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NeurIPS 2026 Call for Socials

We are very happy to announce our open call for Socials at the upcoming NeurIPS 2026. 

Socials are an excellent opportunity for our community to meet up, discuss, collaborate, debate, or celebrate around a common interest. We solicit proposals from all registered NeurIPS attendees on any social topic of common interest within our community. 

The Socials are intended to be focused on the social aspects of the conference, rather than the technical ones, like Workshops or Tutorials. Organizers interested in planning events targeted at an affinity group (e.g., WiML, Black in AI, LatinX in AI, Queer in AI, New in ML, {Dis}Ability in AI, Muslims in ML, Indigenous in AI) should apply to Affinity Events. 

For inspiration, you can find past social events run at  NeurIPS 2020, NeurIPS 2021, NeurIPS 2022, NeurIPS 2023, NeurIPS 2024, and  NeurIPS 2025.

Requirements

  1. The proposers must provide a paragraph on the scope of the social. 
  2. Each proposal must be backed by at least two organizers from different institutions who will be responsible for the organization of the event. Proposals with organizers from a single institution will be rejected.
  3. Organizers and their guests must be registered participants of NeurIPS at the time of the event. Social events do not include complimentary registrations.

What makes a good social event? While our vision is to have a broad range of social events that are as diverse as possible, it should be helpful to also consider the following soft criteria:

  • Community and engagement: We aim to host a wide range of events that reflect the breadth of interests and backgrounds across the NeurIPS community. Our goal is to ensure that all socials are welcoming and accessible to anyone who wishes to participate.
  • Reasonably broad appeal: Each event should appeal to at least 150-200 participants.
  • Focus on social aspects: Rather than providing a stage for regular research talks, events should attempt to create a less formal environment that encourages discussion between all attendees. Open debates, round-table discussions, hands-on tutorials (e.g., presentation skills, public speaking), coaching sessions, and other forms of academic speed dating are encouraged.
  • Get creative with the topics: There are numerous interests that connect us both within and beyond machine learning and AI, and we’d be thrilled to host social events organized around less technical topics.
  • Event types: Socials will be held in person only.
  • What a social is not: We discourage submitting applications with a commercial focus; please consider sponsoring NeurIPS instead. We also cannot approve socials that violate the code of conduct or have a political agenda. We might have to reject eligible proposals due to limited capacity.

What we provide

The selected Socials will be hosted as official events of the NeurIPS 2026 programme. The number of in-person socials will be constrained by the venue capacity.

We are delighted to announce that social events will be held at all three conference venues this year—Sydney, Paris, and Atlanta. The majority of social events will take place in Sydney, complemented by a smaller number of events in both Paris and Atlanta. Please indicate the venue(s) where you propose to hold your social event in your proposal.

 

  • 1 meeting room or exhibit hall from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (hard stop)
  • AV standard set (1 podium mic/1 Q&A mic)
  • Panel table w/ 1 wireless microphone 
  • Theatre seating

Code of conduct

Being part of NeurIPS 2026, social events are subject to the general code of conduct of the meeting.

Important dates

  • Deadline: September 5th, 2026 (AoE)
  • Notification: October 10th, 2026 (AoE)

How to apply

Please provide a 1-page PDF file including the names and institutions of the organizers, along with a short description of the activities planned at the proposed social event, considering the requirements. Please include how many participants you expect. Proposals will be evaluated by a small committee led by the social chair.

Please submit your application to the email social-chairs@neurips.cc with the email subject line: "Social Proposal Submission for NeurIPS 2026 + [Your proposed city (select from Sydney, Paris and Atlanta)]."

Contact

If you need any information, please feel free to contact us at: social-chairs@neurips.cc

We look forward to seeing your proposals!

NeurIPS 2026 Social Chairs
Shoujin Wang, Haneul Yoo, Traian Rebedea