Unconference

Conference Structure

The conference will be held in person and will be structured as follows:

• 30 November 2026: Unconference
• 1 December 2026: Tutorials
• 2 – 4 December 2026: Conference

The unconference, to be held on Monday, 30 November 2026, will feature presentations, panel discussions, a poster session and a closing social event.

The programme will be organised to mirror the four disciplinary tracks of the main conference:

• Traditional AI, Symbolic AI, and Data-Driven AI (Computer Science)
• Socio-technical and Human-centred AI (Information Systems)
• Responsible and Ethical AI (Philosophy and Law/Humanities)
• Inter- and Trans-disciplinary AI Research

Given the mission of the unconference, which is to foster broad participation in AI, works in progress which are outside the five tracks but still within the broader theme of AI will also be considered. You can view the programme and  proceedings from the 2025 instalment of the unconference here to get an appreciation of the work that has been presented at the unconference.

Important Dates

• Submission deadline: 5 October 2026 (SAST)
• Acceptance notification: 21 October 2026 (SAST)

Submission Format

All submissions must be in English and must be formatted using Springer Style Files and Templates in Word or LaTeX. Only submissions made in these formats will be considered for review. Note that you must not include an abstract section in your submission. The extended abstract is an abstract by nature, simply stretched out to give more detail on the work you’ve done. Your submission should contain one section, written under the “First Section” heading in the template, and a references section.

The extended abstract must not exceed 4 pages (excluding references).

Authors, whose papers were not accepted for the main conference proceedings, are highly encouraged to submit an extended abstract to the unconference.

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Unconference Proceedings

Papers will undergo a review process by experts from academia and industry. Submissions will either be accepted as a talk or poster. Submissions that are accepted as a talk will not be published in the formal conference proceedings, but will be collated into a separate unconference proceedings book and uploaded to the SACAIR 2026 website.