Head of Events at the Centre for Effective Altruism
Amy Labenz
Karma: 2,620
Review of EA Global 2016
Thanks for the feedback! We’d absolutely be open to holding the event in a low-cost location if community members indicate that they are willing to make the trip and it makes sense in terms of expected savings (I have added this to the survey form). Based on my experience running events in various locations—NYC, Bay Area, SLC, and Michigan—the 5X estimate seems high, but there is definitely a meaningful difference and this could be a good idea. I live in Detroit, Michigan, and I expect that with my connections in the local community I would be able to get access to venues and catering at reduced rates. Aside from the fear that EAs would not make the trip, my biggest concern with having an event here, or in another medium-sized city with a relatively low number of EAs, is the cost to the EA community in terms of lost time spent traveling. Oliver Habryka has done Fermi estimates on the costs and it seems that even with conservative estimates of the value of each individual’s time, the costs likely outweigh the potential savings.
Now that we have a dedicated Events Team, we are considering additional in-person events. Things currently under discussion are EA Salons, EA Global Reunions, additional large scale events in various locations with different focuses (for example, one that is more curated and one that is like a convention or unconference), and provision of greater support for EAGx teams so that they can improve their own events.
One concern we have with the idea of hosting multiple large and substantially similar EA Global events is that we expect that fewer people will come to the main event or to the nearby EAGx events in different locations (for example, we have heard concerns that the plans for a large EAGx Oxford might cause fewer attendees in some of the other EAGx conferences in Europe). Also, the financial and logistical costs of hosting an event do not scale linearly. So, hosting two 500+ person events would add a large amount of additional work for the team, and many of the large costs, such as AV, venue, and speaker costs, would remain mostly the same (unless we reduced the complexity and content in addition to the number of attendees).
To be clear, we haven’t made a final plan. As a team, we’re having discussions about additional in-person events because we’re trying to be sure we’re not missing something that we should consider. I would be happy to hear thoughts about which of the options sound most appealing, and will also consider other suggestions.
We are certainly not set on August. This year we were open to different summer months and ended up selecting August based on a number of factors, particularly the venue availability. Next year we expect to weigh the venue availability, top choice speaker schedules, conflicting events, academic calendars, staff availability, and other factors. Is there a reason that you prefer July?
Thanks!
See Oliver Habryka’s comment.
Thanks! I’m glad you found it useful.
Update: after comparing the location data alongside the attendee and registration data and also considering the location survey results and other factors, we are leaning towards having three distinct events. It remains true that this will likely be more expensive for CEA, but, it seems that it is likely worth the cost on balance.
I will post more extensively on this soon and hope to firm up the locations in the next few weeks. We are tentatively thinking of Boston / Cambridge, London / Oxford, and the Bay Area spread out over many months, possibly with one in the spring, one in the summer, and one in the fall.
EA Global 2017 Update
Thanks for your question and for nominating a speaker! I’ve updated the form to include a request for contact information.
Thanks for your interest!
We will be posting updates here, at eaglobal.org, and in the EA Newsletter (you can sign up at effectivealtruism.org).
If you’d like to provide additional feedback or planning help outside of what is available on the forms, please email hello@eaglobal.org.
Thanks for your question!
First, I should clarify that the event descriptions aren’t meant to suggest that the focus / themes will be the only thing discussed at the conference. We expect to have people who are interested in all of these things to all of the conferences. We will have workshops and community driven content, some core EA concepts, and some things that would fall into the category of “pushing the frontiers” at each.
We have themes because it is helpful for focussing the events, for getting people excited, and for encouraging people to attend more than one event. Having themes also allows us to attract more potential EAs who might not attend a “standard EA conference”. Our themes selections are based on the geographic locations to some degree: the Bay Area hosted the main event for a number of years and seems well-suited for community driven content, Boston / Cambridge is home to Harvard, MIT, MIT Media Lab, Tufts, etc and London / Oxford is home of philosophical EA.
EAG 2017 Boston Update: moved to June
So sorry for the delay!
Yes, they are different events. That is the EAGx Boston from last year. This year we will hold one of the three main EAG events in the Boston area. I expect the contract today so I will be able to announce dates shortly.
Save the Date for EA Global Boston and San Francisco
Thanks for the question! I am working on the application and I hope to launch next week. I’ll post on the Forum and at eaglobal.org as soon as it is up.
I’m currently uncertain about whether I think the live stream provides sufficient value above what is available from recording and posting the videos.
Last year, we received useful data on the live stream views:
Day 1: 914 views (average view time 14.76 minutes) Day 2: 575 views (average view time 17.8 minutes)
We were interested in the live stream in large part because we expected that it would provide access for people who were not local that could not make the event. Interestingly, the majority of video views were from the United States (660) -- particularly in California (279) -- followed by the UK (158).
I’m in negotiations with the video company, and I’ll need to see how the costs and staffing requirements trade off against other things that we could offer. I’ll update once I finalize the contract.
Thanks for saving the dates!
Part of the reason that we are hosting EA Global 2017 in three locations is that we hope to include people from different communities. I am looking at a variety of venues and working to confirm the EA Global UK dates. I hope to have an update on that before too long.
Unfortunately, due to some staffing changes, we have had a bit of a delay this year in launching the EAGx application process. I hope to hire someone to help with the EAGx events soon so that we can ramp up the process and confirm some additional events. We post upcoming events here: https://www.eaglobal.org/events/
I’m sorry about the delay! I wanted to comment here just in case you haven’t seen the update: http://effective-altruism.com/ea/17z/save_the_date_for_ea_global_boston_and_san/
This should be up to date now, thanks!
Thanks! This is an important point that we are also considering.
When I produced the Singularity Summits we alternated between NY and SF. For EA Global, it is hard to say what the right decision is. We hope that having a number EAGx events in different cities will help build communities outside of our most heavily concentrated areas. At the same time, we want to draw from different pools for the large gathering as well. We plan to have a number of team discussions about this question over the next month, and also plan to consider feedback from the survey form.