We are pleased to announce that *WikiConference North America 2017* will be held in Montreal on Wednesday and Thursday, August 9-10th as a pre-conference to Wikimania (Friday-Sunday August 11-13th). More details available at https://wikiconference.org/ Submissions open at https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2017/Submissions With so much momentum and infrastructure built around Wikimania Montreal, we see this as a great opportunity to host WNCA in Canada as a pre-conference to Wikimania as a confirmation of our commitment to representing all of North America. Programming We have an exciting program developing: - Wednesday, August 9th: Culture Crawl, which was our popular kick-off conference event in San Diego at Balboa Park in 2016, is back, this time at various cultural institutions in Montreal. We’ll focus on galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and monuments. There will probably a reception this evening at one of the GLAM institutions; stay tuned. - Thursday, August 10th: This day will be full of programming, with a keynote, tracks, and lightning talks. The official Wikimania kick-off reception will be held this evening at the conference venue, Le Centre Sheraton Montreal. Submissions Submissions for lectures, presentations, panels, and so on are now open. Learn more on our website: https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2017/Submissions If you are presenting at Wikimania 2017, but would also like to present at WikiConference North America, we still encourage you to submit a proposal; there will be many concurrent tracks at Wikimania, and presenting twice will allow you to reach more people who may otherwise miss out on your presentation. Scholarships There is no grant for WCNA 2017 and no scholarships available. All attendees will have to make their own financial arrangements to attend. While we did have an option to cancel WCNA 2017, it didn’t make sense to do so when we have a venue available in Canada. Registration Registration for WNCA 2017 will be hosted through Wikimania’s registration system as a pre-conference. Upon registration, you will be given access to book accommodations at reduced rates, which have been coordinated by the Wikimania organizing team. - Registration, either in advance or the day of, is mandatory. Registration includes a lanyard and name badge. - There is no charge to attend WCNA Day1, Culture Crawl, on August 9th. - The cost to attend WCNA Day2, on August 10th, is US$35.00. This includes lunch and snacks throughout the day, and is the same cost for the WCNA preconference as well as other preconferences (WikiMed, WikiEdu, Hackathon, etc.). Stay tuned! We will be sending you more information in the coming months; to keep up to date, feel free to subscribe to our mailing list <http://wikiconference.us15.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d3c40f0a6e016e58de1db021c&id=ad046e808a>, and/or follow us on the WCNA Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/wikiconferencena/> and Twitter <https://twitter.com/WikiConNA>. Also please feel free to reach out to us ( info(a)wikiconference.org) if you have ideas or suggestions about programming and events. We look forward to seeing you this summer in Canada! Sincerely, WCNA 2017 Organizing Team