[1] The week of the conference included four "Hacking Days", from August 1 to 4, when some 25 developers gathered to work on code and discuss the technical aspects of MediaWiki and of running the Wikimedia projects.

Keynote speakers included Jimmy Wales, Ross Mayfield, Ward Cunningham, and Richard Stallman (who spoke on "Copyright and community in the age of computer networks").

Speakers included Wales, Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle, Yochai Benkler, Mitch Kapor, Ward Cunningham, and David Weinberger.

He chronicled how the Foundation evolved from him "sitting in his pajamas" to the maturing corporate structure that it is now; the frequent push for quality over quantity; Wikipedia will be included on computers distributed through One Laptop per Child; both Wikiversity and the creation of an advisory board were approved by the Foundation board; and that Wiki-WYG is in development thanks to private investment by Wikia, Inc. and Socialtext.

[24] On August 3, 2007, New York Times reporter Noam Cohen wrote: "The conference has attracted about 440 attendees, a little more than half from Taiwan, who want to immerse themselves for three days in the ideas and issues that come up making an entirely volunteer-written encyclopedia.

[3] The workshops cover practical topics like how to collaborate peacefully; what importance to give 'expertise' in a project that is celebrated for allowing anyone to contribute, including anonymous editors".

There was a controversy about the conference, and even a call to boycott Wikimania 2008 because of Egypt's alleged censorship and imprisoning of bloggers during Mubarak's era.

[27] The fifth Wikimania conference was held at the Centro Cultural General San Martín from August 26 to 28, 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 559 attendees.

With keynotes from Richard Stallman and Jimmy Wales, the conference included a Wikimania Codeathon (hackathon) and an informal Chapters' meeting.

It was organized in two scopes: Casual and Academic tracks, each comprising the same four themes: Wikimedia Communities, Free Knowledge, Latin American challenges, and Technical infrastructure.

[6] Wikimania 2010 was the first conference which included a big focus on the cultural aspects of the hosting nation, particularly a concert of a philharmonic orchestra, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the death of the most important contemporary Polish composer Władysław Szpilman and the premiere of the film Truth in Numbers?.

[32] The conference venue was the Haifa Auditorium and adjoining Beit Hecht cultural center on Mount Carmel.

Keynote speakers at the conference included Yochai Benkler, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and Joseph M. Reagle Jr. of MIT, author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia.

[33] Head of the Science and Technology Committee at the Knesset, Meir Sheetrit, also spoke at the conference, as did Yonah Yahav, the Mayor of Haifa.

[35] The conference featured 125 sessions in five simultaneous tracks and was attended by 720 Wikimedians[32] from 56 different countries,[34] including some that have no diplomatic relations with Israel.

"[37] Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner spoke to the conference about the Western, male-dominated mind-set characterizing Wikipedia.

[45] The Atlantic featured charts displayed at the conference which showed how the number of new administrators has dropped precipitously over the last few years.

[46] During the opening plenary, Wales commented on Wikipedia blackout of January 2012, stating "When I go and visit government officials now, they’re a little bit afraid."

"[47][48] Wales agreed with keynote speaker Mary Gardiner, co-founder of the Ada Initiative, that Wikimedia had to do more to increase the number of women editors.

During the event, it was announced that the Wikimedia Foundation's interim executive director Katherine Maher was appointed permanently.

[16][70] The event centered around the theme Stronger Together: Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals.

[75] The scheduled in-person event would have been hosted by Wikimedia ESEAP (East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific), a first time for a regional collaborative.

[85] Journalist Stephen Harrison described it as "an event that feels a bit like an international summit of librarians crossed with Comic-Con".