Dear CHI 2020 community,

It is with a heavy heart that we need to tell you that we, together with the CHI Steering Committee, the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and ACM representatives have decided to not hold CHI 2020 physically in Honolulu, Hawai’i. This was triggered by the declaration of the WHO that the Covid-19 situation is considered a pandemic. The health of our community is the biggest asset we have. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected and we want to express our heartfelt best wishes.

We are now thinking about what we can do about this situation, and are currently discussing alternative formats. We will let you know here as soon as we have more information.

Of course, this is sad news, but we find that these uncertain times demand decisions that are hard to anticipate. We understand that you might have lots of questions and what this means for presentations, publications, etc., and we are trying to figure these out along with the CHI Steering Committee, the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and the ACM. Please have patience as we figure out the best processes and communicate them here to you. Soon we will also post here how to go about requesting registration refunds, etc. There is, unfortunately, no template for a situation like this.

We would like to express our appreciation for our CHI 2020 committee and everyone who has worked so tirelessly with us for so many hours on our conference preparation. Thank you so much for all of the work you did.

We are very sad that the conference will not happen, at least in its current format, with all of us present in Hawai’i. We would have liked to meet you all there to discuss HCI with you and have a get together on the beach.

Again, we are both very sad about this unfortunate news, and our best wishes go out to everyone affected by the current situation.

Your General Chairs,

Regina & Floyd