Image credit: Photo of Kristy Pron by John Fujii
The SIGGRAPH 2027 Conference Chair is a face in the computer graphics community who needs no introduction. After starting her journey with SIGGRAPH as a Student Volunteer, then program chair, then SIGGRAPH 2020 Conference Chair, and current SIGGRAPH 2025 Special Projects Chair, Kristy Pron will once again take the lead for the 2027 event. After leading the first all-virtual SIGGRAPH in 2020, Pron is ready to create connections across communities and industries, inspire, and innovate … with the help of a talented committee and ice cream, of course!
Catch up with Kristy here.
SIGGRAPH: Congratulations on your appointment as SIGGRAPH 2027 Conference Chair! This is not an unfamiliar role for you, as you served as SIGGRAPH 2020 Conference Chair. What drew you back to this position?
Kristy Pron (KP): To be honest, I felt like I was robbed by the most unexpected event in 2020. When I applied for the role and was named to be chair for 2020, I had always been excited to put on the in-person SIGGRAPH conference, and as we all know 2020 was challenging because we couldn’t go in person. Our team had a lot of ideas that were impossible to realize to their full extent in a virtual space.
I was happy and relieved, of course, to help make SIGGRAPH 2020 happen, but to me, it was a shell of the work my entire team was planning. SIGGRAPH content is amazing no matter how it’s presented, but when you combine the content with the power of an in-person experience, it’s exciting and impactful in a way no virtual conference can match. I felt the timing seemed right to try again.
SIGGRAPH: You’ve been with SIGGRAPH since you served as a Student Volunteer. Why do you share your time and expertise with SIGGRAPH, year over year?
KP: My reasons have morphed over the years. I first joined SIGGRAPH as an SV because I remember hearing about this conference in college and I thought if I’m going to make it anywhere in this industry, this seems like the place to learn, network, and connect. But like most college students, you have no money to spend on travel and conferences. So, I figured I’d apply to be an SV and maybe I could get a pass in return for working as a volunteer. That worked!
But like I mentioned before, SIGGRAPH did become a place to learn, network, and connect not only in the SIGGRAPH industry, but in the SIGGRAPH volunteer community. I began to make connections with the volunteers and was encouraged to apply to subcommittees and work my way into program chair roles. At this point, I’m working for companies that would pay for me to go, but there is a whole different SIGGRAPH experience when you volunteer. You have the ability to design and architect the flow of programs within the conference. You can focus on the guest experience. You can suggest changes, try new things, and help grow the overall experience.
And now, SIGGRAPH is more like a family of people who I have the pleasure of working with across the globe. The volunteers are exceptional people in all facets of computer graphics, so not only do we work together to grow the conference, but we can also bounce ideas and make connections in our professional lives.
SIGGRAPH: You are no stranger to a good challenge — you pivoted and led SIGGRAPH’s first all-virtual conference in 2020. Tell us one lesson you learned thanks to SIGGRAPH 2020.
KP: Ice cream helps you get through anything! I’m serious, but also SIGGRAPH 2020 reminded me that if you trust yourself and your team, a task that seems insurmountable will be achieved. Not a single person on that committee had ever done a virtual conference, but I trusted each and every chair and contractor, and it came together. It reminded me that if you surround yourself with a great team and a great support structure, everything comes together how it should.
Are there things we wished we could have changed about 2020? Probably. But looking back, that was the best conference we could put on given the time and resources we had. The world imploded and yet every member of that 2020 conference team came to bat and hit a home run with unknowns being hurled at them left and right.
SIGGRAPH: While SIGGRAPH 2027 is still a couple of years out, can you give our community a nugget of insight into potential visions or areas of focus you may have for the conference?
KP: At its core, it will be in-person. I’d like to go back and revisit a little of the theme of 2020 in that we were trying to “Think Beyond” in terms of industries represented at SIGGRAPH. Computer graphics is involved in practically every industry from film and games to theme parks, automotive, medical, etc. I want to foster connections between attendees in different communities to inspire collaboration and ingenuity in design and production and encourage learning from other industry problems. Hopefully this might lead to strategic partnerships between one community and another. SIGGRAPH is about inspiration, so I hope that the content inspires our attendees to think outside of the box and learn from their peers.
SIGGRAPH: You’re a Walt Disney Imagineer. What are you currently working on with your team? What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on thus far in your role at Disney?
KP: I am currently leading our media arts and pipeline team, and we are responsible for the pre-visualization of a lot of the attractions you see around the world. Our team’s job is to help create a real-time visualization that assists us with creative and show reviews, whether that’s in a VR headset, in a screening room, or in a mock-up vehicle. These visualizations give us the ability to creatively iterate on the attraction as a whole before anything is physically built.
As for my favorite project, that’s hard because projects can take five years to complete. I’ve had a lot of fun moments on projects, but one that recently came to mind that I’ve probably never brought up is Miss Adventure Falls — a family water ride in Typhoon Lagoon that opened in 2017. It was one of the first projects I worked on before the pipeline team as we know it existed. It was mainly designed out of Florida, and it was fun testing the raft ride virtually and listening to the hilarious scratch audio of the first animatronic to go in a water ride: Duncan the parrot.
At the time, I was also in charge of a 3D printer. There was a request to print a life-sized dive helmet that was UV rated and flame retardant. I wasn’t a materials engineer at all, so I basically read through the spec sheets of the material we had, found one that worked, and 3D printed it. The sink we used to help dissolve the support material always malfunctioned, so I spent a good two hours peeling off the support material with needle nose pliers so the props team could paint it to look real and place it in the attraction.
Before the attraction opened, we had an Imagineering team day to ride through it with our families. I took my husband, and as we rode up the lift hill, I pointed over to the dive helmet and my husband said, “It looks like a real dive helmet.” I said, “I know!” In retrospect it probably would have been easier to find a real one, but ours is flame retardant.
SIGGRAPH: What are you most looking forward to about leading SIGGRAPH 2027 in a “home base” of yours, Anaheim, California?
KP: Well, I do enjoy Disneyland and a good churro. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m trying to connect and dig deeper into industries that use computer graphics that are beyond film and games. I come from the theme park industry, and that industry alone has its foot in robotics, AI, media, real-time, projection, emerging technologies, and so much more, so I’m looking forward to host a conference in a place like Anaheim because the history that exists there is one of inspiration and innovation.
Before Pron leads SIGGRAPH 2027 in Anaheim, 8–12 August 2027, Chris Redmann will lead the conference’s return to Los Angeles for SIGGRAPH 2026, 19–23 July 2026. And this year, join SIGGRAPH 2025 Conference Chair Ginger Alford and committee in Vancouver, 10–14 August. Many programs are accepting submissions — visit the SIGGRAPH 2025 website to share your work that connects our physical and digital worlds and advances our human story.
