Venue

The venue for the Wikimania 2010 in Gdańsk encompasses the Polish Baltic Philharmonic and the adjacent Polish Maritime Museum situated on the small island of Ołowianka, linked with the rest of the city by two bridges and a small ferry. The Philharmonic, located in what used to be the local cogeneration plant, is one of Gdańsk's key cultural spots, but also the venue and would-be venue of events of worldwide prominence. For instance, the city's bid for hosting the UEFA Euro 2012 group phase draw names the Philharmonic as the draw's venue.

The most distinguished hitherto held event was the recent 25th anniversary of Lech Wałęsa being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the participation of other laureates: the 14th Dalai Lama, former South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk, Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, and Argentinian nonviolence advocate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, as well as eminent European politicians, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Thus, despite its purely artistic name, the Polish Baltic Philharmonic is able to hold various types of conferences, which has been confirmed by the city's Mayor Paweł Adamowicz in an interview with Dziennik Bałtycki.

Map

A custom made map with the most important locations of the Wikimania 2010 conference in Gdańsk is available. (based on Google maps)

Venue details

For comparison you can look at the more recent summer satelite images of Gdańsk provided by the Polish website Zumi.pl. (in Polish)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Proposed Wikimania 2010 venue in Gdańsk

Baltic Philharmonic

• Concert Hall: 850 permanent seats + up to ca. 150 additional chairs (theatrical setup)
• Green Hall: 180 chairs.
• Oak Hall: 100 chairs.
• Jazz Hall: 200 chairs.
• Foyer

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  The common yard of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic (on the right) and Hotel Królewski (on the left)
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  back view of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic
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  Concert hall of the Baltic Philharmonic
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  Concert hall of the Baltic Philharmonic

Central Maritime Museum

The following conference rooms are available:

• Main conference room (up to 200 people) photographs and floorplan
• Slavic Chamber (28 m x 12.5 m) photographs and floorplan
• Dolomite Chamber (18 m x 14.70 m) photographs and floorplan
• Arsenal (21.5 m x 9.45 m) - photographs and floorplan
• Additional conference room for 30 people - photograph

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  Central Maritime Museum front
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  Banquet Hall
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  Dolomite Chamber
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  Slavic Chamber

Hotel Królewski

A small conference room (20-25 seats) adjacent to the hotel's restaurant, two suites where interviews/press meetings for ca. 30 people can be held. The hotel has proved itself as a stable partner in co-organising large events, including the recent 25th anniversary of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Wałęsa; apart from organising a banquet, the hotel provided the space for interviewing the Dalai Lama.

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Internet access

Most of the area of the old City in Gdańsk is covered by a public free wifi with a many additional hot spots being provided in cafes, restaurants and shopping areas. Additional wifi infrastructure will need to be implemented by the Wikimania team. Ołowianka island will be supplied with a 100-megabit optic fibre connection, provided by TASK, Tricity's academic network operator.

Currently the city authorities have covered much of the the Old Town with 2 Mb/s free wireless Internet access, hosted from 8am to 10pm during the high season. As of 2008 tourist season the western part of the Ołowianka island, where the conference will be held, was not yet in range of the wifi network.

Securing broadband internet access for Wikimania 2010 conference attendees is no. 3 on our list of priorities.

See also

• Moving around