Panels

NordiCHI 2024 aims to cultivate a sense of presence and liveness. This conference theme, Live, encourages us to explore innovative solutions that address the diverse living conditions of researchers, IT users, and communities across the globe. We invite panel submissions that engage panellists and audience in engaging topics relevant for the human-computer interaction community and related to the conference theme. A panel session should be creative and interactive, covering controversial ideas, new topics, and novel ideas. We seek to offer conference attendees an opportunity to participate in a dialogical space, either on conference site in Uppsala, Umeå, and/or online.

Panels are 60–90-minute sessions including a group of experts, preferable with opposing viewpoints and diverse backgrounds, invited to debate a topic or theme, enact some aspects of their expertise, or comparing diverse experiences. Ideally, a panel discussion is framed by a clear question.

A panel is expected to include diverse perspectives and does not need to contain original research. In a panel, assumptions about a topic are constructively challenged in a format that encourages engagement and dialogue. A panel seeks to arrive at new understandings through dialogue and interaction amongst and between panel members and audience members. Therefore, NordiCHI panels are expected to include involvement from the audience, through questions and answers, voting or critique of the experts’ presentations, or in other creative interactive ways. Audience involvement can be made online or at situ. How the audience will be involved in the panel should be clearly explained in the panel proposal.

Since the panel track is a forum for interactive discussions, it can be in the format of a traditional panel with discussants and moderator, it can be a round table, a fireside chat/interview, a collaborative problem-solving conversation, or another proposed format. However, a panel may not be akin from short talks and paper sessions. To provide fruitful discussions and necessary time to present contradicting perspectives and enable audience participation, we encourage panel organisers to limit the number of panellists. We will not allow more than five panellists. The presence of a strong moderator that facilitates the discussions, is key for a successful panel.

We encourage panels that represent the global community of human-computer interaction, including diversity not only in perspective and experience, but also national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and so forth.

Submission Instructions and Schedule

The Panel proposal must be submitted as a single PDF file via email (address to be announced). The proposal must have the following two distinct sections.

Part 1. The Extended Abstract

The Extended Abstract part of the submission material consists of a maximum 4 page extended abstract in the ACM single-column format (including references). The extended abstract should include the title; the name and affiliation of the organiser(s), as well as each proposed invited participant. Only include the invited participants who have confirmed their participation. All participants must be confirmed at the time of camera-ready submission, no exceptions. Within the limits of 4 pages, you should summarise the lessons or experiences you hope to convey in the session. This should include the topic(s) to be covered, as well as contrasting or controversial perspectives on the topic(s). Your extended abstract must stand alone; readers must be able to get something out of the abstract even if they do not attend the interactive session.

Part 2. The Session Proposal

Along with your extended abstract, you must develop a session proposal of up to 6 pages. This proposal will not be distributed but will be used by the reviewers to judge the suitability of your concept as an interactive session. Regardless of the topic, all session proposals should include a plan for engaging audience members in the interaction and minimise actual
presentations. You need to persuade the chairs that your panel will be exciting, enjoyable, well-attended, and relevant to the NordiCHI community.

Your session proposal should address:
● The main topic(s) to be presented, debated, discussed, enacted, etc. If possible, include your key question.
● Who will participate, why these people, what qualifications they bring, etc. In this proposal document, you may include participants who you hope to recruit but have not yet confirmed participation. Although they can be invited only at the time of the submission, we encourage organisers to get confirmation from as many participants as possible prior to submission.
● The session format – who will moderate it and how, the invited participants’ role, other roles, will the panel be 60 or 90 minutes?
● Strategies to involve the audience in discussions, time set aside for their interaction.
● If the panel will be online or located in Uppsala and/or Umeå.
● Logistics we need to consider hosting the session (e.g., special seating or A/V, audience size limitations, use of student volunteers, expectations about attendee background or interests, etc.)
● Any other considerations that will help reviewers appreciate your concept.

Please note that panels can be suggested for inclusion in the NordiCHI online program. 

Selection Process

Panel submissions will be juried by the panel chair together with the conference chairs. We plan to include 2-3 Panels in the NordiCHI’24 program. Panels present ideas that are novel, topical, controversial, or engaging for other reasons to the audience, inspiring the audience to respond and further elaborate the ideas. The review criteria will consider the extent to
which the session proposes:

● One or more topics likely to evoke a lively response from the NordiCHI attendees
● Invited participants who will contribute unique perspectives, content, or other interactive content to the session
● A well-organised and feasible session plan
● A clear mechanism for audience engagement and interaction
● Useful and interesting contributions to HCI

Accepted panel submissions will be included in the ACM Digital Library as part of the NordiCHI 2024 adjunct proceedings. Panellists must register for the NordiCHI 2024 conference.

Chair:

Karin Danielsson