Venue
The venue is provided for free to host Wikimania2008, including the technical facilities available at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center (BACC).
Alexandrina Conference Center is a state-of-the-art meeting and exhibition facility and is an integral part of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina complex. It is located on the waterfront across from the Eastern Harbor and Silsilah Peninsula. The Conference Center and the main Library are connected underground below the Plaza of Civilization.
The Conference Center and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in their joint capacity, combine to form a center of culture and knowledge worthy of serving Egypt, the Mediterranean Region, Africa and the World.
A distinguished feature of the BACC is that it was designed, first and foremost, for international conferences, and offers comprehensive services and diverse facilities.
The proposed site houses four conference halls, four meeting rooms, two exhibition halls, a VIP lounge and a VIP meeting room, three restaurants and a coffee shop. It accommodates symposiums, meetings and presentations and can host, simultaneously or independently, exhibitions and poster sessions.
Contacts
- Moushira Elamrawy: Moushira.Elamrawy
bibalex.org - Mirette Fayez: Mirette.Fayez bibalex.org
Map of the local area
Halls
- Check the full summary for the Halls and Seminar rooms.
- Using the halls during Wikimania is offered kindly for free by Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
BA will provide 3 small halls, each can host 100 participants and 1 larger hall accommodating 242 persons, for every day use. The main hall will be available for 2 days (opening and closing) and can comfortably accommodate Wikimania's 400-500 estimated number of attendees. This is our initial estimation for usage of the halls during Wikimania, yet it can be changed while setting the program for Wikimania if necessary.
Each hall will be equipped with up-to-date technical facilities, making it easy to access the Internet, hold video conferences, web cast the whole session and record it, of course, on video tapes. Mobile plasma screens will be available for usage.
Wikimania events will be in the following rooms:
- Great Hall - keynote speeches, opening and closing ceremony
- Small Theater - invited talks and regular talks
- Delegates Hall - regular talks
- Room A - regular talks and lightning talks
- Room C -regular talks
- Meeting Room E - workshops and talks
- Multi-purpose hall - poster session and exibition
For details and updates see the schedule.
- Views from BA and BACC
Technical facilities
The library will be offering technical facilities that can make the conference available for all the people around the world to join in, through video Conferencing, Web casting, regular Internet chat, etc..
- Internet access and computers
- Internet is accessible from within BA at a speed of 155 Mbps. Wireless Internet access using Wi-Fi is already available now for visitors all over the library halls, BA Conference Center and the open plaza between both.
- Computing equipment, as well as full Internet access, are available in special locations, such as the Internet Café and BA Conference Center, to serve conference participants, journalists and press agents.
- Video Conferencing
- BA has Video Conferencing facilities which enable the participation of up to four parties in live conferences and which operate using IP and/or ISDN technology. Fixed VC systems serve the Board of Trustees (BoT) room and the four main halls of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center (BACC), while a mobile unit with 2 plasma screens provides VC services at various locations within the Library.
- Web casting
- Conferences, lectures and other multimedia content can now be broadcasted to users worldwide through the Internet with the help of the recently developed web casting portal. This has also facilitated interactive participation in video conferences through the web. The system also offers broadcasting of archived events.
- Plasma/LCD screens display system
- Bibliotheca Alexandrina will provide 16 plasma screens for the use of Wikimania (50-inch or 40-inch each); 8 fixed in the Conference Center (BACC) itself, 4 at the entrance of the library and another 4 mobile ones. The screens are controlled by the ICT Department using Scala InfoChannel IC200 software. The system is used to display multimedia shows to announce and focus on conferences and other BA activities.
- Teleprompter system
- A teleprompter is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. This method helps presenters make the best presentation they are capable of without the distraction of reading from hard copy.
- BA has installed two mobile 20'' LCD double set Conference Teleprompting systems with prompting software that supports Multi languages. Flat screen technology is employed for use with the Teleprompting system, which offers a low profile look.
- Audio and video recording
- Four cameras will be provided each day for recording all sessions of the day, with approximately 6 hours of recording each day. This will be provided for free by the BA.
Accommodation
See Accommodation.
Hosting City info
- See Alexandria in Wikipedia
- See Alexandria info at Wikitravel http://wikitravel.org/en/Alexandria