Winnipeg is the Provincial capitol of Manitoba, and home to the Pantages Theatre built in 1913-14 that hosted among others, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. Winnipeg is also home to Le Cercle Moliere, Canada's oldest continually running French theatre. The Winnipeg Art Gallery has the world's largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art. Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest dance company and among the oldest in North America. The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden is one of the few sculpture gardens in the world featuring the work of a single artist. Ukrainian sculptor Leo Mol--who resided in Winnipeg--is acclaimed worldwide and his works grace sites around the world, including the Vatican. The Plaza at the Forks has a world-class sculpture plaza. The Winnipeg Folk Festival is one of the oldest and largest folk festivals in the world. And, Folklorama will run at the time of the WCA-NA conference! Folklorama was voted the festival that best depicts Canadian culture and is North America's largest and longest running multicultural festival, featuring pavilions celebrating 40+ ethnic cultures. Scouts from Walt Disney World regularly visit Folklorama to book entertainment for the Epcot Center Performances. Numerous major motion pictures and documentaries were filmed in Winnipeg, including Capote, Shall We Dance, and The Saddest Music in the World.

      Are sports your thing? The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame has 18,000 artifacts, memorabilia game-day jerseys and equipment covering 72 sports that document the province's sporting life for the past 125 years. Winnipeg was the first city in North America to build a freestanding ice-climbing tower; it stands within sight of downtown Winnipeg and is open to experts and newcomers every winter. The Pan American games, second only in scale to the summer Olympics have twice been held in Winnipeg. And, Winnipeg sports the longest naturally frozen skating trail (8.54 kilometres). The trail typically opens in January and snakes its way along the frozen Red and Assiniboine rivers. It offers spectacular views of the city.

      World Communication Association--North America (WCA-NA) is an affiliate of the World Communication Association (WCA). The WCA was chartered in Hawaii 32 years ago and holds biennial conferences in odd-numbered years. The WCA goal, Making A World of Difference, applies to WCA-NA as well.

      The first WCA-NA conference was held in Lincoln, Nebraska, in August 2001 at the Kellogg Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. The second was held in Palm Desert, California, in conjunction with the International Listening Association and the Pacific and Asian Communication Association on the campus of the California State University San Bernardino, Palm Desert campus. The third was at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. The California and Massachusetts conferences were truly international as there were participants from around the globe.

      WCA-NA conferences have always endeavoured to provide an affordable conference to encourage students and new faculty as well as provide an international experience for junior and senior faculty and their students. This year is no exception, and given the location and the plethora of available cultural opportunities in a community and nation committed to sustainability, Winnipeg seems a great choice. In addition, this conference allows us to be even more interdisciplinary. In fact, we have communicated with folks in health and leisure, ethics, literature and language, law, and the environment in addition to communication, who have committed to the conference. We anticipate the size to be such that none of the colleges or universities in the area can hold our numbers, thus the choice of the RBC Winnipeg Convention Centre in the heart of the downtown.

      All hotels are within walking distance (mostly by covered walkways) of the Centre and of The Forks. The Forks is a unique historical-cultural area at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers that has been a meeting place for over 6,000 years. At this site one can find dozens of eateries with cuisine, boutiques, and shops from across the globe and daily entertainment as well. Just outside the Convention Centre, Winnipeg's fleet of street food trucks serve a smorgasbord of global cuisines including Filipino, Japanese, Italian, Ukrainian, Mexican, French and Middle Eastern foods in addition to hot dogs, burgers, smokies, chicken wings and French fries.

      One-of-a-kind culturally diverse shops and kiosks at The Forks Market, trendy boutiques in the Exchange District, chain retailers at Portage Place mall and dozens of shopping malls throughout the city. Visit historic Hudson?s Bay on Portage, a business in operation since the 17th century.