The SIGCHI Futures Summit 2024
Reimagining the Why, What, Who, and How of HCI Knowledge Production
Organized by the SIGCHI Executive Committee
As our community grows and the field of HCI becomes more diverse, this growth and diversity are reflected in the evolution of the SIGCHI organization. The motivations and approaches with which we produce and engage with HCI knowledge are evolving in numerous ways, across our many SIGCHI channels of production and dissemination. Those who have been in a conference committee or on social media lately would likely have witnessed discussions around various aspects of our HCI venues, which include the 26 conferences that we sponsor and several more held “in cooperation” with us. Our processes of knowledge production are also shaped by geopolitical, climate, and other changes at a global level.
Given this global (and) HCI context, the SIGCHI Executive Committee is organizing a 3-day SIGCHI Futures Summit, and invites past, present, and future leaders of the SIGCHI community to brainstorm and chart the changes they would like to see in the why, what, who, and how of HCI knowledge production. Among other things, we will discuss the institutional structures within which we operate, how we can ensure the sustainability of our conference communities and our discipline, whether and how we might revisit our publishing practices, if we can reduce the growing burdens we are placing on our volunteers, and more, all from a SIGCHI perspective.
The open call to determine participants is now live. In the “intent to participate” form, we ask for your position statement on the state of HCI publications, conferences, and communities, and how you would like to see this evolve over the next 5-10 years. As you write this, we ask you to think broadly to consider the challenges that are confronting us today as HCI communities, particularly in terms of sustainability (of the climate, funds, and our own processes), and how you would like SIGCHI—that is, all of us—to lead the way.
We would like to achieve the following with our Summit:
- A better understanding of the larger, interconnected challenges that confront our conferences and knowledge production—experienced by individuals and communities
- An identification of pathways that may allow us to address said challenges, and the collaborative approaches these might call for
- An outline of next steps, both for sharing back with the larger SIGCHI community, and moving forward with the approaches discussed
We welcome participation from those who have committed time and care to thinking about and working on our processes and venues of knowledge production. This means that you might have chaired a conference in the near past or are chairing one in the near future. You may have been a papers chair or technical program chair for an HCI conference. You might care deeply about research ethics or about sustainability, or about making volunteering more tenable across our volunteering venues. The form will ask you to make clear where your commitments lie, how your perspective has been shaped, and what you are driven to achieve. You might view this as a place to seek mentorship or to learn from others, or a place to share your knowledge and expertise with others in your community. You may simply wish to participate because you are responsible for steering a SIGCHI conference and want your conference to be represented. Whatever your motivations, we look forward to your contributions. Radical reimaginers, we welcome you!
Please see our call for participation. Nominate yourself or someone else.
Dates
The Summit will be held February 15–17, 2024.
The deadline to express interest to participate is December 10, 2023.
Notifications will be sent out on December 18, 2023.
Format and Logistics
The Summit will be organized as a hybrid event, with many sessions accessible to the wider SIGCHI community. The on-site location will be Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. This event is collocated with the inaugural community event of the SIGCHI Mediterranean Committee and hosted by Dr. Maristella Matera.
Everyone interested will be invited to attend the online sessions free of cost. Those who are able to attend in person, we ask that you indicate whether you need financial support and what costs you would ideally like for SIGCHI to cover. We have a budget for the event that allows for some travel reimbursement, but the support we can offer will depend on the response.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The SIGCHI Executive Committee
