We are very pleased to welcome you to CHI 2018 in Montreal, Canada! This year, the theme is Engage. Our hope is that over the next six days, you engage with technology and world-class research, engage in discussions with your community of designers, researchers, students, and practitioners, and-most of all-that you engage with CHI!
The engage theme informed our planning and we are excited to present a vibrant program for you to experience. In 2018, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doug Englebart's Mother of all Demos. To celebrate and honour this historic event, we are hosting the CHI Expo-a reception on Monday night that will give you the opportunity to engage with the technology of the future, as presented by your colleagues. We are also excited to present the CHI2018 Art Exhibition in association with La SAT . Much of the virtual and mixed-reality art can be seen in the Exhibit Hall; however, please attend the reception on Wednesday night at La SAT to experience the impressive Satosphere-a 360 digital dome environment with artworks that explores immersion. This year, we are launching the inaugural CHI Game Jam and Science Jam, where participants can engage with mentors and peers in a two-day frenzy of activity and excitement. We are also bringing back the plenary Video Showcase session on Wednesday afternoon.
We are thrilled with our dynamic keynote speakers, who each bring unique perspectives to our theme. Christian Rudder (author of Dataclysm) opens CHI with his insights on what data from the dating site he co-founded (OkCupid) reveals about human behaviour. Sue Gardner (former executive director of Wikimedia Foundation, cochair of the campaign to pardon Edward Snowden) closes CHI by discussing her desire to ensure that everybody in the world has access to the information they want and need. And Choir! Choir! Choir! leads us in a plenary session on Tuesday afternoon on achieving creativity through shared vulnerability.
Additionally, we broadened the scope of who can engage with CHI content. We are pleased to launch the first-ever CHI with live-streaming of every paper session. Live-streaming paper presentations allows our authors to reach a diverse audience that includes the friends, family, and colleagues who have supported the presented research, but are unable to attend. We support people with disabilities or travel restrictions to remotely attend through telepresence robots. We are offering onsite childcare that helps people with caregiving responsibilities attend CHI. We also have several initiatives to support diversity, inclusion, and accessibility including a nursing mother's room, genderneutral bathrooms, badge pronouns, and a dedicated blackout (desensitization) room. Tiohtia: ke, (Montreal) is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and we wish for our attendees to carry this spirit of connection into how we engage with each other at CHI 2018.
