Designing a technical programme for a conference like CHI is complex, often with many directly competing needs and wants. Given how many constraints need to be balanced, all of our decisions in designing the technical programme are guided by the following key principles.
Travel is Not Required to Publish
Decoupling publishing of archival work from travel and in-person presentation is an important step to support more inclusive publishing. There are many reasons why someone can’t or won’t be able to travel to CHI 2024, and we want to send a clear message that traveling is not required for disseminating knowledge and participating in scholarly discourse. All the Calls for Participation have had clear details around what requirements are in place for participation and what modes of presentation are available for all venues.
Live is Synchronous, Remote is Asynchronous
After lessons learned from CHI 2022 and CHI 2023, it is clear that a synchronous hybrid experience would not be possible for CHI 2024. Synchronous hybrid (e.g. a live session connecting in-person and remote attendees) will not happen for Papers sessions in any form for CHI 2024. In light of this constraint, we are focusing on creative solutions to deliver a hybrid experience that weaves together the best of synchronous and asynchronous opportunities for all attendees.
Why We Attend Conferences
Fundamentally, we attend conferences to share knowledge and participate in scholarly discourse. What this looks like will be a little bit different for every person, where some people want to soak up new knowledge all week, some want to ask questions and have debates, and others want to focus on reconnecting and expanding their networks. Everyone conferences differently, so we’re designing a hybrid programme that supports key activities in synchronous and asynchronous ways. Registering for the conference, in-person or remotely, is how you gain access to the conference, disseminate your work, and participate in scholarly discourse at CHI 2024.
Disseminate Your Work
Our primary mode of dissemination is through publication in the ACM Digital Library. All authors, regardless of in-person or remote registration, will have their work published in the ACM Digital Library, in the ACM CHI Proceedings, or ACM CHI Extended Abstracts.
Authors also have the opportunity to give a presentation during the conference. Further details about presentation formats for in-person and remote attendees are described in the following sections for each venue.
Asking and Answering Questions
One of the most important parts of participating in scholarly discourse is to respond to questions about your own work. Contributing questions to the scholarly discourse is crucial, offering new perspectives, challenging ideas, and advancing the field. We will use multiple platforms for collecting and archiving questions for all authors, which will provide opportunities to respond to questions about your work during the conference and ask questions for all the conference content.
Networking and Making New Connections
What is special about a conference week is that everyone has committed time and energy to being present in-person or remote. For all attendees, we aim to create opportunities for face-to-face, remote, and hybrid interactions that help people nurture their networks during the conference week.
Papers and Journals
As the archival and largest track in the CHI conference, Papers is often a special case. We’ve given particular attention to designing a Papers programme and invited Journal presentations to support in-person and remote attendees. Questions and discussions for all authors will be focused around tools like Slido, Discord, and the SIGCHI Conference Programmes progressive web application (PWA), allowing equal access to participation for all attendees.
In-person presenters will give a live presentation in sessions organised by topic. Questions will be facilitated by the session chair from the platforms available to ensure quality dialogues after paper presentations. Authors will also be able to respond to questions on these platforms throughout the conference week.
Remote presenters will be organised into remote sessions by topic. These sessions will not have synchronous time slots in the conference programme, but will have an asynchronous presence throughout the conference week. Remote author pre-recorded presentation videos will be shown continuously throughout the conference on the exhibit floor with QR codes to access content in the PWA, will have channels on Discord, will have online watch parties, and remote session chairs to support asynchronous engagement.
Extended Abstracts Venues
Venues in the Extended Abstracts have options for in-person, hybrid, or remote authoring or attendance based on each specific venue. The following table gives an overview of the in-person and remote options for all extended abstracts venues.
Case Studies, LWB, and alt.chi: In-Person and Remote Asynchronous
Case Studies, Late Breaking Work, and alt.chi authors will have live presentations for in-person attendees and pre-recorded videos for remote attendees. Following the model of the papers and journals presentations, in-person authors will give a live presentation and remote authors will give a pre-recorded presentation. Questions will be facilitated by in-person or virtual session chairs using tools like Slido, Discord, and the PWA. Remote author pre-recorded presentation videos will also be shown continuously throughout the conference on the exhibit floor with QR codes to access content in the PWA, will have channels on Discord, will have online watch parties, and remote session chairs to support asynchronous engagement.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person presenters |
Live presentation | Pre-recorded videos and questions facilitated through online platforms |
| Remote presenters | Pre-recorded videos played continuously on the exhibit floor, and questions facilitated through online platforms |
Pre-recorded videos and questions facilitated through online platforms |
Keynotes: Live Streamed
Keynotes will be on-site and will be streamed live for remote attendees, with questions facilitated on Slido.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person presenters |
Live keynote, questions on Slido | Live-streamed keynote, questions on Slido |
Panels: Live Streamed Hybrid
Panels have a flexible format so that the organizers have the choice of running them as in-person only, or hybrid with remote panelists. All panels will be live streamed for the remote audience.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person OR hybrid presenters |
Live panel discussions, questions on Slido | Live streamed panel discussion, questions on Slido |
| Remote presenters | Live streamed panel discussion, questions on Slido | Live streamed panel discussion, questions on Slido |
Workshops and SIGs: In-Person, Remote, or Hybrid Venues
Workshops and SIGS have flexible formats determined by the organisers. Workshop organizers have the choice of running it as in-person only, or hybrid. Organisers can use tools like Zoom, Discord, Slido, and the PWA to facilitate in-person, remote, and hybrid interactions.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person presenters |
In-person live engagement | Flexible options based on workshop or SIG organisers. |
| Remote presenters | Flexible options based on workshop or SIG organisers. | Flexible options based on workshop or SIG organisers. |
Courses, Doctoral Consortium, and Video Showcase: In-Person or Remote
Courses have a flexible format determined by the organisers. Course organizers have the option of running their course as fully in-person or fully remote. Organisers can use tools like Zoom, Discord, Slido, and the PWA to deliver their course in person or remote.
The Doctoral Consortium will run in two complementary formats to support students who attend in-person or remotely. The In-person DC will be a live event during the conference where in-person attendance is expected, while the Remote DC will run asynchronously online for remote attendees.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person presenters |
In-person Course In-person Doctoral Consortium |
– |
| Remote presenters | – | Remote Course Remote Doctoral Consortium |
The video showcase will run in a dedicated session during the conference, and videos will be available through the PWA and the ACM Digital Library. Presenters can be either in-person or remote, as the special session will be chaired by the track chairs and does not include live questions and answers.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person or remote presenters | Pre-recorded videos played in dedicated conference session. | Pre-recorded videos available in conference proceedings. |
Interactivity and Student Competitions: In-Person Only
A small number of venues are only suitable for in-person interactions and have limited opportunities for remote authors or attendees within these tracks.
Interactivity presenters are expected to attend the conference and give a live demonstration of their work. Remote presentation is not possible for this venue, but remote attendees will be able to see video demonstrations and the extended abstract that describes the demonstration.
The Student Research Competition, Student Design Competition, and Student Game Competition will run as in-person sessions, where students are expected to participate in person. Remote attendees will be able to see the extended abstract that describes each project, and winners will be announced at the live streamed closing keynote.
| In-person audience | Remote audience | |
|---|---|---|
| In-person presenters |
In-person demonstration In-person student competition participation |
Extended abstracts, videos, and supplement in the conference proceedings |
| Remote presenters | – | – |
