Online EAGs are underrated (FBB #11)
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but EA Connect gave me the final motivational push :)
Many EAs I talk to seem to treat online vs. offline conferences like this:
Online:
“I will register and listen in for the most interesting talks, but otherwise won’t spend much time at the conference.”
“I will let people book a call with me, but I won’t actively source 1-1s.”
Offline:
“I will book as many 1-1s as I can reasonably take (or more) to get the most out of the conference.”
I think this is a mistake. One should take the same approach to virtual conferences as to in-person ones, and slightly tweak their current approach (insofar as it’s similar to the above) to make in-person conferences more serendipitous.
Online conferences that use Swapcard have several advantages over in-person ones:
You can talk to people who live far away and whom you’d otherwise be unlikely to connect with.
You can give people your online calendar instead of putting up with Swapcard’s scheduling tool, making meetings lower friction.[1]
Rescheduling is easier.
You can take a larger number of meetings: shorter default durations feel more natural, and it’s easier to end early if there’s less to discuss.
It’s easier to take care of yourself and relax when calling from home, letting you free up more of your weekend while getting similar benefit.
Scheduling calls for the following week feels more appropriate than trying to fit everything into the conference window.
I case you want to attend a talk, you can join later and play it at 1.5x speed, so you can still catch up by the end and ask questions.
Cons of online meetings:
You don’t get to experience the “vibe” of the person as much, which makes building trust harder, reducing the likelihood of future collaboration.
Some people might not want to take calls the following week.
More senior EAs are perhaps less likely to attend unless they are giving a talk.
Less fun overall (I treat these more like work than in-person ones).
No awesome afterparty.
When it comes to in-person conferences, I think there is more value in setting aside some “free time” to talk to people more serendipitously. This allows for a larger number of connections per 25 minutes, and it also just happens to be fun.
See also: Tacit knowledge: how I *exactly* approach EAG(x) conferences
- ^
On Swapcard, people often book each other for times that don’t actually work. Clicking “attend” on a talk doesn’t block that slot, and manually updating availability is a pain.
Did you get the titles for offline and online reversed for the bullets at the top?
Thanks for checking! I believe no, people tend to book way more 1-1s at offline conferences.
Sorry, I think we meant the same thing. I had a brain freeze. I think my brain got confused by the term “offline.”
Strongly agree with this post! EA Connect has been more useful to me than the two in-person EA conferences I’ve attended, and I estimate I’ve been far more useful (as a mentor, but not only) at EA Connect than at these other conferences.
I wonder if say, links to post-conference games of Gartic Phone and the like could be a low-cost way to recreate that moment where everyone winds down (esp since the online conference feels more serious and formal) for those who would be interested. (Not confident it’s a good idea, just throwing it out there.)
I think sharing links for these are surely worth! I heard that during peak Covid, there was an online EA New Year’s Eve Party on Gathertown with people literally dancing in the rooms—I haven’t attended, but it sounds pretty wholesome:)