Dear Wikimedians,

We are delighted to announce that the registration for the Wikimedia Conference 2017 [1], which will be held in Berlin from Friday, March 31, through Sunday, April 2, is now open!

Following Christian’s invitation from November 4, we would like to provide you with important information regarding the eligibility for participation, participant number regulation, registration procedure, specifics in regards to the travel and hotel booking as well as the visa application process.

== Eligibility criteria and participant number regulation ==

The eligibility criteria for participating in the Wikimedia Conference 2017 are aligned to the Affiliates’ Agreements with the Wikimedia Foundation. Chapters, Thematic Organizations and User Groups must have shown signs of recent activity (within the last six months) and be up-to-date on their reporting [2] by the eligibility deadline (December 1, 2016). Moreover, affiliations need to have been officially recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation before March 30, 2016. Before registering for the conference, please check the eligibility and status overview of your affiliate as well as the participant number regulation on meta [3].

==Registration information==

To make the conference a success, it will be essential for the invited affiliates to deliberately choose their delegates. Affiliates are asked to only send delegates that are well-informed in goings-on at the affiliate, able to confidently answer questions about it and share experience from their group. They should also be empowered to commit their group to involvement in proposed projects or initiatives. We recommend to follow the “How to select the delegates” information, which is published on meta [4].

Persons, who are selected by their organization to represent them at the conference, need to register via the registration form [5]. The registration deadline is Sunday, January 8, 2017. Please note that we won’t be able to accept and process registrations after this deadline.

We are looking forward to also welcoming members of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and staff, the Funds Dissemination Committee as well as the Affiliations Committee in Berlin. We see a huge advantage in having their representatives participate on site. Please also register via the registration link [5].

In addition to the core-conference, pre-conference Learning Days on Wednesday and Thursday, March 29-30, are organized by the WMF Learning and Evaluation team [6]. Should you be interested in participating in these Learning Days, you can indicate your interest in the registration form as well. There is also a Boards Training Workshop [7] organized by Frans Grijzenhout (chair of Wikimedia Nederland) and Tim-Moritz Hector (chair of Wikimedia Deutschland), invitations for this workshop are sent via the chairs mailing list.

For the purpose of helping affiliates to check that only their selected representatives have registered and enable participants to connect before the conference and stay involved afterwards, we will publish all participants’ names on the meta page [8] shortly after registration.

Further information on the registration process can be retrieved from meta [9].

==Hotel and travel booking==

The Wikimedia Conference will take place at the Mercure Hotel Berlin Tempelhof Airport[10] in Berlin’s neighbourhood Neukölln. A high number of hotel rooms, which are conveniently located on the levels above the conference venue, have been reserved for the conference participants. All rooms include Wifi, breakfast and have their own bathroom.

Representatives of affiliates with an annual plan grant (group 1) will need to book and pay for their hotel rooms as well as travel individually. The hotel booking form and price information can be found on meta [11].

Affiliates, which don’t receive funding via an annual plan grant (group 2), will be supported by WMDE for their hotel needs and WMF for their travel booking.

Members of the WMF Board, FDC, AffCom or WMF staff (group 3) receive travel and hotel booking support by the WMF Travel department.

We advise you to check meta [3] to which group you belong to.

==Visa information==

In case you are in need of a visa, WMDE will assist you with the application process. All relevant information and necessary steps to undertake are described on meta [12].

Wikimedia Deutschland is looking forward to welcoming you in Berlin in March!

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us any time via wmcon@wikimedia.de should you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,

Wenke and Daniela Organizing Team WMCON

Wikimedia Deutschland wmcon@wikimedia.de

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Eligibility_Criter... [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Program_Design_Pro... [5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Registration_Infor... [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/News/Learning_Days_for_Wik... [7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Pre-Conference_Boa... [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Participants%27_Li... [9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Registration_Infor... [10] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Conference_Venue [11] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Travel_and_Hotel_B... [12] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Visa_Process_and_A...