Workshops and Symposia

Quick Facts

CHI 2023 is structured as a hybrid conference from April 23-28, 2023 in Hamburg, Germany.

Important Dates

All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

• Deadline for application as a Workshops Juror: September 29, 2022
• Juror Notification: October 13, 2022
• Organizer submission deadline: October 13, 2022
• Organizer notification: November 30, 2022
• Organizer e-rights completion deadline: December 7, 2022
• Organizer initial upload to TAPS deadline: December 15, 2022
• Call for participation released by workshop organizers and individual workshop website up and running: on or before December 15, 2022
• Organizer publication-ready deadline: January 5, 2023
• Participant submissions due: approximately February 23, 2023. Workshops can define a specific date as necessary to fulfill whatever selection process they have. However, note that workshop organizers must notify the participants of acceptance at least seven days before the conference Early Registration Deadline.

Submission Details

• Online submission: PCS Submission System
• Template: ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column; no more than 10 pages), including: Background, Organizers, Link to Website, Pre-Workshop Plans, Workshop Structure, Post-Workshop Plans, Remote/onsite Plans, 250-word Call for Participation, References

Selection Process

Reviewed

Workshops will be selected through evaluation by a small jury and the Workshops chairs. Jurors will provide insight to the workshops chairs considering fit and contribution to HCI community as well as relation to other submitted workshops. Juror positions will occupy approximately 8 total hours from late October until early December and are a great position for those who are interested in the community-building and critical conversations of ACM workshops. To apply to be a juror for CHI 2023 Workshops, please send an email to workshops@chi2023.acm.org with your name, affiliation, a current CV and brief statement of interest.

Jury

Jury for CHI 2023 Workshops to be announced in October 2022!

At the Conference

Accepted workshops are typically held on the days around the conference (typically the weekend before). This year workshops may be submitted in one of three formats: to either be held (1) in-person workshop, (2) hybrid with in-person & virtual components, or (3) all-virtual. While synchronous interaction is preferred in all the options, all workshops must have some asynchronous material to account for participants with technical or accessibility differences. More information below. Workshop chairs are also available for questions as we plan this unprecedented program.

After the Conference

Accepted workshop proposals will be published as CHI Extended Abstracts in the ACM Digital Library.

Message from the Workshops & Symposia Chairs

We invite you to submit proposals for workshops at CHI 2023. Workshops are a gathering place for attendees with shared interests to meet in the context of a focused and interactive discussion. Workshops are an opportunity to move a field forward and build community: a chance to find people who care about the same issues, questions, and research agendas as you. CHI workshops may address any topic relevant to the global HCI community: e.g., questions of basic research as well as applied research, HCI practice, HCI education, new methodologies, emerging application areas, ethics and sustainability, or design innovations. Each workshop should generate ideas that will give the HCI community a new, organized way of thinking about the topic or that suggest promising directions for future work. If you are working in an emerging area in HCI, please consider organizing a workshop.

Please see a list of accepted workshops for CHI 2023 and CHI 2022 for reference.

As the Workshop & Symposium Chairs, we will create a carefully curated list of workshops and symposia that reflects the needs and desires of the community. Please note that we might propose modifications and augmentations, such as suggesting that workshops be combined where appropriate.

The workshop ought to address timely topics and phenomena; therefore, it depends on the year which topics are considered particularly relevant and interesting. Workshop series or follow-up workshops from those in previous CHI or other ACM conferences will be given special consideration but are not automatically accepted. The space and technical limitations will also influence the number and form of the selected workshops.

What is a CHI Workshop?

Workshops are intended to foster discussion and exchange ideas. Because focused interaction among participants is important, participants should have informed positions based on prior experience. This is typically expressed in position papers submitted by workshop attendees. Please note that workshops should not be miniature paper presentation sessions or panels, but focus on community building and communal knowledge creation through discussion and collective synthesis work. Also, CHI workshops are not classes in which instructors teach content (see CHI Courses if this is what you would like to propose).

There are two groups of people involved in a workshop: the organizers and the participants. Organizers are responsible for the workshop’s topic, logistics, and final outcome. Participants are responsible for the content and discussion. The following is an outline of the submission and organization process:

• Workshop organizers submit a workshop proposal (see below for content and format) to CHI.
• The Workshop & Symposia Chairs choose which workshops will be accepted for the conference through discussion with the Workshops jury.
• Once a workshop is accepted, workshop organizers are responsible for publicizing the workshop and soliciting potential participants.
• The workshop organizers may decide to cap the number of attendees for the workshop.
• Workshop organizers solicit participants for their workshop through their Call for Participation which is posted to the CHI website and includes a link to the workshop’s public website. Submission format is determined by the workshop organizers. It typically is a position paper, but it can be another format (e.g., an online questionnaire).
• The workshop organizers will review submissions using their own criteria (not set by the Workshop Committee or CHI Program Committee), and will decide on the final list of participants.

What is a CHI Symposium?

Symposia are intended for larger meetings that address a pressing need for CHI and are held on the same days as workshops. They are often persistent features across a series of CHI conferences. If you are interested in proposing a future CHI Symposium, please email the chair of the CHI Steering Committee and cc: General Chairs and the Workshop & Symposia Chairs, well in advance of the workshop/symposia deadline.

Symposia must follow all of the rules of submitting a workshop, including submitting a proposal for the same deadline, but their acceptance is guaranteed, if approved in advance by the Workshop & Symposia Chairs and the CHI Steering Committee.

Should I Consider the Workshops, Courses, or Special Interest Group track?

Workshops are different from Courses and Special Interest Groups. Workshops are meetings of subject matter experts exploring new knowledge. Courses are delivered by expert instructors, typically with established reputations, teaching people who are new to a topic. Special Interest Groups enable attendees with a common interest to meet for informal but facilitated discussions during the main conference program. See Courses vs Workshops vs SIGs for more information.

Previous Successful Workshops at CHI

Some workshops have resulted in edited books or special issues of journals; you may consider including this goal in the design of your workshop. Others have created communities that spawned new, more specialized conferences.

Some example workshops from previous years include:

• Immersive Inclusivity at CHI: Design and Creation of Inclusive User Interactions Through Immersive Media
• NatureCHI: Unobtrusive User Experiences with Technology in Nature
• Designing for New Forms of Vulnerability
• HCI and Autonomous Vehicles: Contextual Experience Informs Design
• Rethinking the Senses: A Workshop on Multisensory Embodied Experiences and Disability Interactions
• Unpacking the Infrastructuring Work of Patients and Caregivers around the World
• Anticipatory Governance in the Technology Sector: Processes, Critiques, and Principles for Addressing Grand Challenges in Computing
• #CHImoney: Financial Interactions, Digital Cash, Capital Exchange and Mobile Money
• Challenges Using Head-Mounted Displays in Shared and Social Spaces
• Social VR: A New Medium for Remote Communication and Collaboration
• HCI in China: Research Agenda, Education Curriculum, Industry Partnership, and Researcher Communities

Note that many of these workshop proposals are in the old Extended Abstracts format. While the content is informative, remember your workshop must be submitted according to the instructions below.

Preparing and Submitting your Workshop Proposal

A workshop proposal must be prepared according to the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column). It must be submitted via the PCS Submission System as a single PDF file. The proposal must be no more than 10 pages (including references) and have the following structure:

• Background: Provide a strong rationale for the workshop, describe the issues to be addressed, and state concrete objectives for the workshop.
• Organizers: Present the organizers’ backgrounds and relevance to the workshop topic. Mention who is the main contact person.
• Website: Provide details of the planned website, including the URL, if considered relevant at this stage. (This may be TBD until after acceptance.)
• Pre-Workshop Plans: State your plans for participant recruiting and community-building (e.g. through a website or other communication with participants) as well as tentative plans for accessibility and inclusion leading up to the workshop.
• In-person, hybrid, or virtual-only: Please provide details about the mode of organizing the workshop including what specific technical capacity will be necessary to support the workshop day. Provide clear justifications for the choice of the mode. Explain how the possible remote attendees will engage in interaction with in-situ participants, and vice versa. We encourage organizers to support asynchronous online materials for those participants who are unable to access in-person or synchronously in a virtual space. Please include accessibility requirements such as transcription, if needed.
• Asynchronous Engagement: Please include plans for asynchronous materials that will be offered to participants to engage with, should any technical or accessibility issues arise that prohibit synchronous engagement. All organizers must support asynchronous online materials for participants that are unable to access in-person or synchronous virtual space, particularly for reasons of pandemic or technical limitations.
• Workshop Structure: Explain the workshop structure, including activities, timing, resources, and tools.
• Accessibility: Authors are strongly encouraged to work on improving the accessibility of their papers, including adding figure descriptions. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at accessibility@chi2023.acm.org.
• Post-Workshop Plans: State your plans for follow-up and creation of tangible outcomes (e.g., poster presentation, publication of a workshop report, plans for a special issue of a journal).
• Call for Participation: Provide a 250-word Call for Participation that will be posted on the conference site to recruit participants for your workshop. This should appear at the end of your workshop proposal, and should include the following:
  • The format (including adequacy to virtual, online, hybrid format) and goals of the workshop
  • The participant selection criteria
  • Requirements for participants’ submissions (e.g. topics to address, page length, format)
  • Where these papers should be submitted and if/how they will be published
  • The requirement that at least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop and that all participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference.
  • A link to the workshop website.
• References: Please add any relevant references using the CHI reference format. The list of references, which should likely be minimal, must be included within the 10-page limit.

This workshop proposal is the only document that will be included in the CHI Extended Abstracts proceedings. Any position paper or other material submitted by workshop participants are not included but may be distributed through avenues like the workshop website.

Additional Rules and Instructions

• Authors are limited to being on 2 workshops proposals.
• Organizers and participants may only attend one workshop scheduled at a time, even if held all-virtually.
• All authors must be listed on the initial submission. After initial submission, authors can be removed but not added.
• Carefully consider the length of your proposed workshop – the potential to attract enough of a CHI audience needs to be commensurate with the workshop length. Accepting a 2-day workshop will be judged against accepting two 1-day workshops. Authors should provide a compelling justification for a longer workshop. Please include breaks and other forms of engagement. Please include accessibility for in-person activities including space accommodations or other materials.
• If you plan for virtual participation, please be explicit in how this will be organized and what requirements will result in a successful session. Unless clearly mentioned, our assumption will be that the workshop would take place on-site at the CHI conference.
• There are a lot of factors and constraints that play into the scheduling decisions. Therefore, the workshop date and time will be scheduled by the Workshop chairs instead of chosen by the workshop organizers.
• While breaks will include light refreshments for in-person workshops, lunch is not provided. Workshop organizers should plan on going to local restaurants or other arrangements. Student Volunteers can assist with restaurant reservations and recommendations. Outside catering cannot be used (exception for accessibility issues). Virtual workshops should be scheduled to include a lunch break.
• The conference provides basic supplies such as pens and large paper pads for workshops during the in-person conference. Workshop organizers are responsible for supplying all additional materials needed but may request equipment or special room needs. Requests for any special arrangements / logistics planning must be approved by the Workshop Chairs ahead of time (e.g., something beyond a standard room). The venue restrictions vary (e.g. sometimes you cannot post or hang anything on the walls so may need to request easels).

Additional PDF Accessibility Advice

Authors must consider accessibility of their submissions. Please see recommendations and requirements found in the Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at accessibility@chi2023.acm.org.

1. A trial version of Adobe Acrobat Pro is available, and it will let you tag papers (https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/free-trial-download.html).
2. Speak to your co-authors to see if they have the resources to help make your paper accessible. Learning how to do PDF tagging will benefit our community in the long run.
3. If the above steps are not possible, you can send the PDF to the Accessibility Chairs at accessibility@chi2023.acm.org. However, please refrain from sending us your PDF too early. We want to reduce repeated efforts and if your paper needs to go through TAPS again, then it will need to be retagged. Send the PDF after you are confident no more corrections will need to be made.

Workshop Selection Process

Workshops are a juried track and highly selective: in prior years, acceptance rates have ranged from 25-47%, meaning over half of submitted workshops are typically not included in the program. Workshop proposals will be selected by the Workshop & Symposia Chairs through recommendations of a jury. Once we confirm that workshops have met a basic quality standard, acceptance decisions will be based on an assessment of how compelling the workshop is likely to be for CHI attendees and the overall portfolio of workshops proposed. For this reason, no reviews for the workshops are sent to the authors.

The Workshop & Symposia chairs will consider several factors during the selection process, including:

• The potential for the topic of the workshop to generate stimulating discussions and useful results.
• The organizers’ ability to demonstrate in the proposal a well-organized process and plan for the workshop that fosters interactivity.
• The overall balance of topics in the workshops program and relevance to the main conference theme.
• The proposed size of the workshop, and whether there is a clear and workable plan for facilitating a lively environment for discussion for all participants, particularly for larger workshops.
• If multiple submissions are received on the same or similar topics, the multiple organizers will be encouraged to work collaboratively to merge them or differentiate them.
• The diversity and inclusivity of the workshop organizers. For example, workshops that only include organizers of only one institution, country, or gender would be less competitive than those that include a diversity of identities and backgrounds. The Workshop & Symposia Chairs may be able to help identify potential collaborators for purposes of diversity and inclusion.

Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions will not be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All submissions not included in the program will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the publication of the CHI Extended Abstracts, with the exception of title, author and website information which will be published on the website prior to the conference. The confidentiality of workshop participants is to be determined by the individual workshops organizers and the content available on workshop websites.

Upon Acceptance of your CHI Workshop

The corresponding author of a conditionally accepted paper has to follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline. If the authors cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the venue chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the paper from the program. The publication-ready version has to follow the LaTeX and Word templates from ACM. Should you need technical assistance, please direct your technical query to: publications@chi2023.acm.org.

Before the Conference

Workshop organizers will be responsible for the following tasks during the time leading up to the conference:

• Publicize Your Workshop: Organizers of an accepted workshop must set up and maintain their own website in which they provide further and updated information about their workshop. The workshop page will be linked to from the official CHI workshop site. In order to have a successful and well-attended workshop, we recommend that you post your call for participation early and widely (e.g. publicize on social media and on relevant mailing lists, such as CHI-ANNOUNCEMENTS).
• Solicit Submissions from Potential Participants: While some organizers may choose alternate formats, a position paper is generally 2-4 pages long and outlines the author’s view on the workshop theme and the reasons for the submitter’s interest in the topic.
• Select Participants: Choose participants on the basis of position papers submitted and your goals for the workshop. Workshop sizes are provisionally capped to 35 participants. The registration system will not allow more participants to register for your workshop. Please contact the Workshop & Symposia Chairs if it becomes necessary to change the size of your accepted workshop. Workshops that do not attract at least 10 paying participants may be canceled by the Workshop & Symposia Chairs. Under special circumstances, we may be able to arrange for larger workshops.
• Provide a Participant List: A list of confirmed participants should be sent to the Workshop & Symposia Chairs (workshops@chi2023.acm.org).
• Distribute Position Papers and Pre-Workshop Materials: Materials should be made accessible to participants well in advance of the workshop.
• Develop a final agenda of workshop activities.
• Develop a plan for any follow-up activities.

At the Conference

The workshop organizers are expected to facilitate discussion, help maintain productive interaction, and encourage participation. The emphasis should be on group discussion, rather than on presentation of individual position papers. Diversity of perspectives should be encouraged.

After the Conference

It is expected that workshop results will be communicated to a larger audience. For example, workshop organizers may wish to consider producing a report for publication in ACM Interactions or a future CHI submission, including a proposal for continuing the workshop at a subsequent ACM SIGCHI conference. We encourage additional avenues of communication, such as organizing an informal Special Interest Group (SIG) at the conference, preparing an edited book or special issues of journals following the conference, or maintaining a website or email list to network with others who might be interested.

Workshop Registration Fees for Organizers

Workshop organizers receive complimentary workshop registrations as follows:

• one single workshop fee is waived for a one-day workshop
• two workshop fees are waived for a two-day workshop

This fee waiver can be given to any workshop attendee – the workshop organizers can decide. All other organizers, invited speakers, and participants who attend a workshop must pay the workshop registration fee.

In addition to the workshop fees, all workshop attendees (including organizers whose workshop fee has been waived) are required to register for at least one day of the CHI conference.

Now, we are looking forward to receiving exciting workshop proposals for CHI 2023!