By Nancy Xia
This year at CHIWORK 2025, which took place in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, I challenged myself to ask questions to the speakers at the conference.
Initially, my motivations were entirely personal. I wanted to develop my own confidence in voicing my thoughts and reflections before an audience. In addition, many of the works presented were genuinely engaging, thought-provoking, and sparked my curiosity, and I found myself putting up my hand at papers I did not expect myself to ask questions for!
This year, I was most taken in by the studies which explored the ways in which technology facilitated, or disrupted, people’s abilities to present themselves in a professional environment. In Framing the (in)visible: Insights into Visibility Practices of Remote Workers by Mehrvarz et al., I found that knowledge workers may signal their availability through leaving tabs open. In Management Strategies for Reducing Boundary and Identity Clashes When Using Discord for Both Working and Gaming by Mandryk et al., I learnt that workers manage different levels of transparency and identity clashes between their professional and gaming persona on Discord. Finally, I was curious to note, in What Does Success Look Like? Catalyzing Meeting Intentionality with AI-Assisted Prospective Reflections by Scott et al., that users dislike making their intents to socialise explicit when reflecting on meeting intentionality. They have given me much fruit for thought in my own work, where I explore how people’s perceptions of specific software tools, such as spreadsheets or GenAI, can discourage people from engaging in important knowledge sharing activities. Because our work can be such an important part of our identity, so too does the technology that we use in this work become inextricably connected to how others see us.
But outside of this technology, in a very real conference, surrounded by very real people, every interaction exists in the moment. The digital bubbles of working from home give us time to think and prepare before every interaction. At the conference, there is no such luxury. Talks and slides and Pushbox microphones fly past, and there is always the chair, tapping their watch expectantly as you try to untangle your thoughts along with your tongue.
Yet when inspiration and curiosity sparks, the questions come easily. And with questions comes dialogue, venting, friendships, and learning. I quickly found that my favourite people at the conference were the ones who asked engaging questions themselves. Whether it was sitting in and listening in on a well-articulated discussion that I would never have quite known how to phrase for myself, or having someone ask me a well-thought out and challenging question in response to my own work, my
personal challenge slowly helped me to realise that it was the questions – asking and being asked – that led to the most fruitful moments of connections.
As a so-called ‘digital native’ who has never experienced a non-virtual work environment, I am used to digital workplaces that gives me too much time to curate and fuss over my social image. But my time at this conference has reminded me that it is often more rewarding to choose genuine curiosity over a polished appearance. I hope to stay curious, and keep working up the courage to ask questions throughout my life.
Me and Fairuz Nawer Meem – a fellow PhD student who I met at another conference and who came to CHIWORK this year thanks to my recommendation!
I’m super grateful to Anna for making this trip happen for all the A-team, and Yoana for all the organisation! Wonderful connections were made on the journey as well – especially over a devastatingly competitive game of Kemps/Kent!
