About the SIGCHI Futures Summit
The SIGCHI Futures Summit took place in Milan earlier this month, and was truly an enriching and invigorating experience! On behalf of the SIGCHI Executive Committee (EC) organizers, I want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who joined (online and onsite). Thank you for helping make this event everything that we had imagined it to be and more! It was humbling to see the care and passion for SIGCHI that was present throughout. We invite you all to stay with us on this journey, and to help make SIGCHI everything that you’d like it to be.
In this post, I’d like to share with you — the larger SIGCHI community — (a) details of the event so you can picture it in your heads, (b) the five (maybe six) areas that those at the Summit agreed on as being most critical as our SIG moves forward, with all of its 26 conferences and many thousand members, and (c) next steps for advancing these conversations. The remainder of our EC term will be focused on these activities, as we report back and do deeper dives in coming days and weeks, articulating lessons and takeaways towards future governance.
Before getting to my summary of the event, a quick shout-out to those who sowed the seeds for it several years ago: in a quarterly EC meeting in 2019 in Toulouse, France, Regan Mandryk proposed it on behalf of herself and Max Birk, to Helena Mentis’ EC, with the goal of addressing gaps in peer review. The pandemic then changed everything — our conferences, our priorities, our worlds. Although it was not a seed we planted, we are grateful to have been in a position to nurture this sapling into being. Thank you all for doing this work with us!
After we published our invitation to the community that was circulated on all our communication channels in November last year, Hao-Chuan Wang (VP Finance) and I went through all applications, evaluating them individually then together, trying to accommodate as many interested participants as possible, pulling together budgets we had set aside almost a year ago for four collocated events — the Mediterranean SIGCHI committee’s inaugural event, the EC’s quarterly hybrid meeting, a meeting for conference steering committee chairs, and the Summit. We began conversations in January, with two online Pre-Summit Co-Design Sessions with Summit attendees that were helpful towards creating a shared understanding of what was top of mind for many committed community members.
The format of the Summit was evolving until the very last minute. This was partly the intent — we wanted the Summit to be an event of/for/by the community as much as possible, so we left enough blank spaces for participants to take the stage and lead conversations. But the unprecedented nature of the event also played a role — we started out imagining this to be a “meeting” and were delightfully overwhelmed by the interest that came through in the open call applications.
It was clear from early conversations that we needed to leave abundant space for participants to form their own ideas and contribute in their particular areas of interest — hence the more intimate breakout sessions. We also wanted participants to focus more on communities and collectives, rather than see themselves and each other as individual contributors — hence the conference-focused introductions. We wished to experiment with the unconference format to make space for blue-sky thinking. We also knew there needed to be some talking in plenary format (from past and current serving community/conference leaders) given that not everyone was starting from the same level of knowledge about SIGCHI and its processes and venues for knowledge production. The coffees, lunches, and social events would hopefully give people plenty of time to form new connections. All of these considerations shaped the final format of our three-day event, which I will now summarize for those who would like to learn more:
Day 1: Conference Fundamentals
After the opening remarks (see slides) that I delivered to set the intent for the Summit, asking “Why are we here?”, we moved on to lightning introductions from our conference representatives (see slides). We set aside 30 minutes for conference introductions on all days, and asked for these to address the following questions:
What makes your conference special?
What has worked well for your conference in recent years?
What conversations at the Summit might be helpful for your conference?
Anything else that comes to mind
It was fantastic to hear from all SIGCHI-sponsored conferences in one room — through the three days, but we also had a chance to learn about other related venues (e.g., Journal of Visualization and Interaction).
Every day, we set aside an hour in the mornings for an unconference-style session. This was to raise the energy levels in the room and on Zoom, so that participants could get to know each other and speak their minds. We’re thankful for all the work that went into planning these and ensuring that they were attuned to the pace of our conversations through the event — thank you, Matt Jones (VP at Large). Thank you also to Katta Spiel (Equity Co-Chair) for all their help with Day 1’s session that used a wide array of images to spark conversations among smaller then larger groups around what an ideal conference experience looks like.
From 11am to 12pm each day, we did three breakout sessions, each led by different (sets of) participants. On Day 1, Cliff Lampe (CHI Steering Committe Chair) talked about changing CHI formats, Jacki O’Neill led a conversation on peer review, and Jeff Nichols (PACM HCI Editor-in-Chief) had a discussion with PACM HCI conference representatives. After a 90-minute lunch break, we got back together in the main room and heard key discussion points from each of the three sessions.
All afternoons featured plenary presentations and discussions, from EC members, ACM representatives, and several conference leaders in our midst. On Day 1, Luigi De Russis (Executive VP) and Naveena Karusala (Community Support Chair) discussed SIG/conference finances and the Development Fund, which funds conference/workshop activities, travel awards, chapter grants, and more. Pejman Mirza-Babaei (VP Publications) also moderated a conversation with Scott Delman (ACM Pubs Director) regarding ACM OPEN and the progress made thus far towards ACM’s vision for 100% open access. We concluded the day with presentations from Kash Todi (VP Operations) and Susanne Boll (VP Conferences) about the Conferences Handbook they are putting together as a resource for conference leaders. In this session on Supporting our Conferences, we also heard from a few different conference leaders about their conferences’ best practices around knowledge-sharing: Simone Stumpf (IUI), Jerry Fails (IDC), and Fabiano Pinatti (CSCW/GROUP).
Day 2: The Conference Experience
Day 2 began with more conference introductions, after which we went over a quick recap of Day 1. Matt then moved us into an unconference-style conversation on taking a systemic view of our conferences — so we could discuss how CHI and our 25 specialized conferences could be more in conversation with each other, towards conserving the community’s resources on various fronts. Day 1 had surfaced many versions of the following idea that Cliff and I presented to the room:
“CHI becomes a journal that people submit to. The review work is done by committees set up by the 25 specialized conferences. Papers are accepted to be presented at these 25. CHI becomes a bi-annual event for networking, interactive content, and the best papers from each specialized conference.”
Matt got the “lovers” and “haters” of this idea to move to opposite sides of the room. The split was roughly 85–15, with most of the room in support of radical change along these/related lines. The 15% pointed out key challenges that would come with taking such an approach, with participants raising concerns around the chaos this would bring forth as changes settled, among other things. There is more to be said on this, perhaps on a later date.
From 11am to 12pm, we did three breakout sessions, like on Day 1. Naomi Yamashita (CHI 2025 General Chair), Koji Yatani (CHI 2025 Technical Program Chair) and Cliff Lampe led a conversation around hybrid programming at CHI 2025. Katie Seaborn (on the SIGCHI Site Selection Working Group) and Naveena Karusala had an engaged discussion on site selection and the diverse challenges facing different (and different-sized) conferences. Katta Spiel, Cayley MacArthur, with their SIGCHI Equity Committee discussed safety in SIGCHI venues. During lunch, there were two additional sessions (on peer review and publishing models) that were planned spontaneously — thank you Kori Inkpen, Fabiano Pinatti, and Xinru Page for putting these together. After lunch, we heard key discussion points from each of the five sessions.
Our afternoon plenaries were dedicated to understanding what an “inclusive conference experience” looked like. Katie Seaborn led us through a discussion on site selection, using Menti for a very effective presentation of the sentiment across participants. We then had a conversation on Hybrid (led by Kathrin Gerling — Hybrid Chair). Hybridity, in fact, was a recurring topic through the Summit, as we experienced first-hand the challenges that our conferences are grappling with. Hao-Chuan and Luigi made it work for us, but I also thank the online participants who stayed with us through the event — patiently and steadfastly. The Equity Committee discussed Safety to close this session on making conferences inclusive. Our final session for the day was on Volunteering and Awards, led by Niklas Elmqvist (Awards Chair), focusing on recognizing our members and their labor.
Our day concluded with a lovely guided tour and dinner at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia “Leonardo da Vinci”. Thank you, Maristella Matera, for planning this for us!
Day 3: Conferencing Reimagined
Day 3 began with a short quiz, as people got into their seats. How many of these SIGCHI conference logos can you recognize?
After hearing the last of the lightning introductions, we moved into building Common Ground. In this exercise, focusing on mutual learning, we asked everyone to do the following:
On a post-it, write the conference(s) you are most affiliated with. Find two others who have different conferences! Find common ground — what experiences/concerns/initiatives do you share? Learn something from each other to help you in that context.
Matt then moved us to a World Café format where we spent 30 minutes creating a CHANGE Manifesto for our wider community to reflect upon. There were four A3 sheets of paper in the four corners of the room, and he asked all participants to go to each corner to contribute their thoughts on each of the following prompts:
“Our future ecosystem of conferences/publications MUST
BE /
HAVE /
ACHIEVE /
VALUE”
You can see (some of) the results of this exercise below. It was lovely to see these come together!
We then went into our final set of breakout sessions, where Naveena Karusala (as Chair of the Futuring SIGCHI Committee) led a session on fostering participation of students and early career scholars, Niklas Elmqvist (as Awards Chair) led discussion on volunteering and awards, and Phoebe Toups Dougas (current Papers Chair for CHI 2024) led a breakout on being inclusive in peer review. Again, after lunch, we heard key discussion points from each of the sessions.
Wrapping Up
Our afternoon discussions on Day 3 were focused on next steps, post-Summit. This is where the fun truly begins! We arrived at five big questions to take forward, and would like to open these up to the wider community — including those who were unable to join us at the Summit. Our plan is to follow up with blog posts (there’s one already on awards!), both to present summaries of discussions we had, and to do a deeper dive on these topics below. For now, I summarize:
- ACM OPEN: This transition to 100% open access is going to impact our publishing, conferences, community, and finances, and we need to be prepared as a SIG. It is one of our key focus areas.
- Peer Review: This was one of the most popular topics at the Summit, and many participants would like to take this forward, bringing to scrutiny various different aspects of peer review.
- Conferences and Knowledge Sharing: We were agreed on the importance of facilitating greater sharing and mutual learning across conference communities, to disseminate best practices widely and hopefully lighten the volunteering burden.
- Volunteering: Making work visible, recognizing volunteering burdens, and reducing the load. This was a recurring theme.
- Early Careers: We want to make sure that our SIG remains future(s)-oriented, and invested in supporting and mentoring our students and early career professionals, while also being attuned to changing values and priorities.
- The “maybe sixth” focus area, at a meta level, is openness and transparency. All of the summit was fundamentally around making our ACM/SIGCHI structures more visible and easier to navigate, and challenging structural boundaries where relevant. As we work on the five areas above, we hope to continue the work of ensuring that this work remains open and transparent.
Matt concluded the Summit by pulling us all into one big, tight circle, where we went around the circle sharing, each of us, just one word/phrase that summarized the event for us. It was a special exercise, and certainly foregrounded the importance of person-to-person connection, and the strong sense of community that united us in that unforgettable moment. (NB: I don’t have a good photo of this at the moment, but if any of you attendees do, please share!)
Moving Forward
So how do we move these conversations forward, until the next Summit? A few ways come to mind:
- Next week, we will present a summary of the Summit for any interested SIGCHI members, and invite you all to get up to date and contribute. Join us at the SIGCHI EC open session on Zoom at either of the following times: on March 11/12 (in your time zone) or March 12/13 (in your time zone).
- We have been engaging on the ACM SIGCHI Slack, to which we invited all Summit participants, for ease of discussion and sharing of resources, in hybrid format. We will continue to use this space in the immediate future, to advance the above conversations. If you are keen to participate, please fill out this very short form.
- The SIGCHI EC has a plenary panel planned for CHI 2024, and a virtual+in-person town hall at CHI per usual, and we will present a report on the Summit and the state of these conversations there.
- We have been gathering volunteer (hi)stories through this short survey, and invite you to share yours with us.
- Email us at sigchi-4all@acm.org anytime with inputs or feedback.
That’s all for now, folks! We thank you again for getting this far, and for caring to join and contribute.
Acknowledgements: Once again, a big thank you to the entire EC for helping to make this happen, though a special thanks to Hao-Chuan Wang (VP Finance), Luigi De Russis (Executive VP), and Matt Jones (VP at Large) for ensuring the success of this event, and to Maristella Matera (Professor, Politecnico di Milano) for ensuring that there was even an event in the first place! There are also many, many PoliMi participants who made sure things went smoothly for us. Most importantly, I thank the 150+ participants (online and onsite) who brought a spirit of care, connection, and community to the Summit.
