Quick Facts
- Submission deadline: 7 January 2014 (5:00pm PT)
- Online submission: PCS Submission System
- Notification: 10 February 2014
- Camera-ready deadline: 17 February 2014
- Submission format: Unanonymized maximum 6- page proposal in Extended Abstract Format.
- Selection process: Curated
- At the conference: Accepted panels will be presented in a 80-minute session at the conference
- Archives: Extended abstracts DVD and ACM Digital Library
Message from the Panels Chairs
The format of Panels is intentionally left open. However, panel sessions are not just papers sessions that go through a different review process. We do not wish to see panels that are merely a set of talks with limited interaction among panelists. Additionally, no matter what you propose, Panel Organizers are encouraged to think of ways to promote lively dialogue between the set of experts on the panel and the audience.
Gillian Hayes, UC Irvine
Khai Truong, University of Toronto
CHI 2014 Panels Co-chairs
What is a Panel?
Panels are 80-minute sessions that involve significant interaction with audience members. Effective panels have been designed in many forms and formats. For example, the session may include a group of experts invited to debate a topic or theme, enact some aspect of their expertise, or reflect on and compare their diverse experiences. ACs may suggest panels to surround accepted or rejected full papers if the topic seems particularly interesting to the community and appropriate for panel discussion. They may do so in collaboration with the paper authors or simply suggest to the paper authors that they should submit a panel. Either way, these panels would go through the standard panel review process.
Panels must include involvement from the audience, through questions and answers, voting or critique of the experts' presentations, extensive discussion, or other mechanisms, and your proposal should explain how you would involve the audience were your panel selected. While we encourage panels that provide multiple perspectives and controversy, rancor or ad hominem attacks are not professional and should be avoided.
We highly encourage panel organizers to minimize the number of panelists to provide for fruitful and satisfying discussion; we will not allow more than five panelists under any circumstances and note that the best panels tend to have fewer speakers (four or fewer) and more interaction with the audience. We also encourage debate and discussion.
It is important to us that panels represent the diversity of CHI's community, including diversity of gender, experience, national origin, native language, race, ethnicity, and sexual identity. Panels that have all representatives from one part of the globe or one gender will not be favorably considered without some changes. Additionally, a diversity of ideas is strongly encouraged. Panels can cover issues of pragmatic or applied importance in addition to research issues. 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.
Preparing and Submitting your Panel
The Panel proposal must be a single PDF file, no longer than 6 pages, submitted via the PCS Submission System by January 7, 2014 (5:00PM PDT). The proposal must be in the Extended Abstract Format: The extended abstract should include the title of the panel; the names and affiliations of the organizer(s), confirmed invited participants, and participants who have been invited but not confirmed. Although they can be invited only at the time of the submission, we encourage organizers to get confirmation from as many participants as possible prior to submission. All participants must be confirmed at the time of camera ready, no exceptions. Within the 6-page constraint you should summarize the main topic(s) to be presented, debated, discussed, enacted, and any lessons or experiences you hope to convey in the session, as well as contrasting or controversial perspectives on the topic(s). You need to persuade the chairs that your panel will be exciting, enjoyable, well-attended, and relevant to the CHI community. You must list who will participate, how they have been recruited, why these people were selected, what qualifications they bring, and so on.
All panelists must be listed as Authors on the document and in Precision Conference for scheduling reasons, and all authors must be panelists or the panel moderator, no exceptions. You must include the session format: how you will run it, the invited participants' role, your role, the audience role, and any special logistical needs (e.g., special seating or A/V, audience size limitations, use of student volunteers, expectations about attendee background or interests, etc.).
Your proposal must stand alone; readers must be able to get something out of the abstract even if they do not attend the panel session. Regardless of the topic, all session proposals should include a plan for engaging audience members in the interaction.
Confidentiality of submissions is 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.
Experience suggests that it is better to have fewer panelists. Again, we will not allow more than five panelists except in extreme circumstances.
Selection and Acceptance Process for Panels
This year, panels will have a mix of invited and curated content. All proposals submitted through this open call will be Curated. The Chairs will determine which panels are accepted on the basis of the review criteria below, and may decide to bring in outside experts for further review. Organizers will be provided with the reviews of their submission after the decision is announced. There is no mechanism for author response in the review of Panels, and decisions are final, but in some special cases, the panels chairs may request changes to the panel proposal as a condition of its acceptance: a "conditional accept". Organizers will be provided with the reviews of their submission after the decision is announced. We encourage panel coordinators to respond to suggestions from the Panel Chairs as part of the conditional accept rapidly and to engage in constructive dialog to produce the best overall panel experience for the conference.
Authors will be notified of acceptance, conditional acceptance or rejection on 10 February 2014, or shortly after. Contact authors/organizers of accepted Panels will receive instructions on how to prepare and submit the camera-ready version of their Panels. These will be due on 17 February 2014.
Review Criteria
Panels present ideas that are novel, controversial, or engaging, inspiring the audience to respond and further elaborate the ideas. The Chairs 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 participants who will contribute unique perspectives, content, or other interactive content to the session
- a well-organized and feasible session plan
- useful and interesting contributions to HCI
- appropriate levels of diversity in panelist selection
- likely to draw large attendance
- content that is unlikely to be seen by CHI audiences elsewhere in the conference
Your Panel At the Conference
Your panel will be included in the conference program, and will have an 80-minute slot in its own room (subject to other requirements). Panels will take place during the main conference in parallel with other sessions. Session organizers are strongly advised to meet with their invited participants prior to their session to ensure a coordinated effort. If any special logistics are involved (e.g., seating, student volunteers, special A/V) organizers should also check in with Scooter Morris, Technology Liaison techliaison@chi2014.acm.org
Your Panel After the Conference
Panels can often be a jumping-off point for future work. Previous panels have become the starting point for special issues of journals or books, or follow-up panels, papers, workshops, SIG meetings or Communities. We encourage panel organizers to think about the potential of their panels to inform future work. Accepted Panel abstracts will be distributed in the CHI Conference Extended Abstracts, available at the conference on DVD and in the ACM Digital Library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide. Some of these Panels may also be recorded at the conference and distributed by the ACM.
2nd May 2014 -
