The following community-organized socials are taking place alongside the FAccT 2026 conference program. Events are listed in chronological order. Contact the organizer listed for each event with any questions.
Meet the Compliant & Accountable Systems Research Group from the Research Center Trustworthy Datascience and Security (RC Trust) and explore their recent projects and FAccT publications over drinks and light refreshments. Open to all FAccT attendees but space is limited.
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 8:30 PM
Location: Sir Winston Churchill Pub, 1455 Rue Crescent, Montréal
Registration (required): https://luma.com/yk53dtpv
Contact: Emma Kallina — emma.kallina@uni-due.de
The annual Queer in AI Social is open to all LGBTQ+ attendees and allies. Come connect with community over drinks in a relaxed setting.
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Time: 6:30 – 9:00 PM
Location: Co-op Bar Milton-Parc
Registration: No registration required
Contact: Jordan Taylor — jordant@andrew.cmu.edu
A casual, discussion-based gathering exploring questions of authority, accountability, and institutional design in AI-mediated information systems. Open to researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-interested attendees.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: Lunch (noon)
Location: TBD
Registration: https://forms.gle/QKpkoDs5HrdTGrNk8
Contact: Dorsaf Sallami — dorsaf.sallami@mila.quebec
An informal gathering hosted by the Stanford Critical AI Working Group to foster interdisciplinary dialogue across academic, activist, civil society, and tech sector backgrounds around Critical AI scholarship and movement building.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Location: TBD
Contact: Sacha Alanoca — sachaa@stanford.edu
A virtual social bridging the FAccT and Information Retrieval communities for critical dialogue on realizing information access as an emancipatory force. All disciplines and practices welcome.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Location: Zoom — https://jedi.inertial.science/facct2026/
Contact: Bhaskar Mitra — bhaskar.mitra@acm.org
A meet-up for FAccT attendees researching AI's impact on people's wellbeing, including mental health and companion systems. Come connect across empirical research, policy, and safety evaluation perspectives.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Location: TBD
Contact: Ningjing Tang — ningjint@andrew.cmu.edu
A hands-on crafting session (Legos, Play-Doh, pipe cleaners, and markers) where attendees build and share their mental models of AI, followed by open discussion and networking. No prior AI knowledge required.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Location: Time Out Market, Montréal
Contact: Shira Michel — michel.sh@northeastern.edu
An informal networking gathering for AI researchers, EdTech practitioners, and learning scientists focused on fair, accountable, and transparent educational technologies. Features low-stakes idea boards — no formal presentations.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: Lunch AND afternoon coffee break
Location: TBD
Contact: Alejandra Ruiz-Segura — alejandra.ruiz-segura@hec.ca
A social gathering to explore the material and political conditions shaping computing — and how to collectively contest and improve them. Join a cross-institutional network of researchers over food and drink.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Location: TBD
Contact: Justine Zhang — tisjune@umich.edu
Join Concordia's Milieux Institute to celebrate the launch of SimPolitics by Fenwick McKelvey and learn about Abundant Intelligences, an Indigenous-led AI research program. Enjoy a rooftop terrace gathering with drinks and conversation.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Milieux Institute Terrace, 11th Floor EV Building, 1515 Sainte-Catherine St. W (Guy-Concordia Metro)
Registration:https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/facct-milieux
Contact: Fenwick McKelvey — fenwick.mckelvey@concordia.ca
An informal bilingual (EN/FR) evening putting FAccT's sociotechnical work in conversation with the broader AI safety community. Light food and drinks, open to FAccT attendees and Montréal's AI safety community.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Location: Ω Labs, 3813 Saint-Denis, Montréal
Registration:https://luma.com/x9344yi2
Contact: Orpheus Lummis — o@horizonomega.org
Connect with the EvalEval Coalition — a cross-sector research community from Hugging Face, University of Edinburgh, and EleutherAI — working to address flawed AI evaluations through research, infrastructure, and community.
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: TBD (possibly after CRAFT session)
Location: TBD
Contact: Jan Batzner — evalevalpc@googlegroups.com
A dinner social for attendees who work in or are interested in Canadian AI policy, celebrating Canada's rich history of AI governance and policymaking. Canadian policy experts and curious newcomers alike are all welcome.
Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Location: TBD
An informal gathering for researchers, practitioners, students, and organizers committed to resisting violent and authoritarian forms of AI. Welcomes abolitionist, peace-centered, anti-militarist, and democratic approaches to technology.
Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Location: TBD
Contact: Noa Garcia, David Gray Widder, Alex Hanna — noagarcia@ids.osaka-u.ac.jp