To the ACM GROUP community:

As your General Chairs for GROUP 2022/23, we were looking forward to seeing many of you on Sanibel Island in January 2023, after postponing the 2022 conference due to the ongoing pandemic. The upcoming conference promised to be the largest ever, with 69 research papers, notes, and design fictions, as well as other content.

Based on news reports and images from the ground, you may already know that Sanibel Island – where GROUP has been held bianually since 2003 – has been hit hard and made uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. Our hearts go out to the people of Sanibel as they rebuild and recover from this tragedy. We also just heard from our venue, the Sundial, that thankfully their staff and their families are all safe, but they did confirm that we will not be able to hold our conference there in January 2023 as planned.

Together with the GROUP leadership and ACM, we are exploring alternatives, including securing a new location for the conference. We are hopeful that we will still have the conference in person because it is these in-person interactions and the intimate feel of the small community that make GROUP so special.

There are a number of other decisions that need to be made in agreement with the GROUP Steering Committee and the ACM leadership, including potential venues and possible dates. We are working to have answers to you as soon as possible, but please bear with us, as there are many decisions to be made.

We welcome feedback from the community as we are working on these decisions. We also very much appreciate your understanding and patience as we all deal with the current unfortunate realities.

Please, feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have specific enquiries about the situation. If you are an author, you should have also received a message to fill out a survey regarding your paper presentation.

Meanwhile, stay safe and well!
Casey and Fabiano
Your GROUP 2022/23 General Chairs