Dear FAccT Attendees, with just about a month left before the conference, we are very excited to welcome you to FAccT 2023 in Chicago. We wanted to share with you in advance some information about what we hope will be a rewarding and stimulating event.
This year’s conference will be held at Hyatt McCormick Place and the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, from June 12 to June 15.
We have negotiated a group hotel rate for attendees, which are available here. There’s still time to take advantage of the lower rate: Our bloc of discounted rooms we have arranged for at the Hyatt is close to full for some days, but there are still some rooms left.
If you have already registered–and especially if you have a paper accepted, we urge you to read this message, which contains important logistical details.
We have posted a schedule of events for the whole conference at the FAccT 2023 site.
We’re very excited to have seven different keynotes talks or panels (including community keynotes):
We are also thrilled to have an extensive array of CRAFT and Tutorial sessions–check out the links!
We have made every effort this year to maximize the opportunities for in-person interaction and engagement this year. After having a virtual or fully hybrid conference for the last couple of years, our aim this year has been to create an environment that maximizes in-person interactions to build community. Recent years’ conferences took advantage of the hybrid format to have sessions running beyond the ordinary conference day. Because we are centering the in-person experience, we will not have synchronous events after the end of the in-person conference day, but we encourage asynchronous chats on the Hopin platform to engage with remote attendees.
This means we have a packed agenda. There will be paper panels, tutorials, and CRAFT sessions running in parallel for most of the conference. All the rooms in which the conference occurs, however, are placed along a single (long) hallway: It should be easy to get from event to event without getting lost.
It also means that our paper panels will be packed (five papers presented in each panel). More on this below.
We will be making a coffee service available during the conference. But we decided not to offer lunch because it would raise ticket costs. We will instead be arranging for lunch carts, which will be selling sandwiches and salads most days. We have also scheduled a long (90 minute) lunch hour so attendees can also walk to nearby restaurants. We will have a list of options in the program.
On Tuesday night, there will be a play performed in the evening–with thanks to Jessica Hullman!
All keynotes and tutorials will be streamed live on the virtual conference platform Hopin and the recordings will be available on Hopin for at least a month after the conference. For the paper sessions, we have asked all paper authors to pre-record short video presentations. These will be made available for viewing on Hopin via embedded YouTube videos. Each paper session will have a dedicated chat space on Hopin for asynchronous chat about the papers - including for virtual attendees and in-person attendees to discuss the papers. During the paper sessions, volunteers will be on-hand to take questions posted on Hopin as well as from the live audience, and bring them to the panelists. Please be aware that each panel has 5 papers in a short period of time, and the time for questions (from the live audience or from the virtual audience) will be limited.
CRAFT sessions are generally not suited to streaming because of their interactive format, though there are few in the program that have been designed to be virtual.
We expect all papers to be presented in person by one of the authors. In the event that the presenting author is unable to attend in-person due to extenuating circumstances, we will ask session chairs to play the pre-recorded video for the in-person and streaming audience, and ask attendees to post their questions for the author to respond to asynchronously on Hopin. However, due to technical constraints on the AV setup, we will be unable to enable authors to present remotely (e.g., via Zoom).
If there are any truly compelling circumstances why no co-author for the paper can present in person, please communicate this to the General Chairs before May 25, 2023, so the program can be adjusted accordingly (at general-chairs@facctconference.org). This does not affect your paper's publication in the proceedings.
Panels will be led by a session chair. You will have 8-10 minutes to speak, with only a brief time for questions. We have many terrific papers, and have tried to fit them all in. We hope that the panels seed conversations that can continue beyond their formal ends, including by participating in asynchronous chat discussions on the paper sessions on Hopin.
If you are using slides, we have a central repository you will be required to send your file to before the presentation, and then access from a laptop on the day. Please fill out the pre-recorded video and slide form to share those if you haven’t already. Given the AV setup we have, it will not be possible to bring a personal laptop or a thumb drive to a panel and access slides. Please plan accordingly.
We are looking forward to meeting you in June in Chicago, and look forward to a robust, diverse, and illuminating conference.
Sincerely,
The FAccT 2023 General Chairs