Catering will likely be cut down. We’ll likely have to stop providing all three of breakfast, lunch, and dinner on each day for our conferences — we still expect to have some food or snacks available, but it’s currently unclear exactly what we’ll be able to provide.
I’d be curious to see a breakdown of catering costs in SF, DC & London if you have them—specifically costs per meal, for drinks, and for snacks and what % of the total budget food has been. Things I think are more or less important (but don’t have a sense of where the budget cut-offs are, hence the request for breakdown)
I think having some kind of breakfast (even if it’s just bread/peanut butter/ hummus/bananas) feels super important for essentially buying an extra 1-2 hours per person. If catering doesn’t allow for a lighter breakfast and/or doesn’t allow outside food etc. [edit: breakfast could also just be snacks/protein bars/etc.]
From my limited catering knowledge, drinks are usually the most expensive, so if not serving drinks during opening / closing speeches could potentially subsidise breakfasts / more food, that seems worth it.
I’d be very curious how far EAG could go by just focusing on Soylent / Huel / Mealsquares.
I can imagine you could get pretty serious savings by making a deal with a small number of brands for a large purchase. I would suspect EA’s account for a serious proportion of these brand’s revenue, and EAG’s are the ideal place for them to market to new EA’s and EA adjacent individuals, so they’d stand to gain a lot from even just providing merchandise at-cost.
Also, when hosting retreats, Soylent was always the most in demand item.
I have not loved the catering at past EAG events (EAG London, EAG SF, EAG DC… the exception was EAGx Boston, whose catering I thought was very good. Though no disrespect to CEA—I’ve handled event catering and it is hell. ). At all of these, I actually would have preferred it if instead of some (most) catered meals there were just assorted Huels (There has been soylent—but I can’t stand soylent).
Lastly, I think this would be pretty funny. It’s a pretty severe change, but I’d be curious to see how EAG participants would respond to this if proposed in a survey, and it’s a fun visual symbol of “efficiency and cost effectiveness vibes” so there’s some signaling benefit.
To continue the tangent, I’m pretty sure this is not true for Huel. From their UK website:
All ingredients listed in Huel Powder v3.0 and Black Edition Huel are low FODMAP and for this reason they can be used alongside the Low FODMAP Diet and as part of your dietary routine if you have IBS. If you have IBS and an extremely busy lifestyle where convenience is a top priority, Huel could form a part of your eating routine to ensure you are achieving a regular meal pattern and optimal nutrition.
I don’t like the food at EAGs and survive off of Huel/Soylent during the conference, it also makes it easier to carry on a conversation while consuming it.
I strongly disagree fwiw; it was seriously inconvenient for me that there weren’t snacks at EAGx Berkeley recently. And they’re not very expensive compared to catering actual meals, I think.
Good to know a counterpoint—I guess different people have different preferences (e.g. breakfast is very important for me to be focused / able to fully participate in the mornings). I think I would still make the trade-off of to have breakfast over snacks (for reasons I mention in response to Neel below)
And now that I think about it, breakfast could just be snacks if it’s cheaper.
I think having some kind of breakfast (even if it’s just bread/peanut butter/ hummus/bananas) feels super important for essentially buying an extra 1-2 hours per person
some people (20%?) will arrive later to the conference venue if they need to get food first (30-60m later if you incl. transport, buying, eating outside the venue etc.). for those people, they might have had either 1-1s or casual conversations over breakfast.
some people (10?) might be more tired or have a less good experience if they come early but don’t have time to get breakfast (so it’s not really buying hours, but quality-adjust hours?)
some people (1%? 5%?) might come in much later if they know there won’t be food til lunch
I’d be curious to see a breakdown of catering costs in SF, DC & London if you have them—specifically costs per meal, for drinks, and for snacks and what % of the total budget food has been. Things I think are more or less important (but don’t have a sense of where the budget cut-offs are, hence the request for breakdown)
I think having some kind of breakfast (even if it’s just bread/peanut butter/ hummus/bananas) feels super important for essentially buying an extra 1-2 hours per person. If catering doesn’t allow for a lighter breakfast and/or doesn’t allow outside food etc. [edit: breakfast could also just be snacks/protein bars/etc.]
From my limited catering knowledge, drinks are usually the most expensive, so if not serving drinks during opening / closing speeches could potentially subsidise breakfasts / more food, that seems worth it.
Snacks also feel more optional
I’d be very curious how far EAG could go by just focusing on Soylent / Huel / Mealsquares.
I can imagine you could get pretty serious savings by making a deal with a small number of brands for a large purchase. I would suspect EA’s account for a serious proportion of these brand’s revenue, and EAG’s are the ideal place for them to market to new EA’s and EA adjacent individuals, so they’d stand to gain a lot from even just providing merchandise at-cost.
Also, when hosting retreats, Soylent was always the most in demand item.
I have not loved the catering at past EAG events (EAG London, EAG SF, EAG DC… the exception was EAGx Boston, whose catering I thought was very good. Though no disrespect to CEA—I’ve handled event catering and it is hell. ). At all of these, I actually would have preferred it if instead of some (most) catered meals there were just assorted Huels (There has been soylent—but I can’t stand soylent).
Lastly, I think this would be pretty funny. It’s a pretty severe change, but I’d be curious to see how EAG participants would respond to this if proposed in a survey, and it’s a fun visual symbol of “efficiency and cost effectiveness vibes” so there’s some signaling benefit.
This is kind of tangential, but anyone who is FODMAP-sensitive would be unable to eat any of Soylent, Huel, or Mealsquares as far as I’m aware.
To continue the tangent, I’m pretty sure this is not true for Huel. From their UK website:
I don’t like the food at EAGs and survive off of Huel/Soylent during the conference, it also makes it easier to carry on a conversation while consuming it.
What don’t you like about it? Signed, future EAGx organiser
Counterpoint: if you do that, you’ll get only people who like eating meal replacement as food. Ew.
I strongly disagree fwiw; it was seriously inconvenient for me that there weren’t snacks at EAGx Berkeley recently. And they’re not very expensive compared to catering actual meals, I think.
Good to know a counterpoint—I guess different people have different preferences (e.g. breakfast is very important for me to be focused / able to fully participate in the mornings). I think I would still make the trade-off of to have breakfast over snacks (for reasons I mention in response to Neel below)
And now that I think about it, breakfast could just be snacks if it’s cheaper.
Huh, can you say more on this?
these are mostly educated guesses:
some people (20%?) will arrive later to the conference venue if they need to get food first (30-60m later if you incl. transport, buying, eating outside the venue etc.). for those people, they might have had either 1-1s or casual conversations over breakfast.
some people (10?) might be more tired or have a less good experience if they come early but don’t have time to get breakfast (so it’s not really buying hours, but quality-adjust hours?)
some people (1%? 5%?) might come in much later if they know there won’t be food til lunch