Letter # 4 to IAMCR 2015 participants

The letter copied below was sent on June 8, 2015 to all registered participants of IAMCR 2015.

In a little over a month, on July 12, some 1,400 people will gather in Montreal for IAMCR's 58th anniversary conference. The local organising committee, based at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), is working day and night getting things ready for you.

This is the fourth letter we're sending you with updates and information about IAMCR 2015. We hope you find it interesting and useful as you prepare to join us in Montreal for one of the largest and most diverse IAMCR conferences ever. It is being sent to you because you are registered for IAMCR 2015.

Submit your paper by June 19
If you are going to upload a conference paper, remember the deadline is June 19. Papers submitted by then will be available to the heads of your section or working group who may in turn share them with moderators and/or discussants before the conference. This will enrich our discussions and your feedback. Note that the papers will not be made public. You retain copyright of your paper and IAMCR never publishes papers online or in print without the explicit consent of authors. You can submit your paper at http://iamcr.org/submit2015.

Programme
Wondering about the time and date of your presentation? Curious about what the other 1,400 participants are gong to be presenting and when? The Montreal team is busy preparing the final programme which will include the time and date of all section and working group parallel presentations. A draft programme for the parallel sessions will be posted at http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca/ this Friday June 12. In the meantime, you can see the overall programme at http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca/conference-en/program.html. Please send any requests for information about the programme to iamcr2015@uqam.ca.

Abstracts online
In order to help you better prepare for IAMCR 2015, the accepted abstracts were published online in April. Go to http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015/accepted-abstracts and click on a section / working group that interests you to see the abstracts. We're hoping that making the abstracts available before the conference will add to the quality of the discussions and facilitate collaboration. Please note that these are all the abstracts that were accepted and include those that have been withdrawn by their authors because they won't be attending IAMCR. The updated and corrected abstract book will be available electronically prior to the conference.

IAMCR section and working group elections
Ten IAMCR sections and working groups have announced that they will hold elections for their officers (heads) during the Montreal conference. They are:

Diaspora and the Media Working Group
Ethics of Society and Ethics of Communication
Gender and Communication Section
Health Communication and Change Working Group
Law Section
Media and Sport Section
Media Education Research Section
Popular Culture Working Group
Religion, Communication and Culture Working Group
Visual Culture

Elections will take place during the Montreal business meeting of each of the sections and working groups. For more information, including information about how to nominate candidates, go to http://iamcr.org/s-wg/elections2015

Pre-conferences, post-conferences and parallel events
Three pre-conferences, a post-conference and a number of parallel events will take place alongside IAMCR 2015. The pre-conferences are: "Towards Participation Studies", "News producers and the public interest" and "Media and Journalists in the Age of Open Government and Transparency". The post-conference is "Governance and Public Service Media in Knowledge Societies". Information about all the pre- and post-conferences is at http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015/prepost.

Parallel events include a Speed Networking event for PhD students and a Forum Citoyen (Citizen Forum). This event will include the participation of community organisations and citizen media from the Montreal area in a discussion under the theme "Citizen movements and resistance: The ambiguous power of the media". For more information (in French) see the forum's Facebook page.

While not formally an IAMCR pre-conference, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, known by its French acronym AMARC, has invited many IAMCR participants to attend the 3rd & Indigenous Language Communities on Air – A gathering of community broadcasters. It will take place at La Maison Mondiale de la radio communautaire, a few blocks from the conference site, from 09:30 – 17:00 on July 12. Contact AMARC via email at secretariat@si.amarc.org for more information.

Visas and invitation letters
If you need an official invitation to apply for a Canadian visa, you mst request it from iamcr2015@uqam.ca. See the passport and visa information page at http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca/plan-your-trip/passport-and-visa.html.

Useful information
There is plenty of useful information online to help you plan your time in Montreal. The local organising committee's website has information about accommodation, social activities and featured speakers. Much of it is available in English, French and Spanish - http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca/ Tip: Not only will you be able to access wifi at the conference site, but also at thousands of locations in Montreal from http://www.ilesansfil.org/welcome/.

You'll also want to check the pages of IAMCR's website dedicated to the 2015 conference at http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015 for information about pre and post-conferences and more.

We look forward to welcoming you in Montreal.

Bruce Girard, Executive Director, IAMCR
Yanick Farmer and Christian Agbobli, Co-chairs, IAMCR 2015 Local Organising Committee

This is the fourth newsletter from IAMCR 2015. You can see the others at: