In early 2018, thoughts at the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham turned to the impending 20th anniversary of the lab's foundation, in 1999. It was suggested by someone–who will remain nameless–that it would be great if we hosted a small 'celebration' to mark the occasion. Skip forward in time to November 2019 and we find ourselves hosting an international conference with a full programme featuring 6 keynotes, 42 long and short papers, and a substantial number of attendees.
How did this happen? Put simply, Halfway to the Future grew organically. The logic of symposium had always been to explore the theme of past, present, and future of HCI and design-led research, with a focus on work that we felt had been deeply formative in shaping the research culture of the Mixed Reality Lab throughout its 20 year existence. It was on this basis that we selected themes and keynotes.
As we began to reflect upon the past 20 years, 6 themes emerged. These themes were then anchored around a particular piece of highly influential work. These all turned out to be very broad and formed the basis of 6 sessions. Unlike a typical conference with one or two keynote speakers that are kept separate from the main proceedings, we wanted each session to mix keynotes with peer reviewed long and short papers, and to bring together all participants in each panel to conclude with a discussion.
Learn more about our six themes and keynotes.
