The Plan for Virtual UIST 2020
by Ailie Fraser, co-Publicity Chair
Welcome to the UIST blog! As our first ever virtual UIST draws closer, we will be posting exciting updates and highlighting interesting papers here on our brand new Medium page. We are also very excited to be “co-located” with CSCW for the first time ever, so be sure to check out CSCW’s Medium as well!
As you might have heard, registration for UIST 2020 is now open! One silver lining of holding a virtual conference is that we were able to make registration prices significantly lower than they otherwise would be, and you can attend from your very own home without worrying about the time and money needed to travel and stay in a foreign city.
Now, you might be wondering, what will virtual UIST look like, and what does registering for it get me? Well, we are here to answer these questions and more, so read on!
How will virtual UIST work?
Our main priorities when designing the virtual experience for UIST 2020 were to support accessibility, networking, and the foundations of our scientific program, which includes not only interactive paper presentations but also effective demos. In order to enable interaction among attendees while also allowing for asynchronous participation and differing schedules, UIST will have 5–5.5 hours of live, synchronous programming each day, taking place over a mix of Zoom and Discord. In many ways, UIST will function similarly to the recent ACM ICER conference (check out Amy Ko’s trip report for a great overview of that experience), with the addition of UIST’s flagship interactive Demos and Student Innovation Contest. We know that for many people, these interactive sessions are the biggest highlight of UIST, and we are carefully designing these experiences to make sure they live up to their high standard.
Our live keynotes, joint panel with CSCW, recorded paper presentations, and panel discussions with paper authors will take place over video conference on Zoom. The keynotes and joint panel with CSCW will also be streamed live on YouTube. Stay tuned for more announcements regarding our keynote and panel lineup coming very soon!
As paper authors already know, the paper presentations will be pre-recorded. Each paper presenter will make a short (5 minute) talk video and optionally also a longer (15 minute) talk video, both of which will be archived. The live paper sessions during the conference will feature synchronous viewings of each paper’s short video and interactive Q&A with authors.
To enable both synchronous and asynchronous discussion and Q&A, all registered attendees will also be invited to join a UIST Discord Server. Here, attendees can chat via text and video with each other and with authors, as well as participate in a variety of social and community events. The Poster, Demo, and Student Innovation Contest sessions will also take place live in video channels on Discord. Read on for more details!
What is the schedule for UIST?
The schedule for UIST (and CSCW) will be based in Central Daylight Time (UTC-5) which is the time zone containing Minneapolis, the original location for the conference. The table below summarizes the daily schedule in that time zone. The day runs from 5–10 am on the West Coast of the US, from 1–6 pm in Central Europe and most of the Eastern half of Africa, and from 9pm–2am in Japan.
It is unfortunately impossible to choose a time that is convenient for everyone around the world, and we wanted to make UIST as interactive as possible despite being virtual. To inform this choice, we conducted a careful analysis of our attendance demographics over the past 10 years, and one notable finding was very high engagement from Asia. As a result, we chose to schedule the conference starting in the early morning of its original time zone (Minneapolis). This compromise aims to make attendance as inclusive as possible for people coming from Asia as well as from North America and Europe.
What do I get by registering for UIST that I won’t get otherwise?
As is often the case at ACM conferences, some UIST events will be publicly live streamed, and videos of paper talks will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and on YouTube 2 weeks after the conference ends. So, what does UIST registration include beyond this?
Online Gallery Access Before and During Conference
An online gallery will launch on the UIST 2020 website before the conference and will be available only to registered attendees. As soon as the gallery is launched, we will announce it through our various publicity channels. Similar to the online galleries from conferences such as ICLR and DIS, the UIST online gallery will include full papers, long talk recordings, extended abstracts, and short videos for all demos, posters, and SIC submissions. Attendees can browse, read, and watch this content at their leisure before, during, and after the conference. The gallery will open up to the public 2 weeks after the conference ends.
Live Paper Sessions with Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussion
During the conference, registered attendees can participate in live paper sessions. These will feature live viewings of the short (5 min) talk recordings followed by interactive panel sessions with the authors on Zoom. Each session will showcase a few papers and end with a Q&A panel with the session chair and each paper’s authors, during which time the audience can ask questions. Each paper will also have a Discord channel for continuing discussion asynchronously and asking any other questions there weren’t time for. We think this will be an exciting experience for both authors and viewers, as it allows audience members to follow up with authors and ask more questions beyond the usual short Q&A, and it allows authors to get more feedback on their work and follow up with people who asked interesting questions for deeper discussion!
Live Sessions in Discord for Posters, Demos, and Student Innovation Contest
One of the things that makes UIST special and unique is its interactivity sessions. While these sessions will certainly look different this year, we are committed to maintaining UIST’s high caliber of demos and interactivity, and plan to take full advantage of the new affordances virtual interaction brings. This year UIST will feature 3 hours of live demo and poster sessions, which include representation of the Student Innovation Contest and Doctoral Symposium. These sessions will enable direct small-group discussions with poster and demo authors to follow up on previous gallery viewing and make new connections within the community.
Each poster and demo will have its own Discord channel, which registered attendees can join straight from the online gallery. In the channel, attendees can talk to authors, view their videos and/or interactive demonstrations, ask questions, and discuss their work. Much like one might wander through an exhibit, attendees can jump around into different Discord channels to watch and discuss as many different posters and demos as they’d like. The Student Innovation Contest winners will also be announced during the conference, so stay tuned!
Live and Asynchronous Interaction on Discord Before and During Conference
Before the conference, all registered attendees will have access to the private UIST Discord server, which will include a number of different channels for interacting with other attendees based on topics of interest, paper sessions, community discussions, and more. Some channels will feature text chat, and many others will feature group video conversations.
The Discord server will also be home to an exciting virtual social program, with multiple optional events starting 2 days before the conference, watercooler video chats to simulate those spontaneous hallway conversations we all know and love, and more to be announced as the conference draws closer!
Although we are disappointed that we won’t be able to connect with you all in person in Minneapolis as originally planned, we are so excited for this virtual program and hope you are too! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates and announcements, and please reach out to publicity2020@uist.org if you have any questions, feedback, or ideas for our new Medium blog!
