(EA) Hotel dedicated to events, retreats, and bootcamps in Blackpool, UK?
I want to try and gauge what the demand for this might be. Would you be interested in holding or participating in events in such a place? Or work running them? Examples of hosted events could be: workshops, conferences, unconferences, retreats, summer schools, coding/data science bootcamps, EtG accelerators, EA charity accelerators, intro to EA bootcamps, AI Safety bootcamps, etc.
This would be next door to CEEALAR (the building is potentially coming on the market), but most likely run by a separate, but close, limited company (which would charge, and funnel profits to CEEALAR, but also subsidise use where needed). Note that being in Blackpool in a low cost building would mean that the rates charged by such a company would be significantly less than elsewhere in the UK (e.g. £300/day for use of the building: 15 bedrooms and communal space downstairs to match that capacity). Maybe think of it as Whytham Abbey, but at the other end of the Monopoly board: only 1% of the cost! (A throwback to the humble beginnings of EA?)
From the early days of the EA Hotel (when we first started hosting unconferences and workshops), I have thought that it would be good to have a building dedicated to events, bootcamps and retreats, where everyone is in and out as a block, so as to minimise overcrowding during events, and inefficiencies of usage of the building either side of them (from needing it mostly empty for the events); CEEALAR is still suffering from this with it’s event hosting. The yearly calendar could be filled up with e.g. 4 10-12 week bootcamps/study programs, punctuated by 4 1-3 week conferences or retreats in between.
This needn’t happen straight away, but if I don’t get the building now, the option will be lost for years. Having it next door in the terrace means that the building can be effectively joined to CEEALAR, making logistics much easier (and another option for the building could be a further expansion of CEEALAR proper[1]). Note that this is properly viewed as an investment to take into account a time-limited opportunity, and shouldn’t be seen as fungible with donations (to CEEALAR or anything else); if nothing happens I can just sell the building again and recoup most/all of the costs (selling shouldn’t be that difficult, given property prices are rising again in the area due to a massive new development in the town centre).
For my org, I can imagine using this if it was 2x the size or more, but I can’t really think of events I’d run that would be worth the effort to organise for 15 people.
(Maybe like 30% chance I’d use it within 2 years if had 30+ bedrooms, less than 10% chance at the actual size.)
Thanks for the feedback. Would events where people share rooms (e.g. having some dorm rooms) be something you would consider? Also, it would be possible to have some flexibility with number of rooms given CEEALAR’s 30 rooms next door, and 100+ more rooms from other hotels/guest houses within 50m.
Yep, definitely something I’d consider! I know some people have a strong preference against sharing though so it’d be helpful to still have access to at least some single rooms.
(I also find some people have single rooms with ensuites as a hard requirement for medical or religious reasons).
The flexibility makes it sound more promising and useable
We do. It’s used for both. It could just be used for events/retreats, but I’m unsure whether that would push CEEALAR in a too “for profit” direction if it’s run by CEEALAR as such (currently the second building is still owned by me, with exclusive usage rights given to CEEALAR for free; but my intention has been to gift it to CEEALAR, and that may happen soon.)
Points against for me: - The hassle of the purchase and getting it up and running (on top of lots of other things I’ve got going on already). - Short timelines could make it all irrelevant (unless we get a Pause on AGI). - If it doesn’t work out and I end up selling the building again, it could end up quite a bad investment relative to the counterfactual (of holding crypto). [This goes both ways though.]
Have you done some research on the expected demand (e.g. survey the organisers of the mentioned programs, community builders, maybe Wytham Abbey event organisers)?
I can imagine the location and how long it takes to get there (unless you are already based in London, though even then it’s quite the trip) could be a deterrent, especially for events <3 days.
(Another factor may be “fanciness”—I’ve worked with orgs and attended/organise events where fancy venues were eschewed, and others where they were deemed indispensable. If that building is anything like the EA Hotel—or the average Blackpool building—my expectation is it would rank low on this. Kinda depends on your target audience/user.)
Not done any research (but asking here, now :)). I guess 1 week is more of a sweet spot, but we have hosted weekend events before at CEEALAR. In the last year, CEEALAR has hosted retreats for a few orgs (ALLFED, Orthogonal, [another AI Safety org], PauseAI (upcoming)) and a couple of bootcamps (ML4G), all of which we have charged for. So we know there is at least some demand. Because of hosting grantees long term, CEEALAR isn’t able to run long events (e.g. 10-12 week courses or start-up accelerators), so demand there is untested. But I think given the cost competitiveness, there would be some demand there.
Re fanciness, this is especially aimed at the budget (cost effectiveness) conscious. Costs would be 3-10x less than what is typical for UK venues. And there would be another bonus of having an EA community next door.
(EA) Hotel dedicated to events, retreats, and bootcamps in Blackpool, UK?
I want to try and gauge what the demand for this might be. Would you be interested in holding or participating in events in such a place? Or work running them? Examples of hosted events could be: workshops, conferences, unconferences, retreats, summer schools, coding/data science bootcamps, EtG accelerators, EA charity accelerators, intro to EA bootcamps, AI Safety bootcamps, etc.
This would be next door to CEEALAR (the building is potentially coming on the market), but most likely run by a separate, but close, limited company (which would charge, and funnel profits to CEEALAR, but also subsidise use where needed). Note that being in Blackpool in a low cost building would mean that the rates charged by such a company would be significantly less than elsewhere in the UK (e.g. £300/day for use of the building: 15 bedrooms and communal space downstairs to match that capacity). Maybe think of it as Whytham Abbey, but at the other end of the Monopoly board: only 1% of the cost! (A throwback to the humble beginnings of EA?)
From the early days of the EA Hotel (when we first started hosting unconferences and workshops), I have thought that it would be good to have a building dedicated to events, bootcamps and retreats, where everyone is in and out as a block, so as to minimise overcrowding during events, and inefficiencies of usage of the building either side of them (from needing it mostly empty for the events); CEEALAR is still suffering from this with it’s event hosting. The yearly calendar could be filled up with e.g. 4 10-12 week bootcamps/study programs, punctuated by 4 1-3 week conferences or retreats in between.
This needn’t happen straight away, but if I don’t get the building now, the option will be lost for years. Having it next door in the terrace means that the building can be effectively joined to CEEALAR, making logistics much easier (and another option for the building could be a further expansion of CEEALAR proper[1]). Note that this is properly viewed as an investment to take into account a time-limited opportunity, and shouldn’t be seen as fungible with donations (to CEEALAR or anything else); if nothing happens I can just sell the building again and recoup most/all of the costs (selling shouldn’t be that difficult, given property prices are rising again in the area due to a massive new development in the town centre).
CEEALAR has already expanded once. When I bought the second building it also wasn’t ideal timing, but it never is; I didn’t want to lose option value.
^I’m going to be lazy and tag a few people: @Joey @KarolinaSarek @Ryan Kidd @Leilani Bellamy @Habryka @IrenaK Not expecting a response, but if you are interested, feel free to comment or DM.
For my org, I can imagine using this if it was 2x the size or more, but I can’t really think of events I’d run that would be worth the effort to organise for 15 people.
(Maybe like 30% chance I’d use it within 2 years if had 30+ bedrooms, less than 10% chance at the actual size.)
Cool idea though!
Thanks for the feedback. Would events where people share rooms (e.g. having some dorm rooms) be something you would consider? Also, it would be possible to have some flexibility with number of rooms given CEEALAR’s 30 rooms next door, and 100+ more rooms from other hotels/guest houses within 50m.
Yep, definitely something I’d consider! I know some people have a strong preference against sharing though so it’d be helpful to still have access to at least some single rooms.
(I also find some people have single rooms with ensuites as a hard requirement for medical or religious reasons).
The flexibility makes it sound more promising and useable
I’m confused. Don’t you already have a second building? Is that dedicated towards events or towards more guests?
We do. It’s used for both. It could just be used for events/retreats, but I’m unsure whether that would push CEEALAR in a too “for profit” direction if it’s run by CEEALAR as such (currently the second building is still owned by me, with exclusive usage rights given to CEEALAR for free; but my intention has been to gift it to CEEALAR, and that may happen soon.)
Points against for me:
- The hassle of the purchase and getting it up and running (on top of lots of other things I’ve got going on already).
- Short timelines could make it all irrelevant (unless we get a Pause on AGI).
- If it doesn’t work out and I end up selling the building again, it could end up quite a bad investment relative to the counterfactual (of holding crypto). [This goes both ways though.]
Have you done some research on the expected demand (e.g. survey the organisers of the mentioned programs, community builders, maybe Wytham Abbey event organisers)? I can imagine the location and how long it takes to get there (unless you are already based in London, though even then it’s quite the trip) could be a deterrent, especially for events <3 days. (Another factor may be “fanciness”—I’ve worked with orgs and attended/organise events where fancy venues were eschewed, and others where they were deemed indispensable. If that building is anything like the EA Hotel—or the average Blackpool building—my expectation is it would rank low on this. Kinda depends on your target audience/user.)
Not done any research (but asking here, now :)). I guess 1 week is more of a sweet spot, but we have hosted weekend events before at CEEALAR. In the last year, CEEALAR has hosted retreats for a few orgs (ALLFED, Orthogonal, [another AI Safety org], PauseAI (upcoming)) and a couple of bootcamps (ML4G), all of which we have charged for. So we know there is at least some demand. Because of hosting grantees long term, CEEALAR isn’t able to run long events (e.g. 10-12 week courses or start-up accelerators), so demand there is untested. But I think given the cost competitiveness, there would be some demand there.
Re fanciness, this is especially aimed at the budget (cost effectiveness) conscious. Costs would be 3-10x less than what is typical for UK venues. And there would be another bonus of having an EA community next door.