Every year, Wikimedians from around the world gather for a new edition of Wikimania, the best-known and important convention involving Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata and all the other WMF projects. However, not as many people know that several national and regional communities host their own yearly meetings, too: among them, there’s the Italian community, which recently met at the latest itWikiCon, held in Catania from 7 to 9 November 2025.

As reported by Wikimedia Italia staff member Simona Cannataro, almost 90 people took part in this itWikiCon, with more than 30 sessions being hosted within the rooms of Palazzo Biscari, where participants also had the opportunity to join edit-a-thons and other activities in their spare time.

The sessions included in-wiki related themes like advocacy activities, the upcoming Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia platforms and the constant push-and-pull between Wikipedia and AI. More practical applications of Wikimedia projects were explored in detail, too, including the digitization of cultural heritage, university programs and partnerships with local associations. The 2025 itWikiCon was also the right occasion to celebrate the latest round of WikiRicci, the yearly prizes dedicated to frequent contributors of the Italian community, as well as the birthday of Wikidata, and a special collection of postcards headed to contributors of the Iranian community.

Finally, throughout the week and the days leading to the meeting, participants had the opportunity to visit some of the most iconic locations in Catania, including the Teatro Massimo Bellini.

The 2025 itWikiCon is just the second national event ever hosted in Southern Italy – following the 2023 edition in Bari – and the first one held on an island rather than the peninsula, specifically Sicily.

The southern regions of Italy do offer particularly rich cultural and natural heritage, but suffer from a chronic lack of economic resources and a shrinking population. According to the latest edition of a report by Fondazione Migrantes, an internal institution of the Episcopal Conference of Italy (CEI), more than 1.6 million people have left the country from 2006 to 2024, with Sicily being the region that registers the highest number of Italian citizens living abroad – over 844,000 people; the report also found that over one million citizens have moved from Southern Italy to Central and Northern Italy in the last ten years, with 48.5% of them being aged between 20 and 34.

The WikiSud collective, which was first created at the 2023 convention in Bari, has aimed to build a more solid network between Wikipedians who still live – or come from – Southern Italy, by bolstering up the number of active volunteers, initiatives, organized groups – including Wikimediani in Sicilia – and GLAM institutions. These ambitions were highlighted during a session at the 2024 Wikimania in Katowice, and have now been brought to the organization of the latest itWikiCon in Catania.

A member of the convention's organizing team, Giovanni Pennisi, shared partial results of a poll sent to participants with The Signpost. The participants were mostly active on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons; over 25 people said they had taken part in a national convention for the first time; while the majority of participants were aged 31 or older, about twenty of them were aged between 18 and 30; some users from Switzerland, France and Belgium took part in the event, and over twenty people received a travel scholarship. Finally, many of the participants stated that they felt "more like a part of the community", that they were "more motivated to contribute" and that they understood more clearly "the issues of Wiki projects and the community".

The success of the latest itWikiCon served as a step forward towards the ambitious goals of the WikiSud collective. It showed that, even in territories where volunteers face more systemic obstacles and many people still feel forced to leave in order to get better chances for their studies or their professional careers, local communities can still thrive and work together to bring a glimpse of hope and positive changes for their lands.