[Hcitaly] A Message from the RecSys 2026 General Chairs

A Message from the RecSys 2026 General Chairs Many of you have reached out to express concern over the situation in Minneapolis, to ask about our safety, and to ask about the feasibility of attending RecSys 2026 in Minneapolis. First, we want to thank all of you who have written to express concern. We, our families, and our students are well, though the past few weeks have been stressful. We are actively monitoring developments and are optimistic that we will soon return to the safe and vibrant Minneapolis we are used to -- and do so long before the conference date. Nonetheless, we are also being prudent by exploring potential contingency options to ensure we can always put the RecSys community's safety first. We will provide updates as the situation changes. We also have heard from people concerned about the experience of getting visas and securing entry in the US generally. We are also monitoring this situation--right now we are seeing some modest slowdowns but otherwise the experience of international attendees to US conferences is largely unchanged. We have made certain changes in the conference timeline to accommodate these increased times, including setting an early student volunteer date (in addition to a later one) so that international SVs can start the visa request process early. We also want to assure you that we are committed to supporting the presentation of all accepted authors -- this is an in-person conference, but authors who make a good-faith effort to attend (e.g., apply for a visa but are unable to obtain it, or have other similar obstacles) will be given an opportunity to present remotely. We are also working to ensure that conference papers are accompanied by recorded presentations in the ACM Digital Library and that authors are invited to post-conference Q&A sessions online so those who cannot attend the conference can still benefit from the content and interact with authors. Thank you again for your expressions of concern. We will provide updates as we know more. Gedas Adomavicius George Karypis Joe Konstan RecSys 2026 General Chairs