Hey, I’m sorry you had such a frightening experience! A couple of thoughts, in case they’re useful to you or others:
panic attacks are a pretty common problem, and it’s common to be unsure whether the symptoms are caused by a medical problem or by anxiety. They’re common enough at conferences that when I’ve been the community contact person at EAG it’s pretty common that the volunteers or I have helped someone through a panic attack. Historically we’ve included info on this in the training for our volunteers.
with either a medical or a mental health situation that comes up during the conference, the conference volunteers (and often other attendees) are happy to help! I know it can be difficult to let other people know, but my experience is that people have been very helpful when we’ve had these situations at past conferences.
thanks for pointing out how having financial aid can cause a feeling of obligation even when that’s not intended.
we tried out a new “socioeconomic diversity” meetup at the event this time, aimed at people who grew up low-income or who were the first in their family to attend university. I haven’t heard yet how it went, but I’d be interested in ideas about what spaces like that might help people connect with others who “get it” around these experiences.
Sorry to hear about your experience Joe, and thanks Julia for the heads up on procedures for everyone.
Regarding the socioeconomic background community element of EA, I feel the same. I started a blog lately and my first post was a post about my own socioeconomic challenges in EA, as well as some of the socioeconomic bottlenecks we face. It may be interesting to you to see you’re not the only one: https://legal-longtermist.ghost.io/why-eas-talent-bottleneck-is-a-barrier-of-its-own-making/. If it helps, reading this let me know I wasn’t the only one either. Edit: It’s important to note some of this was my fault—eg. not asking for more money, and letting myself get in that situation in the first place. Don’t mean for it to be a crit. of EA too much.
As Julia mentioned, there was a new socioeconomic diversity meetup at the event which is great news. I’m not sure how it went either because I, ironically, couldn’t afford to be in London for both the Friday and Saturday nights. Im hoping that for my next EA conference I can attend one and it’d be great to meet others with similar experiences—perhaps even you!
The good news is that EA is actually trying to find ways to better include everyone, which is a lot more than most other places do.
Really enjoyed reading that post, thanks for sharing! I’m happy you commented on this, and I also feel better after receiving the DMs about relatable experiences. I hope the issue you bring up on inadvertent filters on socioeconomic status is evaluated carefully by some people in the EA group!
Thanks! Yes, I am sure some parts are misinterpreted or just down to my own experience, but tbh EA as an org tries super hard to be inclusive so they’re probably working on it. Let me know when you next hit up an EAG and I’ll come say hi. My girlfriend is a paramedic student too, so winner winner chicken dinner RE any future medical cost concerns :) She didn’t charge me when I broke my ankle that one time, anyway ;)
Hey, I’m sorry you had such a frightening experience! A couple of thoughts, in case they’re useful to you or others:
panic attacks are a pretty common problem, and it’s common to be unsure whether the symptoms are caused by a medical problem or by anxiety. They’re common enough at conferences that when I’ve been the community contact person at EAG it’s pretty common that the volunteers or I have helped someone through a panic attack. Historically we’ve included info on this in the training for our volunteers.
with either a medical or a mental health situation that comes up during the conference, the conference volunteers (and often other attendees) are happy to help! I know it can be difficult to let other people know, but my experience is that people have been very helpful when we’ve had these situations at past conferences.
thanks for pointing out how having financial aid can cause a feeling of obligation even when that’s not intended.
we tried out a new “socioeconomic diversity” meetup at the event this time, aimed at people who grew up low-income or who were the first in their family to attend university. I haven’t heard yet how it went, but I’d be interested in ideas about what spaces like that might help people connect with others who “get it” around these experiences.
Sorry to hear about your experience Joe, and thanks Julia for the heads up on procedures for everyone.
Regarding the socioeconomic background community element of EA, I feel the same. I started a blog lately and my first post was a post about my own socioeconomic challenges in EA, as well as some of the socioeconomic bottlenecks we face. It may be interesting to you to see you’re not the only one: https://legal-longtermist.ghost.io/why-eas-talent-bottleneck-is-a-barrier-of-its-own-making/. If it helps, reading this let me know I wasn’t the only one either. Edit: It’s important to note some of this was my fault—eg. not asking for more money, and letting myself get in that situation in the first place. Don’t mean for it to be a crit. of EA too much.
As Julia mentioned, there was a new socioeconomic diversity meetup at the event which is great news. I’m not sure how it went either because I, ironically, couldn’t afford to be in London for both the Friday and Saturday nights. Im hoping that for my next EA conference I can attend one and it’d be great to meet others with similar experiences—perhaps even you!
The good news is that EA is actually trying to find ways to better include everyone, which is a lot more than most other places do.
Really enjoyed reading that post, thanks for sharing! I’m happy you commented on this, and I also feel better after receiving the DMs about relatable experiences. I hope the issue you bring up on inadvertent filters on socioeconomic status is evaluated carefully by some people in the EA group!
Thanks! Yes, I am sure some parts are misinterpreted or just down to my own experience, but tbh EA as an org tries super hard to be inclusive so they’re probably working on it. Let me know when you next hit up an EAG and I’ll come say hi. My girlfriend is a paramedic student too, so winner winner chicken dinner RE any future medical cost concerns :) She didn’t charge me when I broke my ankle that one time, anyway ;)