Open Call 2023 for Expressions of Interest for CHI Leadership Roles

Call closes 20 September 2023

TL;DR: The CHI Steering Committee (SC) is seeking expressions of interest (self nomination or nomination of others) for people interested in serving the CHI community in future key leadership roles: CHI conference General Chairs and Technical Program Chairs for CHI2026 and beyond. Note: An open call will be repeated each year.

CHI Conference Leadership 

We invite Expressions of Interest from people, or nominations of people, who are willing to take on CHI conference leadership roles of General Chair (GC) and/or Technical Program Chair (TPC) for CHI2026 or future years*. These roles require significant organisational involvement with prior CHI Conferences, or chairing other SIGCHI conferences, and managing significant budgets or managing the technical program of a conference. 

Work in these roles is substantial. Tasks are expected to start ~2+ years prior to the appointed conference, with more intensive work in the year leading up the conference, and wrap-up tasks in the 6 months beyond the conference. See below for role-specific information.

Note: Given the scale and complexity of the CHI conference, and needing to plan multiple years in advance, the SC will have already made decisions related to geographic location and venue before the appointment of GCs and TPCs for that year. These decisions are publicly announced at the CHI two years in advance but will be shared confidentially with invited chairs as input to their decision making on whether to accept the role or not. For CHI 2026, the conference is intended to be held in Europe, according to the CHI Conference location rotation schedule. 

GENERAL CHAIR: 

The key overall responsibilities for General Chairs include:

  • Create and lead a diverse team to deliver the organisational aspects for the conference
  • Set the overall conference direction, e.g., deciding the conference theme, attendance modality, etc in line with the ‘Core to CHI’ policy and the strategic directions from the CHI Steering Committee
  • Manage the CHI conference budget in conjunction with ACM
  • Ensure that appropriate SIGCHI policies are adhered to in delivering the overall conference experience
  • Liaise with the logistics contractor (currently Executive Events) to oversee all logistical and organisational details
  • Work effectively with the Technical Program Chairs and other organisation committee chairs (not under TPC oversight) to deliver the conference experience

The key criteria to serve as CHI General Chair include:

  • Senior level or significant involvement with prior or upcoming CHI Conference
    Organizing Committees; and/or experience as a senior organiser of a SIGCHI-related conference and managing budgets
  • Regular participation in the CHI conference as an author and attendee
  • Ideally support from employer for the time needed for the role

TECHNICAL PROGRAM CHAIR: 

The key overall responsibilities for Technical Program Chairs include:

  • Create and lead a diverse team to deliver the technical content for the conference
  • Liaise with ACM to oversee the publication process
  • Manage the schedule and virtual content of the technical program of the conference 
  • Manage the allocation of venue space and layouts 
  • Ensure that appropriate regulations and procedures are adhered to in delivering the technical content
  • Work effectively with the General Chairs to deliver the schedule for conference

The key criteria to serve as CHI Technical Program Chair include:

  • Senior level or significant involvement with prior or upcoming CHI Conference
    Organizing Committees; and/or significant experience in the technical program organising committee of a SIGCHI-related conference 
  • Understanding of the systems and tools used in the SIGCHI publication process: TAPS, PCS, Templates, etc.
  • Regular participation in the CHI conference as an author and attendee
  • Ideally support from employer for the time needed for the role.

PROCESS: 

Submission of Expression of Interest / Nominations:

You can nominate as an individual or as part of a pair GC or TPC pair, or as a combined GC and TPC team or part thereof. Each person will need to submit their own EOI and name their team partners/roles.

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) will include a short biography along with a brief statement of the specific role you are interested in, how you meet the criteria noted above, and preferred future CHI year(s) in which you would be willing to serve. 

Nomination of another person should also address the same content, and in addition make clear that the person has agreed in advance to being nominated.

Please fill out this short Survey Monkey form by 20 September 2023.

Decision process:

The decisions about future CHI leadership teams will be made by the CHI Steering Committee. The EOIs will serve as one set of inputs to the decision making process, along with other considerations e.g., about diversity of gender, geography, institution etc, mix of expertise, and location-specific needs.  

Towards this process, the SC and its SC Future Chairs and Volunteer Development Director:

  • Will help publicise the call for Expressions of Interest
  • May identify and approach potential candidates to directly to assess their interest 
  • Will review all potential candidates and Expressions of Interest
  • Will create a short-list for the CHI SC chair to take to the SIGCHI Executive Committee for final approval – the short list will be based on:
    • Record of SIGCHI conference leadership
    • Record of CHI involvement
    • Response from the annual open calls
    • Suggestions gathered from SC, OC, and EC
    • Conference location**
    • Team diversity
  • Will make formal invitations once approved***

Will follow relevant SIGCHI and ACM policies, e.g., as laid out in the  SIGCHI Bylaws, the SIGCHI Conflict of Interest Policy, and the ACM Conflict of Interest Policy, along with guidelines to check the ACM Violations Database

* CHI2025 leadership team is already in place.
** Note that CHI GC and TPC selections occur after the conference location has been selected. However this is still confidential until it is publicly announced at the CHI two years prior. Selections will therefore also be mindful of the local and diasporic communities of researchers connected to that conference location. For CHI 2026, the conference is intended to be held in Europe, according to the CHI Conference location rotation schedule.
*** Invited persons will be informed confidentially about the conference location to include as part of their own decision making process