Summer has truly arrived in Montreal. We’ve already experienced heatwave-worthy temperatures, citizens and tourists are flocking to parks and patios, and the many festivals Montreal is known for are in full swing throughout the city. There are only about a hundred days left until the largest event bringing together members of the Koha community from around the world!
Registration now open!
We are excited to announce that registration for KohaCon24 is now open! While the event itself is free to attend, we highly recommend registering in advance. This will allow us to prepare your name badge, estimate the number of attendees each day, and ensure we have enough headphones for live translations (and enough coffee and doughnuts for the breaks!).
To register, start by creating an account on the activities website. Once your account is set up, you can register for each day of the conference individually, as well as for any cultural activities that interest you. Cultural activity registration will open soon, and registered users will receive an email notification when it does. Visit our registration page to get started!
Preliminary Program
We would like to warmly thank everyone who volunteered to give a presentation, lead a discussion, or conduct a workshop at KohaCon. Without you, the program wouldn’t be as impressive as it’s turning out to be and we are delighted with the diversity of topics presented. We had some tough choices to make, and unfortunately, not everyone will be able to give their presentation this year. We hope those who were not included in the program this year will not be discouraged and will consider submitting their presentation ideas to future KohaCons.
You can review the preliminary program and see for yourself the variety of topics covered and the wealth of expertise our colleagues are ready to share with us.
The first two days are dedicated to presentations and B-side discussions and will be held at the Coeur des sciences de l’UQAM, at 200 Sherbrooke Street West. Presentations will be given in the amphitheater, while B-side discussions and coffee breaks will take place in the multipurpose room.
One day during the week is reserved for exploring the city of Montréal. We are organizing activities to help visitors discover our beautiful city! Stay tuned to sign up when the activities are announced.
The last two days are dedicated to teamwork and the sharing of technical knowledge for improving Koha. Workshops on various topics will be led by community members to help beginners contribute to Koha and to share tips with more advanced users for improving work efficiency. A room will also be dedicated to the “hackfest” part, where people can work alone or in groups on bug corrections and improvements to Koha.
Accommodation Options
KohaCon takes place downtown Montreal, where accommodation options abound. KohaCon participants are eligible for a preferential rate at HOTEL10, within walking distance of both conference venues. You can find other options on the conference website.
Visas and Travel Documents
All foreign visitors, except American citizens, must have either a visa or an electronic travel authorization (eTA) in addition to their passport to enter Canada. You can take the quiz on the Government of Canada’s website to find out which travel document is required based on your country of origin. American citizens only need their passport or a Nexus card.
Join the Conversation
The community has adopted a 21st-century chat platform to replace the good old IRC channel. The chosen platform is Mattermost, an open-source equivalent of Slack.
Everyone who works with Koha is invited to join the conversation. Even if you’re not comfortable participating right away, there’s no better way to learn a lot of details about how Koha works and its development than by reading the conversations. For now, the channels are mainly in English, with two exception – the Koha-DACH channel for German speakers, and the Koha-Francophone channel for French speakers.
There is a dedicated channel for KohaCon24. We post announcements there much more informally than through the website or newsletter. People are also invited to ask questions to the organizing team. It is also through this channel that social activities during the conference will be organized. From lunch plans to places for “5 à 7” (happy hour) and other activities, it will all be happening in the KohaCon24 channel!
We invite you to join the conversation at https://chat.koha-community.org/. You will need to create an account to access it. It is possible to download the Mattermost client for desktop or mobile. When prompted, enter https://chat.koha-community.org/ as the server address.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
The Kohacon24 organization team (Caroline, Eric, Marie-Luce, and Olivier)
