Paper notifications are out and I’m sure a great many of us are looking forward to CHI in stunning Hawai’i, and perhaps already planning a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip!
For many of us, with an increasing awareness of the environmental impacts of especially air travel (and looming reminders of its consequences like the current Australian bushfires), we are realizing the challenges for on-site conferences like CHI. Considering if, when, and how often we fly for conferences challenges us all and certainly established academic practice.
CHI is the ‘academic home’ for many, and it will take all our ingenuity to think about how to find alternative ways to participate in our international communities in lower-impact ways. Fortunately, the CHI community is also well placed to help consider how technology might help us address this. Indeed, holding a virtual PC meeting (as last year) is already a small but significant step in this direction.
If you plan to spend some free time exploring Hawai’i, we would suggest choosing a member of the sustainable tourism association (this is not an endorsement :)). Recognizing the likely necessity for attendees to fly to the conference, we will be providing options when you register to offset your flights’ carbon using a registered offsetting scheme, and we would certainly encourage you to do so. If you’d like to learn more about the pros and cons of carbon offsetting, and which schemes are worthy of investment, you can read this short article.
If you won’t be making the journey, but want to remain engaged with the conference, we are pleased to offer remote participation options including video streaming many of the talks. More details to follow!
We are working with the general chairs to ensure sustainability is continually considered during the conference organization. If you’d like to know more, you can reach us on sustainability@chi2020.acm.org.