ACM ISS Conference

ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS)

Welcome!

We welcome you to the ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces. As an annual conference series starting in 2006, ACM ISS (formerly known as ACM ITS, International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces) is the premier venue for research addressing the design, development and use of new and emerging tabletop, digital surface, interactive spaces and multi-surface technologies. Over the years ISS has been a venue for research and applications of interactive surfaces as well as spaces, which has been acknowledged by the incorporation of 'Space' into our conference identity since 2016.

Interactive Surfaces and Spaces increasingly pervade our everyday life, appearing in various sizes, shapes, and application contexts, offering a rich variety of ways to interact.

The ISS steering committee members are looking forward to your contribution and participation at the ISS.

Upcoming Event

Past Events

Call for bids: Hosting future ISS Conferences

We are soliciting expressions of interest for chairing and hosting the ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (formerly ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces) conference in 2024 or 2025.

ISS is a successful ACM conference series that consistently attracts up to 200 attendees and high-quality paper submissions. It celebrated its 17th edition in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, from November 5-8, 2023 (see https://iss.acm.org/2023/).

As a first step before submitting a PDF with your bid, you might want to send us a lightweight expression of interest. If you are interested in hosting ISS we just need you to reply with an e-mail that indicates:

  • Main contact person (at least provisionally), and e-mail.
  • Possible geographical location (no need for detail at the moment such specific hotel, city, or region is OK).
  • Which of 2024 or 2025 you are interested in organizing.

We welcome bids from teams hosting other conferences (i.e., we are open to co-location).

After your e-mail we will follow up about further details (e.g., putting together an organizing team), selecting dates, etc.
Alternatively, you might also send us the complete bid directly as a PDF document with the content as indicated below.

In either case, please get back to us by responding to the ACM ISS steering committee (steering@iss.acm.org).

Bidding Process for ACM ISS

A call for bids for ACM ISS is issued by the SC Chair (typically, in November) and sent to all the members of the ACM ISS Program Committee and the wider ACM ISS community. Bids will continue to be accepted until the venues are decided. We will begin reviewing bids as they are received. As a formal bid, bidders should submit a single PDF document to the SC with the following information:

The proposal should address each aspect outlined below (approx. 5-6 pages). A PDF document providing further details on the content of the bid can be found here. Based on the merits of the proposals and when the proposals are submitted, the committee will choose the top candidates and then a finalist will be chosen and announced.

Location

Since ISS is an international forum, we expect that attendees travel from different parts of the world to the conference location. It is important that the proposed location is conveniently located for all attendees to reach by available means of transportation. Learning from experiences during the worldwide pandemic, we appreciate the inclusion of concepts for running hybrid conferences.

Time

ISS conferences have been held at various times during around early / mid November. Your bid should include a proposed time within that range with key dates (e.g., paper submission and notification). The choice of time should also take into account the weather conditions of the proposed location to avoid potential weather-caused travel delays and potential conflicts with other conferences and their submission deadlines (e.g., CHI, CSCW and most importantly UIST).

Venue

ISS officially includes four days with the workshops and tutorials on its first day, which need to be hosted in separate rooms (10-20 people) in parallel. To encourage interaction among the attendees, during the main conference, it is also desirable to have additional space at the venue to put up ISS posters for the attendees to visit during coffee breaks.

Accommodation & Travel Costs

Most attendees will travel by plane and need accommodation during the conference period. One of the responsibilities of the conference hosts/organizers is to locate and reserve a bulk of affordable lodging for attendees. Please describe the proposed accommodation options, including the price range of the hotel rooms and the distance to the main venue and approximate travel costs, at the time of the conference from major centres in Europe, US, Asia/Pacific.

Provisionary Budget Plan

The proposal should also include a provisional budget plan, outlining the cost of major items, including the rental of conference venue, cost/per person for the reception and banquet, and the estimated conference registration fee. Please consider including meals for participants into the budget.

Hosts/Organizers

Conference hosts/organizers should have knowledge of the ISS community (e.g., having attended and published regularly at ISS) and have experience with conference organization. One of the main ISS goals is to bring together people from diverse backgrounds. So ensuring the diversity of the organizing committee is highly encouraged and preferred. Please include short bios of the key hosts/organizers and roles of individuals, including the conference chair(s). Note that ISS uses the PACM HCI journal model of publishing, so Track Chairs are selected separately and are involved in the editorial process across multiple years, though we welcome suggestions.

The SC will attempt to balance the location of accepted bids to reflect the interests , diversity and geographical location of the community.

Mission Statement

The ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS) Steering Committee promotes and maintains the ACM ISS conference as the premiere venue for researchers and practitioners interested in the design, development and use of new and emerging tabletop, digital surface, and multi-surface technologies as well as interactive spaces.

Contact

For any questions or early expressions of interest for hosting a future conference please send an email to the following address:

Structure and People

The steering committee (SC) consists of six (6) to eight (8) long-time ISS community members who have strong engagement with the ISS community and have been invited to serve on the committee. Members normally serve on the SC for five (5) years. The SC is lead by a Chair, who is elected by the SC. An outgoing Chair may also advise the Chair to help with knowledge transfer. The SC should represent the diversity of the ISS community.

Current Steering Committee Members

Mark Hancock

Chair

Mark Hancock

University of Waterloo

Craig Anslow

Member

Craig Anslow

Victoria University of Wellington

Jessica Cauchard

Member

Jessica Cauchard

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Eve Hoggan

Member

Eve Hoggan

Aarhus University

Hideki Koike

Member

Hideki Koike

Tokyo Institute of Technology

Bongshin Lee

Member

Bongshin Lee

Microsoft Research

Anne Roudaut

Member

Anne Roudaut

University of Bristol

Edward Tse

Member

Edward Tse

NUITEQ

Meeting of the steering committee at ACM CHI 2018 in Montreal

Meeting of the ISS steering committee at ACM CHI 2018 in Montreal

Former Steering Committee Members (Alumni)

  • Raimund Dachselt, Technische Universität Dresden
  • Miguel Nacenta, University of Victoria
  • Johannes Schöning, University of Bremen
  • Stacey Scott, University of Guelph
  • Sheelagh Carpendale, University of Calgary
  • Judy Kay, University of Sydney
  • Sriram Subramanian, University of Sussex
  • Andy Wilson, Microsoft Research
  • Shahram Izadi, PerceptiveIO Inc.
  • Gerald Morrison, SMART Technologies UCLC
  • Chia Shen, Harvard University
  • Bruce Thomas, University of South Australia

Tasks and Duties

Steering Committee Responsibilities

The ISS Steering committee is responsible for:

  • soliciting bids for people interested in organizing a future ISS conference and continuity of the conference,
  • making the decision on where the ISS conference is held every year,
  • providing advice to and communicating with each year's ISS conference chairs,
  • developing the spirit and general direction of ISS and specifically the financial sustainability, the publication model and diversity of the conference.
  • ensuring the highest quality for the program of the conference,
  • promoting the ISS conference series to academia, industry and the public,
  • participating in the 10-year best paper selection process,
  • interfacing to ACM SIGCHI and other HCI sister conferences.

Steering Committee Duties

Members of the SC are expected to attend the annual ACM ISS Steering Committee meeting during the annual conference (in person ideally but via video conference in lieu of this). In addition SC members are expected to take part in the three-monthly video conferences. A member of the SC is expected to be actively involved in the conference series which can include, attending the annual conference, submitting papers, organising workshops, running tutorials, contributing to the SC discussion and decision process and attending SC meetings.

Membership

How to become an ACM ISS SC member?

The SC will invite future members, by choosing among the past general and program chairs of the ISS conference and people involved in ACM ISS over several years. The SC is expected to have less than 8 members and more than 6. People will drop of the SC after a maximum period of 5 years. Membership of a SC member terminates when (s)he is frequently inactive. Along with participation, the SC mailing list serves as an archive of members' activities and should be reported on by the chair of the SC at the start of each annual steering committee meeting.

Steering Committee Chair

From January of 2018 the term as SC Chair lasts two years. The SC chair is chosen among members of the SC, following a vote.

SC Decision Process

Any SC member can raise an issue by sending an e-mail to the list of all SC members. Every SC member must reply to the mail on the list, describing her/his position within 10 days. If no consensus is apparent, the chair calls for a formal vote (Plurality voting) by email. Every SC member must reply sending her/his vote on the list within a week. A SC member is conflicted with voting for a bid to host a conference, if the SC member is general or program chair of the proposed bid. The member can talk part in the discussion, but it not allowed to vote.

Award Process

10-year Impact Award Selection Process

The program chairs of the current year make the selection of the TOP 3-5 papers of the conference and select the 10-years impact award. One program chair assembles the jury and starts the discussion within the jury. The jury typically consists of:

  • 1x PC chair of conference year-1 year
  • 2x PC chair of conference year-10 years
  • 1x SC member
  • 1x ITS "Senior member" of the community
 

ISS Conference Series