What is a Special Interest Group?
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) enable conference attendees sharing a common interest to meet informally for 80 minutes of facilitated discussion during a scheduled session at the conference. SIGs offer excellent opportunities for dialog and deliberation on a specific topic. The conference provides each SIG with meeting space and advertises SIG meetings to the rest of the conference in the Extended Abstracts and Conference Program.
Quick Facts
Important Dates
- Submission deadline:
January 7th, 2019 (12pm (noon) PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT) - Notification deadline:
February 4th, 2019 - Publication-ready deadline:
February 10th, 2019
Submission Details
- Online Submission: PCS Submission System
- Template: Extended Abstracts Format
- Submission Format: 4-page Extended Abstract and supplementary material describing the SIG
- Selection Process: Curated
- At the Conference: Accepted SIGs will have a scheduled session at the conference
- Archives: SIG Extended Abstracts will be published in the Extended Abstracts and in the ACM Digital Library
Please note: CHI 2019 is using a new version of Precision Conference System (PCS 2.0). You will need to create a new login/password for this system.
Message from the Special Interest Groups Chairs
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) provide an opportunity to attract a group of conference attendees who share a common interest and engage them in face-to-face discussions. Organizing a SIG is a great way to start or extend your involvement in the CHI conference program. Several SIGs have evolved into other successful contribution types at subsequent conferences. In addition to interesting, timely and novel SIG topics, we also encourage creative approaches to conducting the SIG itself. While the SIG should provide a structure for discussion, successful SIGs have used exciting approaches to promote lively debate. For instance, last year formats for the SIG session included a designathon, a reflection exercise, and sketching group.
If you have any doubts regarding SIGs, we welcome you to contact us before submitting your proposal to discuss your ideas for innovative and attractive SIGs!
Rob Comber, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Lindsay Reynolds, Facebook, USA
Email: sigs@chi2019.acm.org
Preparing and Submitting your Special Interest Groups Proposal
SIG submissions must be submitted via the PCS Submission System by January 7th, 2019, (12pm (noon) PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT). The proposal must have the following components (submitted as a single PDF file):
- Extended Abstract: A 4-page description of the SIG, suitable for publication in the Extended Abstracts Format
- Supplementary Material (also mandatory).
- A brief description of the community (or communities) to which this SIG would be of interest and why it is of interest.
- Assumed attendee background.
- The approach you will use for organizing and presenting the SIG.
- An informal schedule of discussion topics.
- Your plan to attract a reasonable number of attendees.
- Which organizer should serve as the primary contact.
While not strictly required, we prefer that proposals be authored by a minimum of two individuals representing at least two different organizations. We also encourage prospective SIG organizers to examine examples of accepted SIG abstracts from recent CHI conferences, available for download from the ACM Digital Library.
Special Interest Group Selection Process
Submissions are Curated; although the process is highly selective, it does not necessarily follow a reviewing process by a committee, and authors should not expect to receive formal feedback on their submission other than the selection decision. We will notify authors of acceptance decisions by February 4th, 2019.
Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information which will be published on the website prior to the conference.
Upon Acceptance of your Special Interest Group Submission
Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection on February 4th, 2019.
Authors of accepted submissions will receive instructions on how to submit their publication-ready copy (which will consist of your extended abstract only). Publication-ready submissions are due on February 8th, 2019.
At the Conference
Accepted SIGs will have a scheduled, 80 minutes long session at the conference. After your SIG is accepted, we will notify you what technical support will be available. Rooms will be set up to facilitate discussion.
After the Conference
After the conference, the organizers are encouraged to continue their SIG by organizing a workshop at a future conference or creating and maintaining a website. Accepted SIG abstracts will be distributed in the CHI Conference Extended Abstracts, available in the ACM Digital Library.
