Panels

Your active involvement in SIGGRAPH 2026 is crucial for fostering collaborative creation and enhancing immersive experiences through cutting-edge computer graphics and interactive techniques. We are excited that you are submitting your work for consideration.

Log into the submission portal, select the “Make a New Submission” tab, select ”General Submissions,” and select “Panels” under “Presentation Formats.” To see the information you need to submit, view the sample submission form.

In particular, please be aware of these fields:

• A presentation format. To propose a Panel, please select Panels as your presentation format. You will then be taken to the forms specific to this presentation format. Please see below for more details about required information and materials for this presentation format.
• Identification of all contributors to the work being submitted, with unique email addresses.
• Note: additions to the contributor list will not be permitted after the submission deadline, except in cases where prior approval has been obtained from the program chair.
• One representative image suitable for use on the conference website and in promotional materials. See the Representative Image Guidelines tab located on the Submissions FAQ.
• The abstract should include what area you work in, what is novel about your work, how this work fits into existing work and brief biographies of each participant. The document you submit for review should be a single column PDF, which can be prepared in Microsoft Word or LaTeX – we recommend the use of LaTeX, and the “manuscript” parameter to the \documentclass will prepare the PDF as a one-column document:  \documentclass[manuscript]{acmart} If you are using Microsoft Word to prepare your submission, print the document to a PDF fileThis “submitted for review” PDF may be more than two pages in length.

If accepted for presentation, the final PDF version of your documentation must be no more than three pages in length, including references, and will be generated in TAPS from your Microsoft Word or LaTeX source material. Abstracts should include authors’ names and affiliations, as the review process is “single blind.”

A compelling submission clearly outlines the arc of the discussion in the Extended Abstract:

1. Introduction (~15 minutes): Set the stage. Define the question or challenge driving the conversation and why it matters now.

2. Exploration (~60 minutes): Each panelist brings a distinct point of view. The moderator weaves these perspectives together, prompting dialogue and debate.

3. Conclusion (~15 minutes): Summarize emerging insights or open questions. Leave the audience with something to take forward, a new lens, tool, or challenge.

Panels should avoid scripted presentations and heavy slides; they thrive on real conversation.

Panels are forums for experts in a particular area to have a guided, interactive dialogue with the audience about a specific topic. A good Panels submission proposes an interesting topic, identifies panelists who bring diverse opinions to the discussion, and outlines a proposed structure for the panel discussion itself. Good Panels do not rely on slides or a lot of prepared materials.

Examples of accepted content from past conferences, including Panels, have been made freely available by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization and can be accessed here.

Some reasons Panels proposals are rejected:

• The panel organizer has not confirmed specific speakers or has identified speakers but not clearly conveyed why those speakers are the best ones to address the proposed topic.
• The proposed panel topic is of very narrow interest and will only appeal to a very small number of participants.
• The proposed panel topic is too broad or not defined well enough to engender a focused discussion.
• The proposed panel lacks structure, or the structure fails to allow significant audience interaction. A panel that consists primarily of prepared statements by the panelists will be rejected.
• The jury believes the panelists do not offer sufficiently diverse viewpoints.

Jurors are asked to evaluate your submission using four criteria: concept, novelty, interest, and quality. The final submission score is based on a combination of these factors. For example, a high-quality panel that has broad appeal and is unlike other recent SIGGRAPH Panels has a good chance of acceptance, while a poorly motivated submission of interest to few attendees (or that duplicates recent panels) probably will be rejected.

Concept

How engaging and exceptional are the topics and voices presented in the Panel? How coherently does the submission convey its overall concept? If the theme is a historical one, do the concepts and viewpoints include new ideas and voices? For Panels in which the theme is not new, the submissions that include connections to new or future developments and some new voices will be evaluated more favorably by the jury.

Novelty

How new and fresh is this Panel? Is its topic new, or is it a fundamental computer graphics topic augmented with new developments? Are the panelists limited to pioneers in the field or have you also included new voices? Have you confirmed your panelists? Clearly communicate their qualifications and how their viewpoints vary. You must demonstrate to the jury that your proposal’s content and/or panelists are novel.

Interest

Will conference participants want to see this? Will it inspire them? Is the topic appealing to a broad audience? This is partly a measure of how broad the potential audience is and partly a measure of the timeliness of the submission.

Quality, Craft, and Completeness

How well written is the abstract? Who are the panelists and why were they selected?  The abstract must effectively communicate the concept, Panel structure, and panelist information in enough detail and with enough clarity that the jury can evaluate the submission.

Evaluation Reminder 

Reviewers will assess concept, novelty, interest, and quality. Clear structure, confirmed and diverse speakers, and meaningful audience engagement all strengthen your proposal.

Up to Three-Page Abstract

If your panel is accepted, the panel organizer must prepare and submit a revised abstract (up to three pages maximum). The abstract should include an overview of the topics being discussed and brief biographies of each participant.

ACM Rights Management Form

You will be notified of acceptance or rejection of your presentation in mid-April 2026 and receive an email from “rightsreview@acm.org” with a link to your work’s rights permission form within 72 hours of notification of acceptance of your work to the conference.

Your representative image and text may be used for promotional purposes. Several SIGGRAPH 2026 programs will prepare preview videos of accepted content for pre-conference promotion.

Stage 2: Program Materials

Complete Stage 2: Program Materials by Tuesday, 28 April 2026, which includes:

• Review your submission through the submission portal and add a 50-word summary statement suitable for conference publicity.
• Provide a valid ORCID identifier (ACM now requires that all accepted contributors register and provide ACM with valid ORCID identifiers prior to publication.) Corresponding contributors are responsible for collecting these ORCID identifiers from co-contributors and providing them to ACM as part of the ACM eRights selection process. You and your co-contributors can create and register your ORCID identifier at https://orcid.org/register. ACM only requires you to complete the initial ORCID registration process. However, ACM encourages you to take the additional step to claim ownership of all of your published works via the ORCID site.

Publication

When your ACM Rights Management Form has been delivered to ACM, you will then receive an email from “tapsadmin@aptaracorp.awsapps.com” with information about the preparation and delivery of your material to TAPS for publication.

Note: The listed contact contributor for the Panel will receive the ACM Rights Form, and is responsible for completing it on behalf of ALL of the participants in the Panel.

Make sure that emails from “rightsreview@acm.org” and “tapsadmin@aptaracorp.awsapps.com” are part of the “allow list” in your email program, so that you do not miss these email messages.

The source (Word or LaTeX) of your abstract, as well as any supplemental materials, must be delivered to TAPS, ACM’s article production system. TAPS will generate the PDF and HTML5 versions of your abstract for publication in the ACM Digital Library. The TAPS-generated PDF of your final abstract must be no more than three pages in length, including references.

You must deliver your material to TAPS, resolve any formatting issues identified by TAPS or by the proceedings production editor, and approve your material for publication by Tuesday, 19 May 2026. If you cannot meet that deadline, you will not be allowed to present your material at SIGGRAPH 2026.

Information about the preparation and delivery of your final material to TAPS also can be found at https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~spencer/taps/taps.html.

In-Person Presentations 

If your Panel is accepted, the panelist must:

• Only present accepted, jury-reviewed content. Presenting new content is not allowed.
• Attend and present your Panel in-person at SIGGRAPH 2026 in Los Angeles.
• Contributors should plan to present from their own personal laptops. SIGGRAPH will provide the adapters needed to connect personal computers to the session projector.

Please note: Panels are anchored by people and discussion, not presentations. Panels should not rely on PowerPoint slides, video clips, or other visual materials.

Presenter Recognition

Contributor Registration Benefit: Up to six contributors per accepted Panel receive a 25% discount on Full Conference registration.

To present your Panel at SIGGRAPH 2026, contributors must be registered at the Full Conference registration level.

You will receive an email by early May explaining how to access the registration discount code as well as instructions for registering. The contributors using the discount code are eligible for the early-bird registration rate regardless of when registration is completed. Any additional contributors who will be presenting the Panel are required to register at the appropriate registration level for the program, and prevailing registration rates will apply.

All deadlines are 22:00 UTC/GMT unless otherwise noted.

10 February 2026, 22:00 UTC/GMT
Submission deadline.

Mid-April 2026
Acceptance or rejection notices are sent to all submitters.

28 April 2026
Deadline to make approved title changes and descriptions update for publication on the website.

19 May 2026
Up to a three-page abstract upload to TAPS deadline. If we do not receive your two-page abstract by Tuesday, 19 May, you will not be allowed to present at SIGGRAPH 2026.

17 July 2026
Official publication date for the ACM Digital Library

Please Note: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of your conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work. (For those rare conferences whose proceedings are published in the ACM Digital Library after the conference is over, the official publication date remains the first day of the conference.)

19-23 July 2026
SIGGRAPH 2026
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, California