While no longer considered a global health emergency, COVID continues to deeply affect our communities. With this year’s CHI PLAY being an October conference, we come together at a time of the year where infectious disease is on the rise in Canada, and spending time outdoors becomes less feasible.
The Organizing Committee and Steering Committee of CHI PLAY want to make sure that we can meet in a setting that is welcoming, enjoyable, and as safe as possible for all of our members. We therefore ask that you – our community – work with us to make the conference a positive experience for all of us, particularly in case of in-person attendance.
Our approach to ensure a better CHI PLAY experience for everyone comprises three straightforward elements:
- If you are feeling ill (and especially if you experience symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, a sore throat, or a runny nose), stay at your hotel, and do not come to the conference venue, whether it is COVID or not. Worried about following the conference? You will be able to access conference content via the livestream and digital platform, and we’ll also make remote presentations possible for you in case you are a presenter. We reserve the right to ask visibly unwell people to leave the venue so as to not endanger the health of other attendees.
- When in the main room of the conference, we kindly ask that you wear a high-quality mask. We also suggest that you consider masking in other https://uwaterloo.ca/coronavirus/-traffic or crowded areas, for example, when picking up food. As for masks, we continue to recommend FFP2 or KN95 products, but also welcome the use of surgical masks. Forgot yours at the hotel? Our friendly SVs will be able to help you, and masks can also be picked up at the registration desk free of charge.
- Respect the boundaries of other people, and understand that not everyone can take the same risks as you. Similar to CHI PLAY 2022, we will provide badge stickers to help you express your preferences for interactions with others (e.g., “please mask when approaching me”). We will also provide designated break rooms for those who wish to mask continuously, and expect that non-masked participants do not enter these spaces (but rest assured – we’ll clearly mark them so no accidental mistakes are made).
To those of you who think that this policy is too strict: Please be reminded that COVID continues to put disabled and immunocompromised people at significant health risks, that the long-term consequences of repeat infection for all of us are yet to be known, and that Long COVID can affect all of us. Staying safe should not just be an individual choice and burden – we see it as a community effort, and we want to create a welcoming space for as many people as possible.
To those of you who think that this policy is not strict enough: Our conference policies need to align with local rules and regulations, and will be updated accordingly. Currently, neither Ontario, nor the University of Waterloo have regulations in place that support mandatory masking. We need to be transparent about what attendees can expect when attending in person to allow everyone to make informed decisions about their mode of attendance, and we do not want to promise a mask mandate that would be impossible to enforce on the ground.
Thanks for reading this far! We of course want to stay in dialogue with you. For questions or concerns about this policy, you can reach out to us via SC@chiplay.acm.org.
We hope that you understand that we do not want to put anyone in our community at risk, and we very much look forward to connecting with all of you. Whether this is your first CHI PLAY or the 10th time that you’re joining us – we hope that you’ll have a fun and healthy CHI PLAY 2023!
The Steering Committee of CHI PLAY
Important Dates:
Attendance
From September 11th, 2023 | Regular Registration |
Full Papers (Journal Articles)
Work in Progress
Perspectives on Play
Student Game Design Competition
Interactivity Track
Connections Track
Doctoral Consortium
Student Volunteer
