Panels

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, November 19, 2026: Submission deadline
Thursday, January 14, 2027: Notification deadline
Thursday, January 21, 2027: e-rights completion deadline
Thursday, January 28, 2027: TAPS upload deadline (Author must upload their final paper source to TAPS for processing)
Thursday, February 11, 2027: Publication-ready deadline (Authors upload final TAPS-approved version to PCS)
Thursday, March 4, 2027: Conference registration deadline

Note: All deadlines include a 24-hour grace period in which submissions can still be edited. This period is provided solely for contingency and should not be treated as an extension. No support will be available, and authors must not contact the chairs regarding submission issues once the official deadline has passed.

Submission Details

Online submission: PCS Submission System
Template: ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column)
Submission length: Up to 6 pages (excluding references).
Submissions are not anonymous and should include all author names, affiliations, and contact information.

ACM Selection Process Category

Reviewed

Message from the Panels Chairs

Panels are an interactive, discussion-oriented forum in which audience members also actively participate. Organizers are strongly encouraged to propose topics likely to be of broad interest to the CHI community and interactive sessions that will engage both the panelists and the audience in creative ways. Panels should not be a series of short talks, akin to a paper session.

Panels differ from papers in that panels do not need to contain original research. They differ from other venues like interactivity in that they do not need to present a system or service. Panels are distinctive in their focus on:

discussing topics of interest to the CHI community;
focusing on audience interaction with the panelists.

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 Activities
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	World Café, Think-Pair-Share, Speed Networking, Opinion Line
Panels	Structured discussions with audience interaction	Debate, Q&A, expert insights	Ethics of Al panel with audience polling

Example Topics

A key feature of panels is the issue’s importance in our community. The following list names a few example topics that may be interesting to consider:

HCI meets generative AI: How HCI can benefit from and assist generative AI, how can it help address ethical considerations, etc.
Human-Robot Interaction: building trust and collaboration between humans and machines
Web next gen: designing for Web3 and the decentralized Internet
Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality / Extended Reality futures
Opportunities and challenges of brain-computer interfaces
The future of work and collaboration: automation, AI, remote/hybrid working, etc.
The impact of social media and technology on mental health and well-being
Inclusive design in global contexts: addressing cultural and linguistic diversity
The role of HCI in age-tech: designing for older adults and diverse abilities
The role of HCI in addressing global challenges such as climate change and pandemics
HCI and public policy: shaping technology for social good
Bridging academia and industry in HCI and UX
The future of HCI research methods: exploring new approaches and methodologies
The future of CHI: new directions and emerging challenges

A Note on Terminology

Organizer: Coordinates and organizes the panel and the submission and invites moderators and panelists. Can also be a moderator or a panelist.
Moderator: Moderates the panel. Might also be an organizer, but not necessarily.
Panelist: Speaks/discusses on the panel. Might also be an organizer, but not necessarily.
Author: Everyone listed on the submission, including all moderators and panelists (each of whom may also be an organizer).

All organizers, moderators, and panelists invited to speak/present at the session are responsible for registering to the conference and paying their conference registration fees.

Panel Format

Panels are in-person only. In previous conferences, highly successful panels had the following characteristics:

A strong moderator who was able to facilitate, help people express their opinions, as well as limit off-topic discussions.
Discussion framed as a debate with a clear question.
Panelists with naturally opposing viewpoints, positions, and backgrounds.
Adequately prepped panelists who are debriefed for the session.
Clear strategies for involving the audience in discussions.

Effective panels have been designed in many forms and formats. For example, a panel session may include a group of experts who debate a topic or theme, enact some aspect of their expertise, or reflect on and compare their diverse experiences. Panels must include involvement from the audience – such as through questions and answers, voting or critique of the experts’ presentations, discussion, using web-based or mobile technologies, use of the physical room, or other mechanisms – and your proposal should clearly explain how you would involve the audience and encourage interactivity. Panels can take the form of a traditional panel of discussants with a moderator, a fireside chat in which an individual gets interviewed by a moderator, a roundtable in which the moderator(s) pose questions to the audience for discussion, a town hall session, or another proposed format. While we encourage discussions that provide multiple perspectives and controversy, rancor or ad hominem attacks are unprofessional and must be avoided.

We highly encourage panel organizers to minimize the number of panelists to provide for fruitful and cohesive discussion. The best panels tend to have fewer panelists and more interaction with the audience. We also encourage debate and discussion; we will not accept panels where time is primarily allocated to pre-prepared presentations by panel members.

Fostering a diversity of ideas and viewpoints is crucial for enriching panel discussions. Panels should ideally offer a multitude of valuable insights and approaches to the challenges and opportunities facing HCI and beyond by bringing together researchers and practitioners from various backgrounds and with different areas of expertise. Additionally, it is important to us that panels represent the diversity of CHI’s community, including diversity of experience, social/professional background, geographic location, nationality, native language, ethnicity, age, gender, etc. Proposals with panelists that have very similar backgrounds and profiles may be less favorably considered.

Panels can cover issues of pragmatic or applied importance in addition to research issues relevant to both academia and industry. Panels are a great place to sound some of the major debates of the field, whether about how we develop scholarly knowledge or teach and apply that knowledge.

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 metadata is crucial to the integrity of the review process and author representation. Therefore, the paper submission deadline is a hard deadline for listing all author names; there are no exceptions. See the SIGCHI blog post for further information. Changes to the order of authors are allowed only during the Publication-Ready submission phase. If any of the authors need to be added or removed after the paper submission deadline, the authors would need to withdraw their submissions/papers. The affiliations entered in PCS during submissions are final. Affiliations used for submission must stay on the paper per ACM policy, only a secondary affiliation can be added. Title changes are only permitted only if specifically requested by the chairs.

Policy on Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors must follow the standing policy on the use of artificial intelligence, such as large language models, in the creation of academic work. Please review the ACM Policy on Authorship before using these tools.

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@chi2027.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 the Panel

A maximum 6-page proposal (excluding references) in the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column) submitted as a single PDF file. In the LaTeX format, use \documentclass[manuscript]{acmart}. Use of different templates or formats may result in desk reject.

The panel proposal should include:

The panel’s title.
An abstract summarizing your work within 150 words.
The names and affiliations of 1-3 organizers/moderators and up to 5 additional panelists.
- You may also list panelists who have been invited, but have not yet confirmed. Nonetheless, we encourage organizers to get confirmation from as many panelists as possible prior to submission.
- All panelists must be listed as authors in the proposal and in the PCS Submission System for scheduling reasons, and all authors must be panelists, panel moderators, organizers or have contributed in some meaningful way to the preparation of the panel.
- You must list why these moderators and panelists were selected, and what qualifications they bring.
- We recommend a maximum of 1-3 organizers/moderators and 5 additional panelists. If a panel requires more than 5 panelists (e.g., to contribute to CHI’s inclusion and equity goals), the proposal must provide rationale.
A summary of the main topic(s) to be presented, debated, discussed, enacted; any lessons or experiences you hope to convey in the session; as well as contrasting or controversial perspectives on the topic(s).
A description of the proposed panel’s format and how the panel organizers will ensure discussion and interactivity. Describe how you will run the panel, the organizers’/panelists’/moderators’ roles, and any special logistical needs (e.g., special seating or A/V, audience size limitations, involvement of student volunteers, accessibility requirements, language-support requests, etc.).
Regardless of the topic, all panel proposals must include a plan for engaging audience members.
You need to persuade the chairs that your panel will be exciting, enjoyable, well-attended, and relevant to the CHI community.

Your proposal must stand alone; readers must be able to get something out of the proposal even if they do not attend the panel session.

If any special logistics are involved (e.g., seating, student volunteers, unique technological setup), organizers should alert the Panel Chairs (panels@chi2027.acm.org) before the submission deadline. Later requests may not be considered.

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. 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.

Selection Process

Submissions will be reviewed by a jury; 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 a criterion.

Review Criteria

Panels present ideas that are novel, controversial, or engaging, and that inspire the audience to respond and further elaborate. We aim to select a balance of panels to appeal to the wide variety of CHI attendees. The review criteria will consider the extent to which the session includes:

One or more topics likely to evoke a lively response from the CHI attendees.
Invited panelists who will contribute unique perspectives, content, or other interactive content to the session.
A well-organized and feasible session plan.
A novel and creative session plan that emphasizes audience interaction.
Useful and interesting contributions to HCI.
Appropriate levels of diversity in panelist selection (most importantly diversity of ideas and areas of expertise, but also characteristics like experience, geographic location, nationality, native language, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.).
Likely to draw a large audience.
Content that is unlikely to be seen by CHI audiences elsewhere in the conference.

Upon Acceptance of the 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.

For publication, all accepted submissions must be in double-column format. In the double-column format, the text is not allowed to exceed 4 pages, excluding references. Adding appendices is not allowed; however, the authors may upload supplementary material with additional information.

Please read the publication-ready author instructions. 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@chi2027.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.

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.

Accepted panel proposals will be published as Panels in the ACM Digital Library.

ACM Open

At the Conference

Panels will be included in the conference program, and will have a dedicated session in parallel with other sessions. Panel organizers are strongly advised to meet with their invited panelists prior to their session to ensure a coordinated effort.

Panel organizers are also reminded that panelists invited to speak/present at the session are responsible for their conference registration fees. There are one-day registrations available for panelists who do not wish to attend the entire conference.

We expect that the majority of the organizers attend the meet-up. At least one organizer needs to register by the registration deadline and attend the conference to organize the meet-up; otherwise, the meet-up will be canceled.

Accepted contributions may be scheduled at any time during the conference. Authors must ensure their availability, as individual scheduling requests cannot be accommodated.

Contact Us

Smit Desai and Yixin Zou

panels@chi2027.acm.org