Ongoing Events | Special Events | Conference Reception | Special Arrangements

Experience Tours | Sightseeing Tours

Additional Events

Ongoing Events

See the listing of current exhibitors.

Walk-In Demonstrations

CHI2004 participants interested in showing their work in progress are encouraged to use the Walk-In Demonstration area. A limited number of Walk-In Demonstrations may be scheduled to advance with the Demonstration Co-Chairs. All other slots will be available onsite on a first-come, first-serve basis. No advance submissions are required for this event.

CHI2004 will provide a flip chart and pens. No computers, external speakers, external CD-ROM drives, or ZIP drives will be provided. Participants should bring their own hardware and software.

Special Events

A chance to meet a familiar email address! Members of the CHI-WEB email list (and their friends and colleagues) are invited to a dinner on Monday 26 April at 7:30 at a venue to be arranged. The cuisine will be traditional Austrian/Viennese. If you are interested, please email William Hudson at whudson@syntagm.co.uk.

Networking Reception

Monday, 18:30-20:00
Conference Center-Restaurant Area (Level O1)

Join your fellow CHI participants at a casual kick-off reception. Meet old friends, make new acquaintances, and plan your time at CHI. Light snacks and a cash bar will be provided. Relax, meet new friends and CONNECT!

Newcomer's Orientation

Tuesday, 10:30-11:30
Hall H

Please join us after the Opening Plenary and find out how to get the most of your experience at CHI2004. The Newcomers' Orientation is a special session that offers an opportunity for those attending CHI for the first time to learn how to navigate the conference and make session choices in an environment with so many options.

Highlights on Exhibits

The Connectionary-Exhibits Area
Tuesday, 10:30-11:30

Enjoy the Exhibits opening in the Exhibits Area immediately after the Opening Plenary session on Tuesday morning.

SIGCHI 101. History, Overview, and Opportunities

Joseph A. Konstan, President, ACM SIGCHI
Tuesday, 13:15-14:15
Hall E1

This free tutorial provides a brief look at the history of SIGCHI and an overview of its current structure and activities. It is designed to serve as an introduction for people new in the field, and a one-stop opportunity to learn how to get involved in or organize SIGCHI activities. Among the areas covered are: conferences, local chapters, publications, and special projects. In each case, in addition to reviewing current activities, I will present a case study of how a new activity was proposed and implemented.

ACM SIGCHI Membership Meeting

Wednesday, 13:15-14:15
Hall E1

The annual ACM SIGCHI Membership Meeting will be held in the lunch break Wednesday. At this meeting, officers of SIGCHI will present ongoing SIGCHI programs and activities followed by a question and answer session with the audience. Attendees interested in participating in shaping SIGCHI´s future are encouraged to attend.

Interactive Posters and Student Competition Highlights

Gallery-Level O1
Wednesday & Thursday, 10:30-11:30

Visit the Posters´authors and discuss their work with them directly. Authors may also be available for discussion during other breaks.

Hospitality Receptions

Wednesday 18:30 - 20:30
Austria Center Vienna (Conference Center)

Microsoft (Champion Sponsor)
Google (Champion Sponsor)
Human Factors International
Noldus

Conference Reception

Special Arrangements

For those who love to get up early and get some exercise, we offer this "compelling" opportunity to jog among like-minded people along one of the most beautiful running tracks in Vienna: the Prater Hauptallee (Prater's main avenue). The Prater in Vienna is an expansive area where the Viennese go for recreation, offering a wide variety of open spaces that range from natural riparian landscape to city park. The jogging track, also part of the yearly marathon competition, is about 6-7 kilometers long and also enables you to catch a glimpse of some of the city's attractions like the Vienna Lusthaus, the Stadion and one of Vienna's landmarks, the Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel). See http://www.touristnet.at/w_pr_1e.htm to learn more about the Vienna Prater.

Meeting Point: tram station of line 21 at the underground (metro) station U1-Praterstern. Be there in your jogging suit! Contact the CHI2004 Information Booth for further details.

Haus der Musik (House of Music) - Interactive Sound Experiences

Open daily between 10:00 - 22:00

The House of Music is a modern interactive sound museum located in the centre of Vienna. Throughout the six floors of the historic palais in which the museum is situated and in which the Vienna Philharmonic was founded, visitors are invited to try out all sorts of things for themselves, to play instruments and to learn about sounds and music with all senses as easily as if they were playing a game. The museum perfectly blends tradition and innovation, enabling visitors to take a multimedia trip back in time to the eras of Vienna's greatest composers, including Mozart, Schubert, and Strauss. As a visitor, you may also test your talent as a conductor and face the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, or you can compose your own waltz with the interactive Waltz Dice Game. See www.hdm.at to learn more about this fascinating and unique museum. The museum is easy to reach by public transport.

Show your CHI2004 conference badge at The House of Music to take advantage of a 30% discount on the entrance fee (€7 instead of €10, valid between April 24 and May 2).

KunstHausWien - Art & Design for Your Eyes & Feet

Open daily between 10:00 - 19:00

In the former Thonet buildings (a furniture factory built in 1892) a new cultural landmark has been created for Vienna. The building is a forum for important international museum exhibitions, a home for the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser; it is a museum that makes you feel at home. A house not corresponding to the usual cliches and norms, an adventure of modern times, a journey into the land of creative architecture, a melody for the eyes and the feet.

Two exhibitions will be running during the CHI conference: first, the permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's oeuvre, including his works in the fields of painting, graphic, ecology, and architecture. And second, the exciting exhibition of the Viennese photographer Andreas H. Bitesnich, showing his famous nude photographs which radiate a cool, reserved eroticism, as well as his travel impressions and fashion photography. See http://www.kunsthauswien.com to learn more about these two exhibitions.

The KunstHausWien offers a reduced entrance fee for all CHI2004 attendees upon showing their conference/ID badge at the museum (€12 for both exhibitions and €7 for one single exhibition, valid between April 24 and May 2). In addition, visitors will get a museum poster for free!

Experience Tours

With an area of 22,000 square meters, the Technisches Museum Wien offers a wide range of fascinating insights into the world of technology. Unique exhibits from the past to the present make the house a venue for exploring exciting technological developments. Texts, films, and experiments illustrate the mutual influence between technological achievements and society, economy and culture. Experiences with several themes have been set up, like the medien.welten (history and evolution of transmission media as well as storage media). The virtual reality theatre allows visitors to dive into virtual worlds. See www.tmw.at to learn more about the Technisches Museum Wien.

Two special workshops will be offered for conference attendees interested in designing visitor experiences. The workshops include a guided tour through the museum (free of charge). The museum is easy to reach by public transport. Reservations: Each tour is limited to 30 people. Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour.

In addition, the Technisches Museum Wien offers a 20% discount (valid between April 24 and May 2 based on coupons given on site) on the entrance fee for all CHI2004 attendees.

Sigmund Freud Museum Wien - Back to the Roots

Tour 1: Monday, 26 April 2004, 16:00-17:30
Tour 2: Friday, 30 April 2004, 13:00-14:30

In the former living quarters and office of Sigmund Freud in the house at Berggasse 19 in Vienna's ninth district, the Sigmund Freud Museum presents an exhibit documenting the life and work of the founder of psychoanalysis. Original furnishings, including the waiting room, a selection from Freud's collection of antiquities, and signed copies and first editions of his works provide a glimpse into Freud's biography, his cultural environment and the development of psychoanalysis. Historical film clips assembled and commentated by Anna Freud depict moments in the private life of Freud and his family and enhance the visitors' experiences of this unique museum. See www.freud-museum.at to learn more about the Sigmund Freud Museum Wien.

Two tours will be offered to conference attendees. Each tour includes a guided tour through the museum, access to the museum's media room where archive video and audio material can be experienced as well as access to the museum's library. The museum is easy to reach by public transport.

Reservations: Each tour is limited to 20 people (admission free!). Please make your reservation at the CHI2004 Information Booth.

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna - The ATELIER Project

Monday, 26 April 2004, 18:30-20:30

Get hands-on experience on tangible interaction technologies from the ATELIER project (http://atelier.k3.mah.se). The ATELIER project aims to make a contribution to our understanding of inspirational forms of learning and the creation of augmented educational environments in design education. The inspirational learning environments that we envision are physical places, like the architecture or interaction design studio. Learning is stimulated by the presence of inspirational resources like images, music, film, everyday objects, which provide an element of surprise and discovery and help see things differently. Technologically, the learning space consists of physical objects and computational devices that are used to input, manipulate and output information, media, and events. Prototypes for the initial components and assemblies have been developed.

The Academy of Fine Arts (http://www.akbild.ac.at) also houses an art gallery with a collection of impressive works by famous artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and is also home to Hieronymus Bosch's famous painting "The Last Judgement." ATELIER is an EC-project within the programs for Future and Emerging Technologies and the Disappearing Computer. The project is carried out in close co-operation with partners in Sweden, Italy, Austria and Finland.

The tour is limited to 100 people. Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour.

Tech Gate Vienna - Designing Advanced Interaction

Wednesday, 28 April 2004, 18:30-20:00

Meet Virtual Reality and Advanced Interaction research institutions and companies located in TechGate Vienna and see how the newest VR-Technologies can be used. Selected example projects for medicine, archaeology, architecture, town and country planning and entertainment will be presented. "Mixed Reality User Interfaces" like the Personal Interaction Panel, the Texture Painter and Augmented Painting will be demonstrated using a 3D stereo projection display. Other demonstrations include a Virtual Interactive Collaboration Tool and achievements in computer vision technology. The Tech Gate Vienna, 5 minutes from the Conference Center, has been set up as a Technology Park for Vienna. See www.techgate.at to learn more about it.

Reservations: The tour is limited to 30 people. Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour.

ZOOM Children's Museum - Multimedia Experiences @ ZOOMlab

Wednesday, 28 April 2004, 19:00-20:30

Located within the walls of one of the ten largest cultural centers of the world and one of Vienna's most pulsing centres of cultural life (the Vienna MuseumsQuartier), the ZOOM Children's Museum encourages active and self-determined experience for its young visitors. At ZOOMlab, the museum's multimedia lab, children can approach new media in a playful way: they learn to deal creatively with new media production processes and achieve immediate results which can be tested and shown around. The products created by the kids are put on display, i.e. made available online worldwide. See www.zoomlab.at/e/zoomlab/ to learn more about Austria's first hands-on museum. See www.mqw.at to learn more about the Vienna MuseumsQuartier.

"Play is the highest form of research" (Albert Einstein)

One special workshop will be offered to conference attendees. The workshop starts with a guided tour through the ZOOMlab explaining how the lab supports the children's creativity in developing multimedia productions. Attendees will then get the singular chance to face new media challenges like children do by interactively playing with technology. The museum is easy to reach by public transport. Please inquire for directins at the information booth.

Reservations: The tour is limited to 25 people (admission: €4/attendee). Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour.

Ars Electronica Center Linz - Looking into the Future

Friday, 30 April 2004, 13:00-15:00, Linz

The "Homebase" of all Ars Electronica activities is the Ars Electronica Center – Museum of the Future. Opened in 1996, it is a permanent exhibition area of media art and visionary technology, and a center of procurement and information for the population. The five levels of the Ars Electronica Center showcase creative technologies and the innovative ideas of the 21st century, enabling visitors to get acquainted with the technology of the future, gain hands-on experience with it, customize it to their needs, and interactively learn in a way that is fun, user-friendly, and designed with all visitors in mind, no matter what their level of computer experience. Projects are displayed from artists like Hiroshi Ishii, Masaki Futjihata, Hirokazu Kato, Joe Paradiso, Casey Reas, Tina Blaine, Motoshi Chikamori, and Kyoko Kunoh. See www.aec.at to learn more about it.

Reservations: The tour is limited to 35 people (admission free!). Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour. Linz is reachable by an approximately 2-hour train ride.

The Center for Information, Communication, Society & Technology - New Dimensions of ICT

Friday, 30 April 2004, 13:00-15:00, Salzburg

The newly-established Center at the University of Salzburg coordinates and carries out studies and research programs. Their focus is the vast field of new information and communication technologies and their interrelationship with society as a whole. The core orientation is the analysis of the social embeddedness of technologies, the development of valuable and socially responsible technical applications, and their social-scientific monitoring. The ICT&S-Center is located in the heart of Salzburg, opposite the famous Festspielhaus, at the Max-Reinhard-Platz. Only a few meters away are the dome of Salzburg, St. Peter, and Castle Hohensalzburg. See icts.sbg.ac.at for more information.

Reservations: The tour is limited to 25 people. Visit the CHI2004 Information Booth at the Vienna Conference Center to reserve a place for this tour. Salzburg is reachable by an approx. 3 to 3:30-hour train ride.

More details, including possible additional Experience Tours, will be available at the CHI2004 Information Booth.

For questions please contact Peter Messner, Local Activities Liason, at chi2004-local-activities@acm.org