Registration Form for the Global Gathering
This is the full text of the registration form for the Global Gathering. It will match the Google Form linked to from your invitation email.
Please complete the registration form before 26th June 2024.
Register for the Global Gathering
We invite you to register for the Global Gathering 2024.
This registration form will enable us to capture the details we need to run the event, ensure we hold sufficient hotel rooms and support visa application processes where necessary.
Please take the time to answer all the questions to the best of your ability given what you know now. There is space to add notes and further comments at the end if there is additional information you think we need to know. You can edit your form after submitting it with amended details.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Global Gathering!
Your details
These are your details as they appear on legal documents and should match the information you will use for any visa application (if required) and to book your hotel room.
If you are better known by another name, there will be a separate opportunity to specify what name you would like on your conference badge.
First/given name(s)
Last/family name
Your gender
- Male
- Female
Your email address
Name of your organisation
Your role in that organisation (job title)
IMPORTANT: Indicate the role you will have at the time of the Global Gathering.
ALLIANCE ORGANISATIONS: If you will no longer be the director or board chair of your Alliance Organisation at the time of the Global Gathering, please email Alliance Board Secretary, Matt Dawson (matt_dawson@wycliffe.net).
Your nationality
This should be your passport nationality. If you have dual nationality, please state the nationality you will use to enter South Africa.
Contact mobile/cell phone number (including international dialling code)
Do you use WhatsApp?
The Birchwood Hotel uses WhatsApp to communicate with guests during their stay.
- Yes
- No
If you have any allergies or special dietary requirements please provide details.
If you have any mobility or health issues that we need to inform the hotel in advance, please provide details.
Do you require a visa to enter South Africa?
- Yes
- No
Visa information
You will only see this section if you have answered yes to the previous question.
The information you give in this section will be provided to Rendzo, the South African event management company we are working with to organise the Global Gathering. They will use it to relate to the South African government in support of your visa application.
This information is not a visa application. You will still need to formally apply for a visa to South Africa.
Your full name as it appears in your passport
Date of birth
- Day, month, year
Passport number
Date of issue
- Day, month, year
Expiry date
- Day, month, year
Anything else?
Is there anything else we need to know for your visa application?
Insurance
As you prepare for the Global Gathering, we strongly advise you to secure insurance to cover you against unexpected events, such as travel delays, medical emergencies or lost luggage.
The Wycliffe Global Alliance will not cover loss or expenses usually covered by personal medical or travel insurance.
Note: You do not need to arrange travel insurance to register, but you do need to acknowledge that it is your responsibility to arrange suitable cover.
I acknowledge that it is my responsibility to have adequate insurance covering my travel, personal belongings and emergency medical needs for the Global Gathering.
- Agreed
Comments or questions?
Emergencies
In the case of an emergency, please provide us with an emergency contact.
Name of emergency contact
Their relationship to you
Their phone number (including international dialling code)
Hotel room
We will give this information to the Birchwood Hotel to hold your hotel room. We apologise that this requires you to repeat information you have already supplied, but this will help us to accurately complete the hotel’s paperwork.
Your last name/family name
Your first name/given name
Dates
In order for us to hold the appropriate number of rooms on the correct days, please indicate the dates on which you are likely to arrive and depart. These can be confirmed with the hotel when the rooms are paid for and once flights have been booked.
Anticipated arrival date
We strongly recommend that you plan to arrive on Wednesday 30 October to mitigate against travel delays and to be well rested before the Gathering begins.
Anticipated departure date
The Global Gathering will finish at 17:00 on Monday 4 November. To enable you to fully participate in the Gathering and honour the community, do not plan to leave the same evening unless you can book flights that depart after 20:30.
Preferred room choice
Hotel guests can choose a single occupancy room or a double/twin occupancy depending on whether they are travelling with a spouse or wish to share with a colleague from your own or another organisation.
There are two styles of room at the Birchwood hotel. Silverbirch is the premium accommodation. Birchwood is the standard accommodation. The links will take you to the hotel website where you can view the options.
The prices quoted here are in South African Rand and show the total price per day, for room and board (breakfast and dinner).
- Birchwood - Single occupancy - R1520
- Birchwood - Double/Twin occupancy - R2010
- Silverbirch - Single occupancy - R1610
- Silverbirch - Double/Twin occupancy - R2060
This is a special price for guests of the conference and includes your evening meal and breakfast. From Wednesday, 30 October until Wednesday 5 November, lunch will be provided as part of the conference. Alcoholic drinks are not included in the conference package.
Please be aware if you plan to arrive earlier or stay later than these dates you will be responsible for covering all associated costs.
If you choose to share with someone else, you will need to work out how to split the bill between you.
* For more information about room and board (meals) please visit wycliffe.net.
Sharing a room
If you wish to share your room with another conference attendee, please give their name here. Please ensure that you agree to this with them in advance and that their form will include your name.
If you wish to bring your spouse with you and he/she does not have a staff role at the Global Gathering, please contact Hannes Wiesmann.
Their last/family name
Their first/given name
Important information
Once your room has been held with the hotel, you will receive an email from Matt Dawson. This email will tell you how to contact the hotel to confirm and pay for your hotel room.
You will need to have confirmed and paid for your hotel room by 1 September 2024 at the latest. Otherwise, it will be released and cannot be guaranteed.
If you require help with the hotel booking process, please contact your Area Director.
- Africa Area - Wairimu Irungu
- Americas Area - David Cardenas
- Asia Pacific Area - Nicky Chong
- Europe Area - Ruben Dubei
If you are a special guest or represent an organisation that is not part of the Alliance and you require help with the form, please contact Matt Dawson.
Comments or questions
Languages
Our aim is to make all printed material and presentation slides available in English, French, Indonesian and Spanish.
All presentations will be made in English. Simultaneous interpretation of the main conference sessions will be available in Spanish, French and Indonesian.
If you require sign language interpretation, please email Elke Meier.
Simultaneous interpretation
Is this a service that you intend to use?
- Yes
- No
If you answer ‘yes’, you will be taken to the following section.
Interpretation options
Which language do you require interpretation into?
- French
- Indonesian
- Spanish
Important information about interpretation
The interpretation is delivered via an app on your smartphone to your own headphones/earbuds.
Please confirm that you have access to the necessary technology - please tick/check all that apply.
I have access to a smartphone that I can use for interpretation
- Yes
- No
I have earbuds/earphones that I can use for interpretation
- Yes
- No
Comments or questions about interpretation at the Global Gathering
The main event
This section relates to your participation in the Global Gathering.
How do you want your name to appear on your badge?
The name of your organisation as you wish it to be displayed on your badge.
Bible verse
Think of a Bible verse that is important/inspiring to you or relates to the Global Gathering theme Growing Together.
We will provide business cards with the verse printed on them for you to share with others at the Gathering.
Please give the reference here (e.g. Gen 1:1).
Please say which version/language you would prefer the verse to be quoted in
If you don't specify a version, we will use the New International Version (NIV).
If you want a language other than English, it would be helpful to choose a version in French, Indonesian or Spanish that is easily accessed online.
How many times have you participated in a Global Gathering (2016) or ICON (International Convention) before?
- 0
- 1
- 2 or more
Media
Videographers and photographers will be working at the Global Gathering.
Some sessions will be live-streamed and made available on YouTube.
All sessions will be recorded and made available on the Alliance website (wycliffe.net) as well as Vimeo and YouTube.
Photographs will be used to communicate about the Global Gathering and to share on the Alliance website.
Security
If you work in a sensitive location and your safety would be compromised by your image being used in association with Bible translation, please say here.
You will be given a red lanyard to wear at the Gathering and the communications team will do everything possible to keep your image from the live and recorded elements of the event.
I cannot appear in any photographs or video associated with Bible translation
After the event
Select photographs from the Global Gathering will be made available through the Skip photo library. This is for Alliance organisations and partners to use in their communication. You can find the kind of people and organisations who have access to this library on our website.
To use photographs you may appear in for this purpose, we need to ask your permission.
Consent
I consent for my image to appear in video and photographs from the Global Gathering
Further information
If you have any questions or concerns about the use of images and video from the Global Gathering, please email Phil Prior, Wycliffe Global Alliance Director for Communication.
For Alliance organisation leaders
We have a few questions that are only applicable to the Executive Director/President/Senior Leader of Alliance organisations.
Are you the Executive Director/President of an Alliance organisation?
- Yes
- No
If you are, you will be taken to a section asking for information applicable only to you.
If you are not the senior leader of an Alliance organisation, you can skip ahead to the section anything else?
For those at home
As you, the senior leader of your organisation will be in South Africa, we ask you to nominate someone as a point of contact for your organisation.
This person will receive a daily update from the Gathering, including videos of the sessions, prayer points and a review of the day. We hope that Alliance organisations will use this material with their staff teams and discuss what is taking place at the gathering.
In return, the nominated person will be able to send messages to the Global Gathering. In this way, the Global Gathering will be an event with active participation from around the globe.
Because our translation capacity at the event is limited, the daily update will only be available in English. It would help for the contact person to be happy to work in English or use translation technology.
First/given name
Last/family name
Email address
Their role in your organisation
Comments/questions
Finances
With increased costs to run the Global Gathering, the Alliance Board invites Alliance organisations to consider whether you can contribute to these costs (more information).
If you can contribute, please complete the form below. Our finance team will approach you to arrange for the transfer.
We are happy to cover the per person costs of the delegates of our Alliance organisation.
Per person costs covers the full conference package 160 US$ per delegate.
- Yes
- No
We are happy to sponsor per person costs for delegates of other organisations
Please indicate the number of delegates or the total amount of your sponsorship
We are happy to contribute to covering the base cost of the Global Gathering
Base costs cover meeting room, Global Gathering team expenses, local services, etc. They amount to approximately 1000 US$ per delegate.
Please indicate how much you can contribute towards these costs.
Comment/question
Exhibition space
If you represent an Alliance organisation that offers services to other organisations (such as training courses, printing services, etc), or if you are not an Alliance organisation but would like to share with others about your part in the Bible translation movement, exhibition space will be available for the evening on Friday 1st November.
If you indicate interest in exhibiting, the Global Gathering team will be in contact with you to discuss details.
Please indicate if you would like to exhibit at the Global Gathering.
- Yes - I would like my organisation to exhibit at the Global Gathering
- No - I do not need to exhibit at the Global Gathering
Comments/questions
Anything else
Is there anything that this form has not covered that you think we should know?
Thank you
Thank you very much for supplying this information.
– Hannes Wiesmann, Global Gathering Director
News
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05/2025 Global

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‘We’ve come very far, very fast’
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Tech pioneer: Christians ‘have to show up’ for AI
Silicon Valley pioneer Pat Gelsinger was CEO of Intel Corporation until December 2024. Quickly realising his career in technology was not finished, he joined the faith/tech platform Gloo in early 2025 as the executive chair and head of technology. He is also a general partner at the venture capital firm Playground Global. Gelsinger was instrumental in the development of cloud computing, Wi-Fi, USB and many other everyday technologies. He estimates his work has touched 60 to 70 percent of humanity. Here are highlights of his keynote talk at the 2025 Missional AI Summit. You can watch his entire talk here. Pat Gelsinger (left) is interviewed onstage by Steele Billings. Both are with Gloo. Watch the full interview here. Is technology good or bad? Technology is neither good nor bad. It’s neutral. It can be used for good. It can be used for bad. … If you think back to the Roman roads, why did Christ come when he came? I’ll argue the Pax Romana and the Roman roads. … The greatest technology of the day was the Roman road system. It was used so the Word could go out. Historical example I will argue Martin Luther was the most significant figure of the last thousand years. And what did he do? He used the greatest piece of technology available at the day, the Gutenberg printing press. He created Bibles. … He broke, essentially, the monopoly on the Bible translations …. He ushered in education. He created the systems that led to the Renaissance. That’s a little punk monk who only wanted to get an audience with the pope because he thought he had a few theological errors. I’ll argue (Luther was) the most significant figure of the last thousand years, using technology to improve the lives of every human that he touched at the time. How today compares to the dawn of the internet AI is more important. AI will be more significant. AI will be more dramatic. … This is now incredibly useful, and we’re going to see AI become just like the internet, where every single interaction will be infused with AI capabilities. In the 75-year-or-so history of computing, we humans have been adapting to the computer. … With AI, computers adapt to us. We talk to them. They hear us. They see us for the first time. And now they are becoming a user interface that fits with humanity. And for this and so many other reasons that every technology has been building on the prior technology, AI will unquestionably be the biggest of these waves, more impactful even than the internet was. On the need for AI development to be open-source It is so critical because we’re embedding knowledge, embedding values, embedding understanding into those underlying models, large language models and every aspect that happens. It must be open, and this is part of what I think is critical about us being together here today. We need to be creating trusted, open, useful AI that we can build humanity on. On the need for Christians to help build AI systems We have to show up as the faith community to be influencing those outcomes, because remember what happened in the social media. We didn’t show up, and look at what we got. So are we going to miss this opportunity for something that’s far more important than social networking with AI? Where it truly in the models embeds every aspect of human history and values into it? We have to show up, team. What we do with large language models is far more important because truly we are choosing how we embody knowledge of all time into those underlying models. They need to be open. They need to be trusted. What Christians must bring to the process If we’re going to show up to influence AI broadly, we have to show up with good engineering, good data, good understanding, good frameworks. How do you measure things like ‘Is that leading to better character? Is that leading to better relationships? Is that creating better vocational outcomes? Is that a valid view of a spiritual perspective?’ We need good underlying data associated with each one of these. And for that we’re actively involved. We’re driving to create that underlying data set. Because we need to show up with good data if we’re going to influence how AI is created. How should this work? For the AI systems we need to create good benchmarks. If I ask about God, does it give me a good answer or not? If I ask about relationships with my children, does it give me good answers? We need to create the corpus of data to give good answers to those questions. And, armed with that good data, we need to show up to influence the total landscape of AI. We want to benchmark OpenAI. We’re going to benchmark Gemini. We’re going to benchmark Claude. We’re going to benchmark Copilot. This is what we’re going to do at Gloo, but we want to be part of a broader community in that discussion so that we’re influential in creating flourishing AI. Technology is a force for good. AI that truly embeds the values that we care about, that we want to honour, that we want to be representing into the future and benchmarking across all of them. Oh his role with Gloo We are going to change the landscape of the faith community and its role in shaping this most critical technology, AI, for faith and flourishing. That’s what we’re going to do at Gloo and we need all of your help and partnership to do so because if we don’t hang together, we’re not going to influence the outcome, right? ‘Here am I, Lord’ I don’t think I’m done. … You and I both need to come to the same position like Isaiah did. Here am I, Lord. Send me. Send me. Send us. That we can be shaping technology as a force for good. That we could grab this moment in time. This is the greatest time to live in human history. We’re going to solve diseases. We’re going to improve lives. We’re going to educate every person in poverty. We are going to solve climate issues. We are going to be using these technologies to improve the lives of every human on the planet. We are going to shape technology as a force for good. Here am I, Lord. Send me. ••• Story: Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance Translated with ChatGPT. How was the translation accuracy? Let us know at info@wycliffe.net. Alliance organisations are welcome to download and use images from this series.
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