The Symposium on Computer Human Interaction was the first event organised by the chapter. 45 participants from all over the New Zealand attended the symposium. Most of the participants were from academic institutions, although there were couple of participants from industry, and one representative from military.

The event started with Professor Mark Apperley's keynote speech where he stressed that CHI community has been little disappointing in giving state-of-the-art research to the community, and that it is high time, we stood up with innovative ideas and challenging research projects. He hoped that the SIGCHI_NZ chapter will be able to give collaborative environment to New Zealand CHI community and will help in initiating projects based on new ideas.

Similar voice was raised by Margaret May, Associate Director of Vision Manawatu. She pointed out the need for better interaction between academic research and industry. It was pity that the symposium did not have adequate representation from industry and this was an issue which again came up during Annual General Meeting of SIGCHI_NZ chapter later that day.

Besides 9 research presentations from major research groups from New Zealand institutions, Symposium also had one industry presentation, interestingly from USA, demonstrating eyegaze tracking application. Participants showed great interest in this system and a number of participants enjoyed hands-on (or eye-on, to be precise) experience. This system is going to be used by a disabled child in Palmerston North, with the help of New Zealand government grant.