Hide table of contents

Apply now! 
Applications are still open (we'll update the event once we're full). As of 15th Dec, 48 people applied, and we have space for a few more. 

Summary

  • Weekend retreat for 30-60 people interested in Effective Altruism (both old and new community members) to learn, connect and collaborate
  • Content: 2.5 days filled with talks, workshops, meetups and plenty of time for 1-1 conversations and socialising
  • 13.-15. January (from Friday ~4pm until Sunday ~6pm, arriving late or leaving early is fine) in Berlin-Wannsee
  • Costs (incl. accommodation and vegan food) covered by EA Germany, travel subsidies available if needed
  • COVID policy: All attendees need to be fully vaccinated and self-tested before arrival.

Content

  • Purpose: We want to provide a space for participants to 
    • connect with like-minded people from their city and region and find advisors, collaborators and friends
    • share ideas, discuss and make progress on their plans to do more good (through their careers, volunteering or donations)
  • EA Content
    • We will invite a few experts to cover some of the most pressing problems to help inform participants considering entering those fields. Participants are encouraged to contribute content.
    • You can suggest specific content in the application form – we will do our best to make it possible.
    • There will be structured content such as talks & workshops and unstructured, informal discussions and 1-1 conversations (we can help you find the right people if you want). Here's some content from past retreats to get an impression. 
    • All sessions are optional. If you feel like you are not learning or contributing to a session, you are always free to do something else. 
  • Space to relax and connect
    • During the afternoon breaks and in the evenings, there will be space for fun activities, to relax and get to know each other on a more personal level – feel free to contribute content unrelated to Effective Altruism.

These retreats usually receive very positive participant feedback. Previous retreats such as the EA Unconferences have been rated 8.7 - 9.3/10 on average. To get a better impression, see these photos from a previous German EA retreat (different venue) and this video: 

For whom? 

We expect this retreat to be most beneficial for people who:

  • Are familiar with the basics of EA
  • Share the Guiding Principles of EA: Commitment to Help Others, Scientific Mindset, Openness, Integrity, Collaborative Spirit
  • Understand and speak English (no need to be perfect, though!)
  • Live in Eastern Germany (or somehow feel connected to Berlin/Eastern Germany). If you live in North, West or South Germany, we recommend you have a look at our sister events near Hannover and near Stuttgart on 20-22 January. 

Participants do not need to:

  • Know everything & everyone (this might be particularly valuable if you’re not yet well-connected in the EA community)
  • Already work in EA cause areas, or even know what you would like to work on (this can be particularly helpful if you’re undecided about your career & life plans)
  • Speak German (everyone speaks English)
  • Give a talk/workshop (program contributions are encouraged but not required)

The EA community benefits from a diversity of backgrounds and beliefs, so non-German speakers and people from underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged to apply. 

Venue

Jugendherberge Berlin-Wannsee (Google Maps)

The youth hostel may not be the prettiest building, but it has all we need and plenty of space, and the surroundings are really nice: It’s located in a forest right at the lakeside, easy to reach by public transport but still feels far away from noisy Berlin. 

Accommodation: Choice between a shared four-person room at the venue (costs covered) or book your own accommodation nearby (at your own cost). We recommend staying at the venue or close by (<10min), but Berliners can also sleep at home and commute if they prefer. 

Getting there

Get to Berlin: We found rome2rio.com useful to compare travel options. Train is usually fastest (bahn.deflixtrain.de), bus usually takes a bit longer but is cheaper (flixbus.de)

Get to the venue: Trains leave from Berlin central station every 10 min and take 30 min

Apply here

(Deadline 14th December, same application form for all three retreats)

  • Limited capacity. Late applications can only be considered if we have spots left. 
  • Unsure if you can attend? Apply anyway and mention your uncertainty in the form. 
  • Uncertain whether you would benefit from this? Questions? Don’t hesitate to email us! Anonymous feedback is welcome too! 

Organisers

Manuel Allgaier (EA Berlin), Co-Lead (content, admissions), manuelallgaier1@gmail.com

Isidor Regenfuß (EA Berlin), Co-Lead (venue, logistics), pranomestro@gmail.com

With support from: 

Yannick Mühlhauser (EA Tübingen), Y.Muehlhaeuser@gmail.com

Sarah Tegeler (EA Germany), sarah.tegeler@effektiveraltruismus.de  

15

0
0

Reactions

0
0
Comments


No comments on this post yet.
Be the first to respond.
Curated and popular this week
 ·  · 16m read
 · 
Applications are currently open for the next cohort of AIM's Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program in August 2025. We've just published our in-depth research reports on the new ideas for charities we're recommending for people to launch through the program. This article provides an introduction to each idea, and a link to the full report. You can learn more about these ideas in our upcoming Q&A with Morgan Fairless, AIM's Director of Research, on February 26th.   Advocacy for used lead-acid battery recycling legislation Full report: https://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/reports/lead-battery-recycling-advocacy    Description Lead-acid batteries are widely used across industries, particularly in the automotive sector. While recycling these batteries is essential because the lead inside them can be recovered and reused, it is also a major source of lead exposure—a significant environmental health hazard. Lead exposure can cause severe cardiovascular and cognitive development issues, among other health problems.   The risk is especially high when used-lead acid batteries (ULABs) are processed at informal sites with inadequate health and environmental protections. At these sites, lead from the batteries is often released into the air, soil, and water, exposing nearby populations through inhalation and ingestion. Though data remain scarce, we estimate that ULAB recycling accounts for 5–30% of total global lead exposure. This report explores the potential of launching a new charity focused on advocating for stronger ULAB recycling policies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The primary goal of these policies would be to transition the sector from informal, high-pollution recycling to formal, regulated recycling. Policies may also improve environmental and safety standards within the formal sector to further reduce pollution and exposure risks.   Counterfactual impact Cost-effectiveness analysis: We estimate that this charity could generate abou
sawyer🔸
 ·  · 2m read
 · 
Note: This started as a quick take, but it got too long so I made it a full post. It's still kind of a rant; a stronger post would include sources and would have gotten feedback from people more knowledgeable than I. But in the spirit of Draft Amnesty Week, I'm writing this in one sitting and smashing that Submit button. Many people continue to refer to companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind as "frontier AI labs". I think we should drop "labs" entirely when discussing these companies, calling them "AI companies"[1] instead. While these companies may have once been primarily research laboratories, they are no longer so. Continuing to call them labs makes them sound like harmless groups focused on pushing the frontier of human knowledge, when in reality they are profit-seeking corporations focused on building products and capturing value in the marketplace. Laboratories do not directly publish software products that attract hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue. Laboratories do not hire armies of lobbyists to control the regulation of their work. Laboratories do not compete for tens of billions in external investments or announce many-billion-dollar capital expenditures in partnership with governments both foreign and domestic. People call these companies labs due to some combination of marketing and historical accident. To my knowledge no one ever called Facebook, Amazon, Apple, or Netflix "labs", despite each of them employing many researchers and pushing a lot of genuine innovation in many fields of technology. To be clear, there are labs inside many AI companies, especially the big ones mentioned above. There are groups of researchers doing research at the cutting edge of various fields of knowledge, in AI capabilities, safety, governance, etc. Many individuals (perhaps some readers of this very post!) would be correct in saying they work at a lab inside a frontier AI company. It's just not the case that any of these companies as
 ·  · 11m read
 · 
My name is Keyvan, and I lead Anima International’s work in France. Our organization went through a major transformation in 2024. I want to share that journey with you. Anima International in France used to be known as Assiettes Végétales (‘Plant-Based Plates’). We focused entirely on introducing and promoting vegetarian and plant-based meals in collective catering. Today, as Anima, our mission is to put an end to the use of cages for laying hens. These changes come after a thorough evaluation of our previous campaign, assessing 94 potential new interventions, making several difficult choices, and navigating emotional struggles. We hope that by sharing our experience, we can help others who find themselves in similar situations. So let me walk you through how the past twelve months have unfolded for us.  The French team Act One: What we did as Assiettes Végétales Since 2018, we worked with the local authorities of cities, counties, regions, and universities across France to develop vegetarian meals in their collective catering services. If you don’t know much about France, this intervention may feel odd to you. But here, the collective catering sector feeds a huge number of people and produces an enormous quantity of meals. Two out of three children, more than seven million in total, eat at a school canteen at least once a week. Overall, more than three billion meals are served each year in collective catering. We knew that by influencing practices in this sector, we could reach a massive number of people. However, this work was not easy. France has a strong culinary heritage deeply rooted in animal-based products. Meat and fish-based meals remain the standard in collective catering and school canteens. It is effectively mandatory to serve a dairy product every day in school canteens. To be a certified chef, you have to complete special training and until recently, such training didn’t include a single vegetarian dish among the essential recipes to master. De