2025:Program/Lightning Talk Showcases
Wikimania Nairobi will have two :Lightning Talks Showcase sessions to highlight some of the most compelling concepts and powerful thinking developing across the Wikimedia Movement. These Showcases will be produced, high-visibility events with multiple talks delivered one after the other. The talks will present innovative bursts of ideas, 5 minutes each.
More information about the Lightning Talk Showcases, including their date, time, and location, will be available when the full program is released closer to Wikimania.
What is a lighting talk?
A lightning talk is a very short presentation lasting only a few minutes, given at a conference or similar forum. In our case, several lightning talks will be delivered by different speakers in a single session. Some formats of lightning talk, including PechaKucha and Ignite, involve a specific number of slides that are automatically advanced at fixed intervals. You can use this format or design your own.
For speakers
How much time will I have?
You will have 5 minutes.
Other useful notes
- There will be rehearsals for the Lightning Talk Showcases during Wikimania, so that speakers can get used to presenting on the stage and rehearse entering and exiting.
- The production crew will be present during rehearsals and will direct the Showcases from off stage.
- 5 minutes is a very short amount of time. It's designed to spark someone's curiosity. Cut the context and intro – go straight to your point, leading with why the audience should care. Support your point with just a few examples or arguments, and aim to leave the audience interested to learn more.
- All talks are 5 minutes maximum. If you use slides, please prepare these on your laptop and have them ready to go.
- We will have a timekeeper to watch the clock for presenters.
- We ask that presenters line up ahead of your talk as the session move quickly.
- Please rehearse your talk with other people before Wikimania. You'll get an impression of how long it takes you and you'll became more fluent. Remember, there's no time to waste on thinking what to say during the actual event.
- Lightning talk presenters will be offered a mentor from the movement to rehearse and refine their talk in the weeks before Wikimania, should they choose to do so.
- Additional resources will be available for Lightning Talk Showcase participants in the weeks before the event.