Dear CHI 2020 community,
We promised to give you an update on the possibility of a virtual CHI 2020 as a result of the decision not to hold CHI 2020 physically in Hawaiʻi.
In extensive consultation with the SIGCHI Executive Committee and CHI Steering Committee, it was decided that it is best not to hold a virtual CHI 2020, given the uncertainty of current circumstances. We are extremely grateful for the offers from the community to help; however, our organizing-committee volunteers have already invested so much effort into CHI 2020, and many of them are already dealing with additional workloads as a consequence of Covid-19. CHI aims to be a first class event for both scientific and social interactions, and we believe it will not be possible to achieve the expected level of quality in a virtual conference given the limited time available between now and the conference dates.
The Doctoral Consortium and Student Research Competition (but not the Student Game Competition due to the need for playability of their games) as “self-contained” tracks with a selected participant pool will self-organize in order to virtually convene and provide feedback to their student participants. The Student Research Competition will also determine winners, as originally planned.
Workshops organizers may self-organize virtual events if they wish to bring their groups together, as they already know their participants.
SIGs, Panels, etc. may also self-organize virtual events, but again, we will not be able to provide any coordination or support from CHI 2020 for these events.
We would again like to thank everyone who has helped so much up to this point, and are sorry that this journey ends here. We especially like to thank the sponsors who generously donated their contributions to CHI 2020 to help offset cancellation costs, and inform you that the sponsor links on our recruiting page will remain live for those interested in making contact.
Again, we are very sorry that we cannot hold a physical or virtual CHI 2020, as we would have liked to “hang” with all of you, in some shape or form, but we hope to see you next year at CHI 2021 in Yokohama, Japan.
Thank you for all your support during these challenging times.
Mahalo!
Your General Chairs,
Regina & Floyd
Dear CHI 2020 community,
In response to the decision to not hold CHI 2020 physically in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, we want to first thank you for the supportive messages we received and how understanding everyone has been.
In discussion with the CHI Steering Committee, the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and the ACM, we have identified the best way to go about reimbursement. As this is an unprecedented event, CHI 2020 will refund all registration costs in full, regardless of whether you are an author or attendee. This includes registration costs for additional options such as workshops, courses, merchandise, carbon-offset, etc.
The registration team will process refunds starting now. Please be patient as we have a large volume of registrations to reimburse (in fact, we had the second highest number of registrations up to that point in the history of CHI). The registration team will refund your registration using the same means with which you paid (i.e., if your registration was paid via a credit card, it will be refunded to the same credit card). The registration team will contact you in case this is not possible, but of course they are available for any questions (chiregistration@executivevents.com) and are here to help.
To be clear, you do not need to do anything to start this process. If you have already paid the $100 cancellation fee, that fee will be reimbursed to you. Authors of papers do not need to pay any registration for their paper to appear in the Digital Library.
Keep in mind for flights and hotels you need to get in touch directly with your airline and/or hotel.
Many people asked us about the possibility of holding a virtual CHI 2020 event. We are still discussing this and weighing the pros and cons during these uncertain times. We are also preparing a FAQ sheet for some of the questions you might have.
The proceedings will be available in the ACM Digital Library, as planned, and they will be accessible for free for a one year period, starting from 25 April 2020 (the original day for the beginning of CHI 2020).
Thank you for all your support during these unusual times,
Mahalo,
Your General Chairs,
Regina & Floyd
Dear CHI 2020 community,
It is with a heavy heart that we need to tell you that we, together with the CHI Steering Committee, the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and ACM representatives have decided to not hold CHI 2020 physically in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. This was triggered by the declaration of the WHO that the Covid-19 situation is considered a pandemic. The health of our community is the biggest asset we have. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected and we want to express our heartfelt best wishes.
We are now thinking about what we can do about this situation, and are currently discussing alternative formats. We will let you know here as soon as we have more information.
Of course, this is sad news, but we find that these uncertain times demand decisions that are hard to anticipate. We understand that you might have lots of questions and what this means for presentations, publications, etc., and we are trying to figure these out along with the CHI Steering Committee, the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and the ACM. Please have patience as we figure out the best processes and communicate them here to you. Soon we will also post here how to go about requesting registration refunds, etc. There is, unfortunately, no template for a situation like this.
We would like to express our appreciation for our CHI 2020 committee and everyone who has worked so tirelessly with us for so many hours on our conference preparation. Thank you so much for all of the work you did.
We are very sad that the conference will not happen, at least in its current format, with all of us present in Hawaiʻi. We would have liked to meet you all there to discuss HCI with you and have a get together on the beach.
Again, we are both very sad about this unfortunate news, and our best wishes go out to everyone affected by the current situation.
Your General Chairs,
Regina & Floyd
Aloha!
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. CHI – pronounced ‘kai’ – is a place where researchers and practitioners gather from across the world to discuss the latest in interactive technology. We are a multicultural community from highly diverse backgrounds who together investigate and design new and creative ways for people to interact using technology.
From April 25th to 30th, CHI will, for the first time, take place in beautiful Honolulu, at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center on the island of Oahu, Hawaiʻi, USA.
Mahalo!
Regina Bernhaupt and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller
CHI 2020 General Chairs
generalchairs@chi2020.acm.org
