkyGarten

A middling beer garden, but it is on the 51st floor and you can go outside. Awesome views!

http://skygarten.com

Food

Dinner

Ekta

One of the best Indian places in Philly, small BYOB: *Note: We have lunch catered from them as well for Wednesday.

http://www.ektaindianrestaurant.com/fishtown/

Brauhouse

German Restaurant / Beer Hall:

https://www.brauhausschmitz.com

Pho Ha

Best Pho in Philly, in the Vietnamese neighborhood:

https://goo.gl/maps/uhX2QoSbZrK2

Vedge

Amazing Vegan food

http://vedgerestaurant.com

Fett Sau

BBQ, open air

https://fettesauphilly.com

Charlie Was a Sinner

A vegan cocktail bar… great cocktails btw:

http://charliewasasinner.com

Puyero Venezuelan Flavor Great Venezuelan food and cheap https://goo.gl/maps/aT6L746hDmk

Getting Fancy

Abe Fisher

Jewish Diaspora Tapas (yes, and it is delicious)

http://www.abefisherphilly.com

Zahav

Israeli food… amazing, reservations are booked a month out… but they have a bar and chef's counter that you can walk in and get lucky during the week. Not for a large group:

http://zahavrestaurant.com