EAGxVirtual: Speaker announcements, timings, and other updates

By Sasha Berezhnoi 🔸 @ 2023-11-02T17:51 (+67)

EAGxVirtual is fast approaching and we’re excited to share some more details about the event!

This post covers updates from the team, including dates and times, content, unique features, and ​​demographic data. In the previous post, we covered the conference theme, reasons to attend, and reviews from the previous attendees.

Content: what to expect

We’re very excited to announce our key speakers for this event:

• Peter Singer on the most pressing moral issues facing humanity.
• Bruce Friedrich, President of The Good Food Institute on longtermism and alternative proteins.
• Carl Robichaud, Co-lead on nuclear policy grantmaking at Longview Philanthropy on a turning point in the story of nuclear weapons.
• Olga Kikou, Head of the EU Office of Compassion in World Farming on ending the cage age in the EU.
• Neel Nanda, Research Engineer at DeepMind on open problems in mechanistic interpretability.

We are working hard on the program. Beyond the above talks (and many more talks and workshops!), you can expect office hours hosted by experts and EA orgs, fireside chats, group meetups and icebreakers, lightning talks from attendees, and unofficial satellite events.

The tentative schedule is available here (all times are in UTC).

Please note that the schedule is subject to change. The final schedule will be available on the Swapcard app, which we aim to launch next week.

Taking action anywhere in the world

We have already received 600 applications from people representing over 70 countries. We welcome all who have a genuine interest in learning more or connecting, including those who are new to effective altruism. If you are a highly-engaged EA, you can make a difference by being responsive to requests from first-time attendees. 

The map below shows the geographical distribution of the participants:

We would love to see more applications. If you know someone who you think should attend the conference, please encourage them to apply by sending them this link: eagxvirtual.com  

The deadline for applications is 11:59 pm UTC on Thursday, 16 November.

Apply here if you haven’t already.

Dates and times

The conference will be taking place from 10 am UTC on Friday, November 17th, until 11:59 pm UTC on Sunday, November 19th.

We don't expect you to always be online – you can be flexible with your participation! It's completely okay if you can attend only on one of the days. Recordings will be available for registered attendees, so you can watch the sessions you missed later.

• Friday will feature introductory-level content for participants who are relatively new to EA and a career fair on Gather Town.
• Saturday and Sunday will have full-day schedules, starting at 7 am UTC each day.
• There will be a break in the program on Sunday between 2 am and 7 am UTC.

Conference features

• Our main content and networking platform for the conference is the Swapcard. We will share access to the app with all the attendees on November 6 and provide guidance on how to use it and get the most out of the conference.
• We collaborate with EA Gather Town to make an always-available virtual venue for the attendees to spark more connections and unstructured discussions throughout the conference.
• Extensive stewardship program. We will highlight ambassadors across different cause areas whom you can speak to get advice or feedback on your career plans.  
• Evergreen discussion space: we are inviting everyone to use EA Anywhere Slack as a discussion space. No more Slacks that are abandoned immediately after the conference is over!

Ways to contribute

• If you want to represent your organization at the career fair or host office hours, please, fill out this form.
• Apply to give a Lightning talk if your conference application is approved.
• If you are hosting a satellite event, let us know!
• Help us spread the word – we want EAGxVirtual to be a truly global experience. You can use the blurbs and posters we prepared to invite your local group members or share our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter). 

We are very excited about the event and hope to see you there!