Note: CHI 2026 has no hybrid or remote attendance.
Important Dates
All times are in 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, October 2, 2025: Submission deadline
- Thursday, November 20, 2025: Notification deadline
- Thursday, November 27, 2025: e-rights completion deadline
- Thursday, December 4, 2025: Publication-ready deadline
Submission Details
- Online submission: PCS Submission System
- Template: ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column)
- Meet-up proposals should be a maximum of 3-pages (excluding references and mandatory supplementary material describing the meet-up)
- 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.
Message from the Meet-Ups Chairs
Meet-ups enable conference attendees sharing a common interest to meet informally for a facilitated discussion during a scheduled session at the conference, without requiring them to previously submit a contribution. Meet-ups offer excellent opportunities for dialogue and deliberation on a specific topic and organizing a meet-up can be a great way to start or extend your involvement in the CHI conference program. The conference provides each meet-up with meeting space and advertises meet-ups to the rest of the conference in the Conference Program.
In addition to interesting, timely, and novel meet-up topics, we also encourage creative approaches to conducting the meet-up itself. While the meet-up should provide a structure for discussion, it may also use exciting approaches to promote lively debate. For instance, a meet-up could involve a design-athon, a reflection exercise, a sketching group, a debate, breakout group discussions, but also boardgame, meditation, yoga, improv (interactive) performance, or jam sessions.
All meet-ups will be free and open to attend for anyone with a registration to the conference. Given the in-person format for CHI 2026, all meet-ups will be in-person only.Please be advised that a meet-up proposal should not require special equipment or dedicated catering services provided by the main organization of the conference, outside of accessibility necessities.
Should I Consider the Panel, Workshops, or Meet-Ups track?
Panels are interactive, discussion-oriented forums in which audience members are participants in the discussion. Workshops are meetings of subject matter experts exploring new knowledge. Meet-ups enable attendees with a common interest to meet for informal but facilitated discussions during the main conference program.
| Track | Primary Purpose | Style | Example Activites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | Collaborative work and discussion on focused HCI topics | Position papers, hands-on methods, group synthesis | Tutorial on data ethics, working groups on design tools |
| Meet-Ups | Social or networking gatherings around shared interests | Informal, participant-led | Meet fellow HCI researchers from your region |
| Panels | Structured discussions with audience interaction | Debate, Q&A, expert insights | Ethics of Al panel with audience polling |
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 Meet-Up Proposal
Meet-up submissions must be submitted via the PCS Submission System. The submission must have the following components:
- Meet-up Proposal: A max. 3-page description of the meet-up (excluding references), suitable for publication in the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column). The proposal should address the following points:
- The main goal of the meet-up (e.g., to bring together a specific community, to serve as a networking opportunity, or to foster discussion on a specific topic) and why this meet-up is relevant to the conference attendees
- A brief overview of the activities for the meet-up and how it fits into the timeslot
- A description of the organizers and their suitability to run this meet-up
- A brief description of the community (or communities) to which this meet-up would be of interest and why it is of interest.
- Supplementary Material (also mandatory) using the same template and up to 2-pages.
- Assumed attendee background.
- The approach you will use for organizing and presenting the meet-up.
- An informal schedule of discussion topics.
- Your plan to attract a reasonable number of attendees.
- Which organizer should serve as the primary contact?
- Requirements for the venue (e.g., required space, specific room setup)
While not strictly required, we prefer that proposals be authored by a minimum of two individuals representing at least two different organizations.
Selection Process
Submissions are Juried; 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. Space constraints for available rooms will also be considered as criteria.
We consider the following selection criteria in descending order of priority:
- Appeal to the community: Is the topic both timely and of wide enough appeal to attract a significant audience? At the same time, is the topic sufficiently focused to allow for productive discussion during the meet-up? Too narrow, and the meet-up might attract too few people; too broad, and it is difficult to keep focused.
- Ability to provide opportunities for networking: Does the meet-up facilitate social interactions and networking with other attendees beyond common one-to-many or few-to-many formats of other tracks?
- Ability to foster novel perspectives and discussions: Does the meet-up offer new perspectives that are not part of the main program? Does it facilitate discussions on topics relevant to sub-communities and/or the larger CHI community?
- Feasibility: Is the proposed meet-up feasible to organize considering the constraints of the track and conference?
- Format: Is the proposed format conducive to discussion and shared insight? Will it be possible to achieve its aims? Meet-ups are not workshops, nor project showcases, nor tutorials.
- Diversity of perspective: It helps to be able to show that the meet-up will be able to encompass a wide perspective, and that the organizers can accommodate and facilitate discussion across this breadth. Places to show this are in the description of the intended community, the assumed attendee background, and the home institutions and disciplines of the organizers.
- Relevance and uniqueness of topic: We will evaluate the proposal in relation to the overall meet-ups program, the larger conference program, and relevance to the main conference theme.
- Composition of the Organizing Team: Is the team of organizers suitable for the proposed topic? Will they be able to successfully run the proposed program?
- Continuity: Does the meet-up support the development of a longer-term interest group, for example, follow-on meet-ups or other types of contributions at subsequent CHI and other conferences, or a SIGCHI Community? If the topic is a very recent or new one, or a revival of an old topic, then arguments will need to be made, to demonstrate that it is a topic that will persist, rather than simply being this year’s fashion. If the topic is a continuation of previous SIG(s), then it is necessary to present the latest developments of the topic and their projection into the future.
Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, the 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.
As meet-ups represent a new submission track, CHI 2026 will mark the first instance of their inclusion in the conference program. Consequently, we do not yet have examples of accepted meet-up submissions to share. We would like to emphasize that meet-ups are distinct from SIGs or workshops as they are broader.
What is not a Meet-Up?
We encourage creative submissions for meet-ups from the community and understand that it may be difficult to assess the track’s scope. To provide some more guidance, here are a few examples of what is not part of meet-ups:
- Any event that is part of another track (e.g., workshops, panels, or interactivity)
- A course (this should be submitted to the workshop track)
- Any event that is longer than one session
- Any event that would take place outside of the conference venue
- Any event that is online only or requires a hybrid setup
- Any event that is not open to all attendees (subject to room capacity); meet-ups do not have a submission & selection process that workshops do
- Any event that requires attendees to prepare content to be able to participate, e.g., a game competition with games created outside of the meet-up; however, a game competition would be in-scope if it is run as a lightning game jam that fits into the regular meet-up time slot
- Any event that requires special equipment or dedicated catering services provided by the main organization of the conference, outside of accessibility necessities.
Upon Acceptance of Your Submission
Contact authors of accepted papers will receive instructions on preparing and submitting the final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline. If the authors cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the Papers Chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the paper from the program. For any issues relating to the publication phase, please contact publications@chi2026.acm.org.
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.
CHI 2026 papers will be published under ACM Open Access and APC eligible. Reading ACM Open Access Publication for more details. 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.
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.
At the Conference
Accepted meet-ups will have a scheduled session at the conference. After your meet-up is accepted, we will notify you what technical support will be available. Rooms will be set up to facilitate discussion.
Authors and organizers of accepted meet-ups are expected to take an active role in promoting their session, both before and during the conference, to ensure broad visibility and inclusivity and encourage diverse participation. Since meet-ups are open to all registered CHI attendees at no additional cost and do not require advance sign-up during registration, it is not possible to anticipate attendance numbers in advance. All meet-ups will appear in the official conference programme and will be accessible on a drop-in basis. As such, sustained and strategic outreach is essential to attract potential participants and ensure meaningful engagement.
After the Conference
After the conference, the organizers are encouraged to continue their meet-up by organizing a workshop at a future conference or creating and maintaining a website. Accepted meet-up proposals will be published in CHI Conference Companion Proceedings in the ACM Digital Library.
Contact Us
Laura Cabrera-Quiros, Julian Frommel, Asreen Rostami