A small case for small events: EA Belgium Summer Retreat 2023 & 2024 analysis
| This is a Draft Amnesty Week draft. It may not be polished, up to my usual standards or fully thought through. This is a Forum post that I wouldn’t have posted without the nudge of Draft Amnesty Week. If it were more than a draft, I would go deeper into making a case for small events and make an actual comparison with EAG(x) events. |
With EA Belgium, we’ve organized two summer retreats, both at the same location. Since the location was a volunteer’s house and garden, and they also had a large tent available, our only expense was food.
The 2023 edition ran from Saturday noon until Sunday noon, meaning 4 meals.
The 2024 edition ran from Friday evening until Sunday noon, so 6 meals.
Below, you’ll find the cost breakdown and survey results from both events:
| 2023 | 2024 | |||
| Costs | €190.00 | €307.00 | ||
| Income | €271.00 | €310.00 | ||
| Profit | €81.00 | €3.00 | ||
| # Participants who contributed money | 13 | 12 | ||
| Average contribution | €20.85 | €25.83 | ||
| # Meals | 4 | 6 | ||
| Average cost per meal | €47.50 | €51.17 | ||
| Cost per participant/organizer | €10.56 | €18.06 | ||
| # Participants who filled out survey | 12 | 11 | ||
| # Organizers | 4 | 4 | ||
| Total # participants, including organizers | 18 | 17 | ||
| # Participants who didn’t fill out survey | 2 | 2 | ||
| # Participants & organizers who also went the year before | N/A | 5 | ||
| How would you rate your experience? | 8 | 9 | (Average number) | |
| How many new connections did you make? | 4.41 | 5.27 | (Average number) | |
| I learned something new and important | 83.33% | 81.82% | ||
| I changed my mind about something | 33.33% | 54.55% | ||
| I have changed my career plans | 8.33% | 0.00% | ||
| Would you go to a similar event like this next year? | Yes | 75.00% | 81.82% | |
| Maybe | 25.00% | 18.18% | ||
| No | 0.00% | 0.00% | ||
Please note that we aren’t exactly sure of some 2023 figures marked in italics, those are my best guess.
With a cost of just €11–18 per participant, these retreats were significantly more cost-effective than an EAG(x) at face value. But of course, if we want to organize a bigger event, costs would rise quickly due to venue costs. While this format isn’t easily scalable, I hope it inspires other local groups to organize similar small-scale events! I (Jeroen) personally think the EA Summits are exciting for this reason.
Our retreats were somewhere between an unconference and a traditional conference: there was only one activity at a time, and the schedule was mostly set in advance, but participants played a key role in selecting and giving workshops and talks.
Anecdotal evidence, but I would attribute at least part of the reason I ended up in an EA career to a 2 day event of ~12 people hosted by EA London.
There’s a write up here (if you mean the same thing), but it was about 30 people.
That’s the one!
Weird that I remember it being half the size.
15-20 people sharing costs for a small EA weekend sounds really cozy. :)
Could you describe the sleeping arrangements/accommodations a little bit? Did the person who volunteered the house happen to have a large number of guest bedrooms? Did participants bring tents and sleeping bags?
No guest bedrooms. We encouraged tents and sleeping bags. Some people just went home for the night, while others came only for one day. This meant for both editions only 5-8 people ended up staying overnight, with most of them sleeping indoors in the living room.