Immediate, not hugely informed thoughts:
(I’ve talked to ~250 finance people about EA but only attended one finance conference, and it was fintech rather than investment.)
Broadly I’d recommend looking at generic sales advice, including some conference-specific stuff. A big thing is making clear quickly why you’re relevant to someone. What can you offer them? Why will they care? What is the one point you want them to remember? They’ll have little time, probably being very focused on finding potential business partners, e.g. funds looking for investors, if this is the kind of investor conference I’m thinking of. You might have to be even more prepared to demonstrate relevance than others at the conference because you are not obviously part of the main theme or expected to be there.
Also, how familiar are you with how these kinds of people think? Can you frame EA in industry terms, for example? Seeking to maximise (social) return on investment seems uncontroversial and used as a concept in impact investing. I’ve also tried talking directly about comparing charities (comparables, alpha) though that seemed to not translate as well. (Anecdotal.)
Another tip is to expect an extremely low hit rate. Figure out who seems interested in thinking about their giving and focus on them. Think about whether you want to follow up with the most promising people to point them to key resources or connect them to other interested people. Figure out if asking for contact details is normal or weird in this context.
Good luck. There don’t seem to be major downsides, so even with a low hit rate, seems worth a shot.
Thanks very much! And the workplace activism handbook looks interesting even though it’s not directly related to this particular project, so thanks for that too.
Immediate, not hugely informed thoughts: (I’ve talked to ~250 finance people about EA but only attended one finance conference, and it was fintech rather than investment.)
Broadly I’d recommend looking at generic sales advice, including some conference-specific stuff. A big thing is making clear quickly why you’re relevant to someone. What can you offer them? Why will they care? What is the one point you want them to remember? They’ll have little time, probably being very focused on finding potential business partners, e.g. funds looking for investors, if this is the kind of investor conference I’m thinking of. You might have to be even more prepared to demonstrate relevance than others at the conference because you are not obviously part of the main theme or expected to be there.
Also, how familiar are you with how these kinds of people think? Can you frame EA in industry terms, for example? Seeking to maximise (social) return on investment seems uncontroversial and used as a concept in impact investing. I’ve also tried talking directly about comparing charities (comparables, alpha) though that seemed to not translate as well. (Anecdotal.)
The handbook here may also be of tangential relevance: http://eaworkplaceactivism.org
Another tip is to expect an extremely low hit rate. Figure out who seems interested in thinking about their giving and focus on them. Think about whether you want to follow up with the most promising people to point them to key resources or connect them to other interested people. Figure out if asking for contact details is normal or weird in this context.
Good luck. There don’t seem to be major downsides, so even with a low hit rate, seems worth a shot.
Thanks very much! And the workplace activism handbook looks interesting even though it’s not directly related to this particular project, so thanks for that too.