You know much more than I do, but I would be surprised if these were the most relevant factors.
People within 100km of Utrecht are still mostly in the Netherlands, or at least are likely to have a strong Dutch connection.
2. I know a surprising amount of people interested in these events really value limiting their flights for environmental reasons, so this might be true.
3. Berlin is extremely well-connected. I donât think anyone didnât go to EAGx Berlin for lack of flights. If anything, plane tickets from Rome, Milan and Paris are slightly cheaper for Berlin vs Schiphol.
In my limited experience, the two most important factors for the people who get the most value from these conferences are:
Timing: people are busy, so they might e.g. have to defend their PhD thesis on the same day of EAGx (real example)
Acceptance rates: for some people from Italy who just went through an intro program, either Berlin, Rotterdam/âUtrecht, or Nordics could be the most convenient because they wouldnât get accepted into the others
In any case, I would expect people who find Utrecht more convenient than other EAGxs for whatever reason will also find opportunities presented by Dutch-connected speakers more valuable than the typical EAGx participant, so it might make sense to lean into that. I wouldnât be surprised if the ideal number were higher than 35%.
Given all the things going on with e.g. The School For Moral Ambition and Doneer Effectief, I would also consider whether having Netherlands-specific events would make sense. Posssibly in the spirit of making EA more decentralized, like environmentalism.
But I guess all the above depends heavily on what % of participants live near the Netherlands, do you know the percentage of people from NL/âBE for EAGxRotterdam 2022? (Although that was a while ago).
Just to be clear, I was attempting to answer @EffectiveAdvocateâs question about why one might think Utrecht is probably the most accessible location for many EAs in Western Europe. I wasnât making this point to defend the 35% figure :)
I wanted to make the point about accessibility because Iâm quite certain it isnât the case that Berlin and Copenhagen are much more accessible than Utrecht, and I worry some people will underrate Utrechtâs accessibility and therefore choose not to come.
I agree timing is probably a more important determiner of attendance than accessibility, that the quality of the speaker should probably be the most important factor when choosing, and I think Catherine makes a very good point about extending our partiality beyond NL.
Re your Q about the national residencies of attendees in 2022, all I have to hand is the following:
You know much more than I do, but I would be surprised if these were the most relevant factors.
People within 100km of Utrecht are still mostly in the Netherlands, or at least are likely to have a strong Dutch connection.
2. I know a surprising amount of people interested in these events really value limiting their flights for environmental reasons, so this might be true.
3. Berlin is extremely well-connected. I donât think anyone didnât go to EAGx Berlin for lack of flights. If anything, plane tickets from Rome, Milan and Paris are slightly cheaper for Berlin vs Schiphol.
In my limited experience, the two most important factors for the people who get the most value from these conferences are:
Timing: people are busy, so they might e.g. have to defend their PhD thesis on the same day of EAGx (real example)
Acceptance rates: for some people from Italy who just went through an intro program, either Berlin, Rotterdam/âUtrecht, or Nordics could be the most convenient because they wouldnât get accepted into the others
In any case, I would expect people who find Utrecht more convenient than other EAGxs for whatever reason will also find opportunities presented by Dutch-connected speakers more valuable than the typical EAGx participant, so it might make sense to lean into that. I wouldnât be surprised if the ideal number were higher than 35%.
Given all the things going on with e.g. The School For Moral Ambition and Doneer Effectief, I would also consider whether having Netherlands-specific events would make sense. Posssibly in the spirit of making EA more decentralized, like environmentalism.
But I guess all the above depends heavily on what % of participants live near the Netherlands, do you know the percentage of people from NL/âBE for EAGxRotterdam 2022? (Although that was a while ago).
And I strongly agree with Nick that the quality is more important
Just to be clear, I was attempting to answer @EffectiveAdvocateâs question about why one might think Utrecht is probably the most accessible location for many EAs in Western Europe. I wasnât making this point to defend the 35% figure :)
I wanted to make the point about accessibility because Iâm quite certain it isnât the case that Berlin and Copenhagen are much more accessible than Utrecht, and I worry some people will underrate Utrechtâs accessibility and therefore choose not to come.
I agree timing is probably a more important determiner of attendance than accessibility, that the quality of the speaker should probably be the most important factor when choosing, and I think Catherine makes a very good point about extending our partiality beyond NL.
Re your Q about the national residencies of attendees in 2022, all I have to hand is the following:
41% living in the Netherlands
14% living in Germany
Thanks for your input so far!