Last update: Mar 09, 2026
Overview
Birds of a Feather enable conference attendees sharing a common interest to meet informally for 60–90 minutes of facilitated discussion during a scheduled session at the conference, without requiring attendees to previously submit a contribution.
Important Dates
All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.
- Thursday, March 5th 2026 Thursday, March 12th 2026: Submission deadline
- Thursday, March 19th 2026: Notification to authors
- Thursday, March 26th 2026: e-rights completion deadline
- Thursday, April 2th 2026: Initial TAPS upload deadline (Author must upload their paper to TAPS)
- Thursday, April 9th 2026: Publication-ready deadline (Authors upload FINAL TAPS-approved version to PCS)
Submission Details
- Online submission: PCS Submission System
- Template: A max. 3-page description of the session following the ACM Master Article Template Submission (single column). The proposal should address the points described below. For more details, see the Publication Formats page.
- Accepted Birds of a Feather will be published as IH Extended Abstracts in the ACM Digital Library. If authors wish to opt out, please reach out to the Birds of a Feather chairs at birdsofafeather2026@ih.acm.org.
Call for Proposals: Birds of a Feather (BoF) Sessions
The IH Conference invites the community, including students, researchers, and practitioners to organize Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions. These sessions serve as an informal forum for discussions at the intersection of Health and HCI.
BoFs are designed to promote lively discussion, foster networking, and spark collaboration among attendees sharing common interests.
The proposal should address the following points:
- The main goal of the BoF (e.g., to bring together a specific community, to serve as a networking opportunity, to foster discussion on a specific topic, etc) and why this BoF is relevant to the IH conference attendees.
- A brief description of the type of attendees to which this BoF would be of interest and why it is of interest.
- A suggested locale for the BoF.
- A brief overview of the activities for the BoF and how much time is needed.
- A description of the organizers and their suitability to run this BoF
- An indication of how you might advertise your BoF before or during the conference to attract your intended audience.
Session Format & Creative Approaches
- While BoFs provide a structured environment for discussion, we encourage creative and novel approaches to the meeting format itself. Sessions are expected to be around 60 to 90 minutes long and can take place during breaks or meals.
- Beyond standard facilitated debates, consider interactive formats such as:
- Design-athons or sketching groups
- Reflection exercises or breakout discussions
- Interactive sessions: Improv, jam sessions, board games, yoga, or meditation
Participation & Logistics
- Open Access: All BoFs are published in the ACM DL in Open Access without APC fees
- BoF are open to any registered conference attendee.
- In-Person Only: For IH 2026, all sessions will be held in person.
- Requirements: Proposals should not require special equipment or dedicated catering (outside of accessibility necessities).
Who Should Submit?
We invite contributions from academia, industry, and practice. We particularly encourage students to submit proposals. Whether you are looking to strengthen an existing community or organize a new one dynamically, we welcome sessions that bring together diverse perspectives.
Preparing and Submitting Your Birds of a Feather Submission
By the submission deadline, you must complete the proposal and provide all the required information regarding your BoF submission. All submissions should include all author names, affiliations, and contact information.
While not strictly required, we prefer that proposals be authored by a minimum of two individuals representing at least two different organizations.
Accessibility
Accessible submissions are essential for reviewers and are good practice. Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at access@chi2026.acm.org early in the writing process (the closer to the deadline, the less time the team will have to respond to individual requests).
Selection Process
Birds of a Feather submissions will be Reviewed by the co-chairs. Note that due to the short turnaround time, you will not receive formal feedback on your submission other than the acceptance decision. Our intention is to ensure that the Birds of a Feather track is exciting, while representing a range of discussion topics across diverse IH communities.
The selection will also take into account feasibility, available space at the conference, and other relevant information. Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the selection process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity.
All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information, which will be published on the website prior to the conference.
We consider the following selection criteria in descending order of priority:
- Community Appeal & Focus: Is the topic timely, attractive to the Interactive Health community, and balanced in scope? It should be broad enough to draw a crowd but focused enough to remain productive.
- Networking & Interactivity: Does the BoF facilitate social interactions and networking with other attendees beyond common one-to-many or few-to-many formats of other tracks?
- Novelty & Perspective: Does the session offer unique viewpoints or IH related topics not covered in the main program? We value a diversity of disciplines and backgrounds among organizers and attendees.
- Feasibility & Format: Is the plan realistic given conference constraints? Proposals must be discussion-oriented, not tutorials or project showcases.
- Strategic Relevance: How does the topic align with the conference theme and the existing BoF program?
- Organizing Team Expertise: Is the team well-suited to lead this specific topic and manage a lively group discussion?
- Continuity & Longevity: We look for sessions that foster long-term interest groups or build upon previous developments rather than following fleeting trends.
Upon Acceptance of Your Birds of a Feather Submission
The corresponding author of a conditionally accepted submission has to follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version of the proposal by the Publication-Ready deadline. If the authors cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the venue chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the proposal from the program.
The publication-ready version has to follow the LaTeX and Word templates from ACM. Should you need technical assistance, please direct your technical query to publications@chi2026.acm.org.
Responsibility for obtaining permission to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people or proprietary content rests with the author, not the ACM or the CHI conference.
Please read the publication-ready author instructions.
All authors must use the instructions for accessible PDFs to make the final generated PDF accessible.
At the Conference
If accepted to the Birds of a Feather, the BoF co-chairs and local co-chairs will contact you to arrange for space either at the conference venue or around the city. We will provide more details on logistics closer to the conference.
We look forward to your submission. Please feel free to contact the BoF chairs for any questions.
