Hi all,

We are excited to have this opportunity to host WikiConference North America 2017https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2017/Main_Page (August 9th & 10th) this year ahead of Wikimania and we hope to see you there! As in 2016, the first day of WCNA is designated as our Wiki Culture Crawl Day and the second day is fully programmed.

Wednesday, August 9th will be a Culture Crawl Day! This is a day-long event where we collaborate with local museums, libraries, and cultural institutions to host free backstage tours, edit-a-thons, and more. These crawls are a fantastic opportunity for conference attendees to experience the local culture, as well as collaborate with local institutions to improve Wikipedia.

This year we have established relationships and are planning free access and events with the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and McGill University. At the BAnQ, we plan to have an edit-a-thon, where Wikimedians utilize the Archive's resources to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Montreal's people - and ending with an evening reception. A photo drivehttps://wikiconference.org/wiki/2017/Photo_Drive will be occurring throughout the day.

Thursday, August 10th will be a day of programming. If you are interested in participating in programming at WCNA, such as a presentation, panel discussion, or an unconference session (lightning talk, open space, etc.) on Thursday, August 10th, please submit your proposal herehttps://wikiconference.org/wiki/2017/Submissions.

We are seeking volunteers to help during the conference. Please sign up as a volunteerhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfh4x1yzqiAuwbkHvy2BaIVTLAxj6UP5DbXcfC-bUSdz67hyg/viewform?usp=sf_link if you are interested.

For both days of WCNA 2017, you will need to registerhttps://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration through the Wikimania Eventbritehttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/wikimania-2017-registration-33032011636. Please be sure you are registering for the August 9 & 10, Wikiconference North America sessions. For those attending the August 9th Cultural Crawl, there is a promo code available (wmcon2017); note that if you use the promo code, you may not attend other pre-conference events on August 9th. Only use the promo code if you plan on only attending our Culture Crawl, as if you register for the incorrect event with the promo code, you may be barred from entry to that pre-conference event and/or session.

Best, Kelly & the WCNA ’17 Planning Committee

/ Kelly Doyle Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity West Virginia University (304) 293-0342 kelly.doyle@mail.wvu.edu