Global Plaza
Trencadís de CHI26
Connecting Pieces. Creating Futures.
Houda Elmimouni, Yiyue Luo, Prerna Ravi,
CHI 2026 Global Inclusion and Equity Chairs
Juan Enrique Garrido Navarro and Shaimaa Lazem
Global Affinity Science Program
As CHI 2026 heads to Barcelona, we are delighted to share what’s coming for the conference’s global program. We planned a set of spaces and sessions designed to help people meet, connect, exchange ideas, and feel part of the CHI community, wherever they are coming from.
This year, CHI 2026 brings together two complementary efforts: the Global Plaza and a curated Global Science Program. Together, they create room for both informal connection and focused scientific exchange, before, during, and across the entire conference week.
Whether you are attending CHI for the first time, returning after a few years away, or deeply embedded in the community, these spaces are designed to help conversations start easily and continue meaningfully.
Building on the Momentum of Previous Editions
The Global Inclusion and Equity Initiative was introduced in recent CHI editions to make SIGCHI’s flagship conference more welcoming, especially for participants who face additional barriers to attending and participating (e.g., travel constraints, funding gaps, visa uncertainty, language barriers, or simply not having an established network inside CHI yet). One key outcome of that initiative has been the Global Plaza: a space where connection and mutual support are designed into the conference experience.
In CHI 2025, the Global Plaza theme, “A Sanctuary of Connection and Purpose,” showed what becomes possible when we create a deliberately human-scale, low-pressure space alongside the intensity of the main program. The Plaza helped newcomers find their footing, supported first-time authors, made it easier for SIGCHI chapters and regions to showcase their work, and created an “anchor point” for reconnecting throughout the week.
In CHI 2026, we are keeping the spirit that made the Plaza work, while strengthening continuity and scientific exchange. In Barcelona, we’re pairing the Plaza with a curated Global Affinity Science Program, so attendees can find community, navigate CHI and spark collaborations around concrete research agendas that reflect regional priorities and realities.
The Global Plaza: A Space to Meet, Pause, and Connect
At CHI 2026, the Global Plaza will be a welcoming community lounge, inspired by Mediterranean courtyards and town squares, where people gather naturally, linger, and talk. It’s a space to step out of the rush of the conference program and into conversation. In the Plaza, you’ll find:
- Chapter- and region-led meetups, organized around language, geography, or shared interests
- Informal side conversations during coffee and tea breaks
- Sessions for newcomers and first-time authors, including researchers joining CHI from neighboring fields
- Open discussions about how CHI works: reviews, decisions, awards, and publishing paths
- Multilingual and hybrid-friendly moments, whenever possible
The Global Plaza is intentionally small, relaxed, and human-scale. Many sessions are designed for small groups, making it easier to ask questions, share experiences, and actually get to know one another. Most importantly, it’s a place where conversations don’t end after a single session: you can reconnect later in the week, follow up on an introduction, or simply sit down and talk.
The Global Science Program (“Haciendo Piña”): Focused, Curated, Collaborative
Join us for the inaugural Global Science Program (“Haciendo Piña”) at CHI 2026, an interactive session dedicated to fostering global scientific collaboration. “Haciendo Piña” is about more than networking; it is about forming a supportive, close-knit group to navigate and co-create the global scientific community together.
Moving beyond traditional paper presentations, we are gathering regional visionaries, SIGCHI chapter leaders, and community builders to explore the future of HCI through diverse local lenses. It is a space of affinity, where researchers facing similar regional challenges can unite to support one another.
The session uses a “World Cafe” format designed to facilitate meaningful connections. Whether you are looking for research partners, mentorship, or student collaborators, you will have the opportunity to engage in structured dialogue and shared storytelling.
Stay tuned for the registration link!
Call for collaboration in the Global Plaza
To make the Global Plaza genuinely useful, we are designing it with community input. We will be circulating a short interest and input survey to help us:
- identify which regions, chapters, and language communities want to host or co-host sessions,
- understand what kinds of newcomer support and behind-the-scenes of CHI sessions would be most valuable,
- collect ideas for lightweight, high-impact formats that work for both in-person and hybrid participation, and
- do our best to schedule sessions in ways that are mindful of time zones and access constraints.
Please consider filling out our survey and sharing it with your chapters, labs, and networks.
Join Us in Creating a Mediterranean Synergy Lounge
Global Plaza @ CHI 2026 is a “Mediterranean Synergy” lounge: a confluence of shores, languages, and practices where CHI attendees can pause, connect, and imagine Creating Tomorrow Together. It’s more than a space; it’s a welcoming refuge inside the conference, where bridges are built through small conversations, gentle introductions, and shared curiosity.
To make this lounge as inclusive and vibrant as possible, we warmly invite volunteers and collaborators who share the vision of a globally connected CHI community. Whether you’d like to welcome virtual attendees, help spread the word, host or co-host a meetup, lead a session in your preferred language (with a brief English summary when possible), or bring a fresh idea that helps people connect across regions and disciplines. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re interested in getting involved, please complete our survey or reach out at global@chi2026.acm.org
We look forward to building it together, piece by piece, conversation by conversation, at CHI 2026 in Barcelona.