I’m Dion from EAGxSingapore, one of the two community contact people for the event. I’m sorry you felt this way during the conference and wanted to clarify some points.
We did not monitor attendee interactions or 1-1s during the conference. The only exception where we kept track of attendees was for the underaged participants, as alcohol was served during the event. This was explicitly stated to the affected individuals.
It was a priority for us to have a local community contact person. (Me!) However, I (personally) felt that our other contact person was valuable as he had much more context on the EAs flying in from outside the region than any other person on the team. The decision was also partially made because the two of us were the most likely to be contactable since our responsibilities during the conference allowed us to be on our phones/laptops more than the others.
The community contact persons did not work in isolation. Whenever an issue was raised, we would consult each other, the rest of the team, and sometimes CEA’s Community Health team or the local group organizers relevant to the situation to get as much context as possible. For the cases in EAGxSingapore, we preferred to have people sort it out themselves unless we were explicitly requested to step in.
The staff for the conference were probably walking/looking around a lot more than at other events. However, this was because we underestimated the required clean-up crew and were on the lookout for trash lying around.
Happy to discuss any other feedback that you have about the conference!
I couldn’t help laughing at myself after reading your comment as it seemed that I connected two unrelated dots: the presence of community health, and staff looking around for trash.
Thank you for the clarifications, Dion, and for the terrific job you did organizing EAGxSingapore! I wish I could say this in person while I was at the conference, but I saw you were constantly in a “socially exhausted” mode, so I kept my mouth shut. It’s great to e-meet you here and finally get this chance :)
Hi Jonathan!
I’m Dion from EAGxSingapore, one of the two community contact people for the event. I’m sorry you felt this way during the conference and wanted to clarify some points.
We did not monitor attendee interactions or 1-1s during the conference. The only exception where we kept track of attendees was for the underaged participants, as alcohol was served during the event. This was explicitly stated to the affected individuals.
It was a priority for us to have a local community contact person. (Me!) However, I (personally) felt that our other contact person was valuable as he had much more context on the EAs flying in from outside the region than any other person on the team. The decision was also partially made because the two of us were the most likely to be contactable since our responsibilities during the conference allowed us to be on our phones/laptops more than the others.
The community contact persons did not work in isolation. Whenever an issue was raised, we would consult each other, the rest of the team, and sometimes CEA’s Community Health team or the local group organizers relevant to the situation to get as much context as possible. For the cases in EAGxSingapore, we preferred to have people sort it out themselves unless we were explicitly requested to step in.
The staff for the conference were probably walking/looking around a lot more than at other events. However, this was because we underestimated the required clean-up crew and were on the lookout for trash lying around.
Happy to discuss any other feedback that you have about the conference!
I couldn’t help laughing at myself after reading your comment as it seemed that I connected two unrelated dots: the presence of community health, and staff looking around for trash.
Thank you for the clarifications, Dion, and for the terrific job you did organizing EAGxSingapore! I wish I could say this in person while I was at the conference, but I saw you were constantly in a “socially exhausted” mode, so I kept my mouth shut. It’s great to e-meet you here and finally get this chance :)