Productive conference meetup format for 5-15 people in 30-60 minutes
I ran an impromptu meetup at a conference this weekend, where 2 of the ~8 attendees told me that they found this an unusually useful/productive format and encouraged me to share it as an EA Forum shortform. So here I am, obliging them:
Intros… but actually useful
Name
Brief background or interest in the topic
1 thing you could possibly help others in this group with
1 thing you hope others in this group could help you with
NOTE: I will ask you to act on these imminently so you need to pay attention, take notes etc
[Facilitator starts and demonstrates by example]
Round of any quick wins: anything you heard where someone asked for some help and you think you can help quickly, e.g. a resource, idea, offer? Say so now!
Round of quick requests: Anything where anyone would like to arrange a 1:1 later with someone else here, or request anything else?
If 15+ minutes remaining:
Brainstorm whole-group discussion topics for the remaining time. Quickly gather in 1-5 topic ideas in less than 5 minutes.
Show of hands voting for each of the proposed topics.
Discuss most popular topics for 8-15 minutes each. (It might just be one topic)
If less than 15 minutes remaining:
Quickly pick one topic for group discussion yourself.
Or just finish early? People can stay and chat if they like.
Note: the facilitator needs to actually facilitate, including cutting off lengthy intros or any discussions that get started during the ‘quick wins’ and ‘quick requests’ rounds. If you have a group over 10 you might need to divide into subgroups for the discussion part.
I think we had around 3 quick wins, 3 quick requests, and briefly discussed 2 topics in our 45 minute session.
At EAG London 2025, I was in two meetups ran with this format. Wild Animal Welfare meetup turned out to be extremely valuable, there were so many important quick wins! However, it worked averagely at the digital minds meetup, not much came out of the “quick wins” and “quick requests” parts. I think the difference was that the Wild Animal Welfare meetup mostly consisted of people who are actively working on the topic, so there were actual projects they could use help with. While at the digital minds meetup, people in my groups mostly just had a general interest in exploring this exotic cause area
Productive conference meetup format for 5-15 people in 30-60 minutes
I ran an impromptu meetup at a conference this weekend, where 2 of the ~8 attendees told me that they found this an unusually useful/productive format and encouraged me to share it as an EA Forum shortform. So here I am, obliging them:
Intros… but actually useful
Name
Brief background or interest in the topic
1 thing you could possibly help others in this group with
1 thing you hope others in this group could help you with
NOTE: I will ask you to act on these imminently so you need to pay attention, take notes etc
[Facilitator starts and demonstrates by example]
Round of any quick wins: anything you heard where someone asked for some help and you think you can help quickly, e.g. a resource, idea, offer? Say so now!
Round of quick requests: Anything where anyone would like to arrange a 1:1 later with someone else here, or request anything else?
If 15+ minutes remaining:
Brainstorm whole-group discussion topics for the remaining time. Quickly gather in 1-5 topic ideas in less than 5 minutes.
Show of hands voting for each of the proposed topics.
Discuss most popular topics for 8-15 minutes each. (It might just be one topic)
If less than 15 minutes remaining:
Quickly pick one topic for group discussion yourself.
Or just finish early? People can stay and chat if they like.
Note: the facilitator needs to actually facilitate, including cutting off lengthy intros or any discussions that get started during the ‘quick wins’ and ‘quick requests’ rounds. If you have a group over 10 you might need to divide into subgroups for the discussion part.
I think we had around 3 quick wins, 3 quick requests, and briefly discussed 2 topics in our 45 minute session.
At EAG London 2025, I was in two meetups ran with this format. Wild Animal Welfare meetup turned out to be extremely valuable, there were so many important quick wins! However, it worked averagely at the digital minds meetup, not much came out of the “quick wins” and “quick requests” parts. I think the difference was that the Wild Animal Welfare meetup mostly consisted of people who are actively working on the topic, so there were actual projects they could use help with. While at the digital minds meetup, people in my groups mostly just had a general interest in exploring this exotic cause area
This is cool—thanks for sharing!