We have been updating people on the waitlist, what happened, and how the waitlist overflowed. Even then, we still have authors who are trying to get in. We still have some reserved space and we are filling slots best we can, but we wanted to talk more in detail about how the waitlist operates.
As we mentioned in a previous post, in the 30 hours before early bird registration closed, we received 1,700 registrations. This put us in a danger zone of overselling as we knew there were pending presenters not in the queue. We put on a waitlist on March 4th which meant if you were not presenting, you went to a holding status. Presenters were processed first. Initially, that was the only criteria (that the author was a paper, demo, workshop presenter, etc.). At CHI accessibility, comfort, and safety come first, so packing our attendees in like sardines in a can is a non-option. As finding more space was needed; we procured overflow areas at the convention center. As we were nearing the upper threshold of full conference registrations, we noticed people with best paper award winners weren’t even on the waitlist. At this point, March 25th, we closed the waitlist with probably about 400 people strong on it (well beyond capacity). Some authors were still coming in without registrations or even waitlist reservations, so we put them in the queue for processing. It is also worth noting that a “sorry the waitlist closed” message was sent in error to a few people; with apologies, they were actually kept on the waitlist but we know this caused some confusion.
With the waitlist closed, we reprioritized the list. Presenters remained first. Demos and Awarded Paper Presenters were given top priority and direct easement. Then Paper Presenters were given registrations; note: this is just the presenter…if a paper had 12 authors, we could only slot the presenter. Posters were next in the queue. Of the non-awarded papers and posters, we ensured geographic distribution. The queue was never a strict first in first out. For Workshops and Meetups, we wanted to make sure a few organizers were registered. Before the waitlist closing, workshop presenters were given priority accommodation but in the later stage, they followed penultimate. Panels with missing panelists were told to find substitutions as needed. We’ll also point out (as it was asked to the General Chairs) being a SIGCHI and/or ACM member had no bearing on the waitlist; it only matters on what you were presenting.
The pending bucket is basically refreshed daily with new emails and shuffles—people being bumped one day got a better chance subsequent days. Open registrations do appear daily. More so, many people are facing late cancellations due to the current global situation. We extended the cancellation period from March 3rd pretty much until the conference. If someone encountered closed airspace on their flight to CHI, we wanted to make sure they could get a refund (minus a small handling fee charged by our vendor). Anyone needing to transfer their registration to another attendee can do so without fee (the individuals will need to work out payment details between the two of them). On social media and other circles, I’ve heard and seen people reaching out and exchanging registrations which is great and we thank people for supporting each other in this complex time.
Right now, we are still seeing slots free up and still processing pending registrations best we can. Regretfully, there will be some presenters who have to move to video presentation only, some presenters of workshops or meetups who may not get in, and many general admission people who just won’t be able to attend. This is very hard on them and us but we just cannot hold 6,000 people. We are trying to facilitate one day conference registrations where applicable which isn’t ideal but would let someone get into the venue to present that day and connect with other attendees.
So what about the future? This is a big question. First, a form instead of an email would be better for waitlisting but honestly, we should never get to this point. On the flip side, if we kept a space for every author, that would be 10,000 people which is also not realistic. Other plans could include holding the registration open for presenters for a limited duration first before opening to general admission, but many people (in fact most of them registering now) did not have institutional funding until late so they wouldn’t have been able to register anyhow. Another plan would be to give registration codes for one author per paper or poster, maybe a few per demo, and a handful for workshops and other tracks. This would take some infrastructure to build out but could work. CHI also needs to rethink how it traditionally predict attendance—that algorithm needs updating for sure. We’ve given advice to the Steering Committee and the Executive Committee to plan for more people in future CHIs but many venues for the next several years are already booked. You can look out for town halls and other joint sessions to discuss this as a community.
Registration for CHI 2026 has been arduous; we appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding during this difficult time and respect the professionalism we’ve seen from many given the circumstances. We will continue to provide updates as things develop.