TL;DR There will be two clusters of lightweight and community-driven social events at CSCW 2021: Lab Speed Dating and Topic Based Groups. We’re also opening the floor up to anyone who wants to organize their own social events.
Go to this survey to pre-sign up for something you’re interested in by October 16, 2021.
Greetings from the social event chairs of CSCW 2021!
We’re incredibly excited to bring this year’s social events to you. We know that on top of the already busy conference schedule, many of you live an even busier life and are probably tired of spending more time online. This year, we’re trying to make social events lightweight, low-pressure, and community-driven, with nonetheless ample opportunities for forming and maintaining meaningful connections and interactions.
There will be two main clusters of social events at CSCW 2021: Lab Speed Datings and Topic-Based Groups. Each of them is composed of a series of smaller individual events, led by the community. Let’s dig right into them:
Lab Speed Dating
While meeting new people is one of the most attractive things about conferences, we also get that meeting new people one-on-one can be intimidating, especially in a virtual environment. This year, we’re introducing Lab Speed Dating to CSCW 2021. Lab Speed Dating is an opportunity for entire research labs/groups to meet and greet each other, and is a lightweight way to meet other people.
How you can participate
Lab or group leads need to sign up in our survey by checking the Lab Speed Dating checkbox, tell us a few things such as group size, timezone, and research interests, and we will match you with another lab or group according to the information provided to us. The lab or group leads will have the freedom to determine the time and structure of the meetup that’ll work best for both groups.
We ask that only the lab/group’s point of contact should sign up for Lab Speed Dating. If you think your lab or group should participate but you can’t serve as the point of contact, talk to someone who can and ask them to sign up.
Topic-Based Groups
CSCW 2021 will have a number of topic-based groups, covering both research and non-research topics. Each group will have a group chat on Midspace, the virtual conference platform. Here’s an overview of the initial topic list.
Non-research topics:
- Cats @ CSCW
- Dogs @ CSCW
- Crafting & Knitting @ CSCW
- Gaming @ CSCW
- Fitness @ CSCW
- Memes & shitposting @ CSCW
- Sad WFH meals
- Junior PhD students
- Early career professors
- On the market
- Trans/Queer in HCI 1:1 mentoring
Research topics:
- Privacy
- Internet of Things/Tangible Computing
- Health
- Children, Youth, and Teens
- Older Adults and Aging
- Conversation & Communication
- Accessibility
- Video & Livestreaming
- Equity and Justice
- Content moderation and platform governance
- Qualitative researchers
- Quantitative researchers
- Design researchers
- Crowds and collaboration
- VR and AR
- Civic Engagement
- AI: Human-AI collaboration, UX of AI, FATE
How you can participate
It’s really easy! Select the “topic-based group” option in our survey, and check the groups that seem interesting to you.
These groups will be led by members of the CSCW community, so we’re also looking for volunteers to be group hosts. If you see a topic you’re passionate about, please consider volunteering to host that group! Again, we want this to be lightweight: There is no “official” format of what these groups should look like. It’s up to you how you want to run your group. We only ask you to keep an eye on your Midspace group chat, and, in case you can’t keep serving as the group lead, pass your baton to someone else.
If you have a great topic in mind but it’s not on our list, don’t worry: You can propose your own topic group in our survey as well. However, we do assume you automatically agree to host the group that you propose.
Please note that we might have to cancel a group if we aren’t able to find a host for it, so once again: please volunteer to be a host if you see something interesting to you!
But I Want to Organize My Own Social Event!
If you’d like to organize your own social event and have it featured on official CSCW 2021 channels, please go to our survey and check “organizing my own social event.”
For your event to be featured on CSCW 2021 official channels, we require that (1) your event be open to all CSCW attendees; and that (2) your event agrees to follow the CSCW Code of Conduct.
While not a requirement, we also strongly discourage any consumption of alcohol in your event (even if it’s virtual).
We hope this year’s social events will have something for everybody. If you are a professor, you might want to sign up your research group for a Lab Speed Dating; if you see a topic group that’s appealing to you, you might want to join that group to meet people who share similar interests, or better even, to host that group if you’re feeling extra excited about it, whether it’s Privacy Research or Memes @ CSCW.
The important thing is: We want the community to be the focus of CSCW 2021 social events, and we invite you to be part of them. No social events would happen without the participation from our incredible community. We can’t wait to see you at CSCW 2021.