Note: CHI 2026 has no hybrid or remote attendance.
Important Dates
All times are in the Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.
- Thursday, January 22, 2026: Submission deadline
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: Notification
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: E-rights completion deadline
- Friday, February 27, 2026: Initial TAPS upload deadline (Author must upload their paper to TAPS)
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: Publication-ready deadline (Authors upload FINAL TAPS-approved version to PCS)
Submission Details
- Online submission: PCS Submission System
- Template: ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column)
- Submission length: Up to 6 pages (excluding references)
- Walkthrough video: Maximum 5 minutes (mandatory for review, optional for publication)
- Still image for promotional use: at least 1500 x 1200 px
- Envisioned Interaction, Floor Plan, and Equipment: Details describing what your booth will look like and how people will experience your demo. Authors will be asked to fill such information in PCS.
- Submissions are not anonymous and should include all author names, affiliations, and contact information.
We recommend that authors read the following two policies before submitting:
- The April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship and use of large language models (LLMs), and the SIGCHI blog post about it.
- The 2021 ACM Publications policy on research involving humans.
ACM Selection Process Category
Message from the Interactive Demos Chairs
The Interactive demos track is a high-visibility, high-impact forum of the Technical Program that allows you to present hands-on demonstrations, share novel interactive technologies, and stage interactive experiences. We encourage submissions from any area of human-computer interaction, including practical application domains as well as interactive entertainment, art, and design. Our interactive demos track is planned as an in-person event with live demonstrations on-site at CHI 2026 in Barcelona.
Interactive demos promote discussion on novel technologies, and invites contributions from academia, industry, research, startups, maker communities, art, and design. If you have an interesting prototype, device, system, performance, exhibit, experience or installation, we want to know about it! In particular, we encourage submissions that align with the CHI 2026 theme of “Creating Tomorrow Together”. As the interactive demos track focuses on the in-person experience, it is allowed for work to be submitted that has previously been accepted or presented as a paper or in other formats, as long as the demonstration adds a novel aspect to the existing work. We do ask you to provide a publication history for previously published work and explain how the Interactive demos would expand on it.
We look forward to receiving your submissions!
ACM Open
Content in this track will be published under ACM Open Access as an “extended abstract” article type. Extended abstract article types will not be charged an article processing charge (APC) for open access. For more information about which article types are subject to an APC, see the ACM article types summary.
Publication Policies & Requirements
Authors must review ACM’s publications policies. Please read this separate page for them.
Metadata Integrity
The abstract/metadata deadline is a hard deadline for listing all author names; there are no exceptions. Changes to the order of authors are allowed only during the Publication-Ready submission phase. The abstract/metadata is crucial to the integrity of the review process and author representation. If any of the authors need to be added or removed after the abstract/metadata deadline, the authors would need to withdraw their submissions/papers.
Minor changes to the title and abstract are permitted during the revision period.
Policy on Use of Large Language Models
Text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM), such as ChatGPT, must be marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s own text. Please review the April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship before using these tools. The SIGCHI blog post describes approaches to acknowledging the use of such tools, which we refer to for guidance. Note that the LaTeX template will default to hiding the Acknowledgements section while in review mode – please make sure that any LLM disclosure is available in your submitted version. While we do not anticipate using tools on a large scale to detect LLM-generated text, we will investigate submissions brought to our attention and desk-reject papers where LLM use is not clearly marked.
Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects
Any research in submitted manuscripts that involves human subjects must go through the appropriate ethics review requirements that apply to the authors’ research environment. As research environments vary considerably concerning their requirements, authors are asked to submit a short note to reviewers that provides this context. Please also see the 2021 ACM Publications policy on research involving humans before submitting.
Accessibility
Accessible submissions are essential for reviewers and are good practice. Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at access@chi2026.acm.org early in the writing process (the closer to the deadline, the less time the team will have to respond to individual requests).
Preparing and Submitting Your Interactive Demo Submission
Before the submission deadline, you must submit a 6-page single-column article detailing the work, a walkthrough video (up to 5 minutes), a promotional image, and additional information detailing the requirements for the exhibit.
Overview
Submissions must have the following components:
- Paper (due at submission)
- Walkthrough Video (due at submission)
- Still image (due at submission)
- Envisioned Interaction, Floor Plan, and Equipment (due at submission)
Please see the following recent examples of successful CHI Interactive demo submissions:
- MOFA: Exploring Asymmetric Mixed Reality Design Strategy for Co-located Multiplayer Between Handheld and Head-mounted Augmented Reality
- Demonstrating TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch
1. Paper
The paper should be up to 6 pages long in the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column, excluding references). It should be self-contained and clearly describe the novelty and distinguishing ideas of your project, and the user experience of interacting with it. This is especially valuable for readers who are not able to view the related demonstration at the conference or the walkthrough video. Your paper should include:
- An abstract summarizing your work within 150 words.
- A description of the system, installation, or exhibition and the problem it addresses. Where relevant, discuss the broader context and questions that your work promotes reflection upon.
- A description of the relevance of the work to the immediate CHI conference community, as well as to the broader CHI community, emphasizing its novelty, uniqueness, and rationale.
Authors must make their submissions (i.e., paper and video) accessible using recommendations found in the Guide to an Accessible Submission and Guide for Videos.
2. Walkthrough video
A video is the optimal medium to communicate your interactive demo to the reviewers. You must submit a walkthrough video in addition to your written documentation. This should clearly show how a user will interact with your system and how long the experience lasts for. The video can be no longer than 5 minutes. A short video (3 minutes or less) is recommended if it helps avoid verboseness.
All uploaded contents (PDF(s) + image + video) need to fit within the overall submission size of 250 MB. Videos must also be made accessible and properly encoded. Check the Guide for Videos for SIGCHI technical requirements. Submitted videos will be used for review purposes and are not published, but you will have an opportunity to revise and submit a walkthrough video for inclusion in the ACM Digital Library before the Publication-ready deadline. Be sure to have permission for all content, and use rights-free music tracks.
3. Still Image
You are required to upload a still image of at least 1500 x 1200 px that represents your work, and a suitable image description. The image may be used for publications and conference publicity.
4. Envisioned Interaction, Floor Plan, and Equipment
Alongside your submission, you are also required to provide the envisioned interaction through the PCS Submission System. This is an explicit description of how the interactive demo will be demonstrated and live-performed if the submission gets accepted. This includes the use of physical space, how larger crowds are handled, and how the experience will be from an on-site attendee’s point of view. You will also be asked to upload a floor plan of your demonstration to help plan for the on-site logistics. The standard booth is approximately 2 meters * 2 meters; if your demo requires more space, please ensure that your floor plan reflects this.
As a standard, the organizers will provide you with a table, WiFi, and electrical power outlets. You are required to specify how many outlets you need, along with any special requirements (e.g., specific lighting), at the time of submission in case you need additional resources. Later requests may not be considered. We also note that the feasibility of the demonstrations at the conference is considered in the review process; the requirements of too many additional resources and/or spaces could lead to rejection even though the submission shows strong contributions.
Due to the expected crowd during the Interactive demos, we will ask you to provide a plan for dealing with lines. We ask that you detail how you are going to limit your presentation time to a maximum of 5 minutes per person, and if possible make the experience visible and understandable for bystanders. This is especially important for demos based on wearables, AR/VR, haptics, and other forms of devices that allow only one visitor to experience them at a time.
Selection Process
Interactive demos track will be Reviewed. The selection process includes reviews by two co-chairs, or reviews by one co-chair and one external reviewer for better expertise matching.
Note that due to the short turn-around time, you will not receive feedback on your submission other than the acceptance decision. We intend to ensure that the Interactive demos track is exciting while representing a range of projects being undertaken across diverse CHI communities. The selection will also take into account feasibility, available space at the conference, and other relevant information.
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 selection process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity.
Interactive Demos for Accepted Papers
All the authors of the Papers track must make a separate submission to the Interactive demos track if they would like to show their accepted work as an Interactive demo. They do not need to prepare an extended abstract and may submit their accepted papers instead. Unlike previous years, we will not send out invitations to accepted papers.
Note that demo submissions with accepted papers will go through the same review process as normal submissions, and may be rejected depending on the appropriateness for this track as well as the feasibility of demonstrations at the conference.
Upon Acceptance of Your Submission
The corresponding author of a conditionally accepted submission has to follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version of the proposal by the Publication-Ready deadline. If the authors cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the venue chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the proposal from the program.
The publication-ready version has to follow the LaTeX and Word templates from ACM. Should you need technical assistance, please direct your technical query to publications@chi2026.acm.org.
Responsibility for obtaining permission to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people or proprietary content rests with the author, not the ACM or the CHI conference.
Please read the publication-ready author instructions.
AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is when the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks before the first day of the conference. The official publication date may affect the deadline for any patent filings related to published work. For those rare conferences whose proceedings are published in the ACM Digital Library after the conference, the official publication date remains the first day of the conference.
Interactive Demos and Sustainability
We are committed to making interactive demos at CHI 2026 as sustainable as possible. While the in-person demos will by necessity require travel and transport of some demo materials and equipment, we encourage presenters to:
- Minimize transportation: Avoid transporting non-essential equipment. As much as possible use locally sourced materials rather than shipping or transporting them.
- Minimize waste: Avoid single-use materials and reduce excess packaging waste when transporting your materials (e.g., with reusable containers).
- Recycle and dispose responsibly: Use recyclable materials with minimal impact on the environment, and dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way (e.g., donating useful materials to local charities rather than taking them back).
We will also give special consideration to demos that directly address sustainability issues; please make this clear in your submission.
At the Conference
Accepted authors must present their work at the conference synchronously in-person. Accordingly, a presenting author must register to the conference. You will be assigned a dedicated space in the exhibition hall at CHI 2026. You will be asked to present your exhibit during the specific slots at the conference. We will provide more details on logistics including the exact floor plan closer to the conference.
After the Conference
Accepted Interactivities papers and videos are distributed in the CHI Conference Extended Abstracts in the ACM Digital Library.
Contact Us
Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Karan Ahuja, Lisa Izzouzi, Mark Billinghurst
