The second workshop on Multimodal Experiences for Remote Communication Around Data Online (MERCADO) will take place on the afternoon of November 2, 2025, in Vienna at IEEE VIS 2025. Our workshop will focus on research and technologies aiming to address the main challenges of future remote communication and collaboration around data. With this workshop, we would also like to grow the community around this area of research, especially in Europe, help spawn and advance research collaborations by connecting like-minded researchers, and foster deeper international networking. With the results of this workshop, we aim to contribute to several academic communities, including those affiliated with the IEEE VGTC (VIS, ISMAR, Eurovis, PacificVis) and ACM SIGCHI (CHI, CSCW, UIST, ISS).
Based on the outcomes of the VIS 2023 workshop and 2024 NII Shonan Meeting, we invite participants to submit ideas and positions relating to one or more of the following four categories of future research challenges. Submissions should relate to at least one of the MERCADO core topics, but do not need to cover all (e.g., multimodal and/or remote collaboration around data).
Paper Submission Deadline: Aug 1 Aug. 15, 2025
Notifications: September 1, 2025
Provocation / Discussion Deadline: Sept. 30, 2025
Notifications: October 15, 2025
Paper Camera Ready Deadline: October 1, 2025
Workshop: November 2, 2025
All deadlines are 11:59 pm (23:59) (AoE)
This year, we invite participants to reflect on four themes from emerging challenges on multimodal and remote collaborations:
Techniques and Technologies: The development of future systems for data-rich remote collaboration is dependent on fundamental technological questions. Which technologies will elevate hybrid and remote settings to reach or even surpass face-to-face meetings? What are novel visualization and interaction techniques most suitable for such scenarios?
Individual Differences and Group Dynamics: One of the main advantages of remote and hybrid communication is the chance to bring together various experts from multiple fields with different personal preferences. How can we support people from diverse backgrounds and with their own goals, needs, and roles? How can we scale data-rich collaborative use cases to many participants?
AI-Assisted Collaboration: The influence that AI technologies have on our society is undeniable. One of the core challenges of future research in the area of remote communication & collaboration with data is to integrate such technologies while mitigating potential risk factors regarding reliability, explainability, and privacy. How will AI assistants and agents shape future collaborative data analysis? How can we ensure trustworthiness and limit bias?
Evaluation: More research is needed to understand the power as well as the limitations of remote and hybrid data-rich communication & collaboration. Yet, the complexity of current and future systems and a lack of established baselines and methods mean that investigating these systems is difficult. What are the benefits of hybrid collaboration for data analysis in different use cases? Which tools or methods are best suited to evaluate this?
We invite prospective participants to submit a short paper (up to four pages) in the style of work-in-progress reports, case studies, or reflection statements. We will accept submissions using either:
The IEEE VGTC Conference Style Template format
In a pictorial format similar to submissions made to the VIS Arts Program, or
In an interactive article format similar to submissions to the VISxAI workshop.
Submissions are due on Friday August 1st August 15th, 11:59 pm (23:59) Anywhere on Earth (AoE), via PCS.
Please choose the MERCADO track for your submission: VGTC -> VIS 2025 -> VIS 2025 MERCADO
We encourage submitting accompanying videos.
We will host accepted submissions on the workshop's website. Furthermore, we recommend authors to share their publications using open-access services. The accepted submissions will not be considered archival, and we will encourage the reuse of content in follow-up publications. Submissions will not be anonymous; authors must include their full names, emails, and affiliations. Lastly, at least one author per accepted submission must register for the IEEE VIS 2025 conference.
This is an “abstract-only” track for provocations, early ideas, and collaborative project pitches to share with the MERCADO community. Submissions to this track will be used to seed panel and breakout group discussions during the workshop. We invite abstracts up to approximately 500 words.
These submissions are due on Tuesday, September 30th, 11:59pm (23:59), Anywhere on Earth (AoE) via this Google Form.