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
If you are very new to EA, we recommend you first check out some of the online resources (effectivealtruism.org and 80000hours.org) and if you can, join a local or virtual EA event first. If you’re unsure, please err on the side of applying!
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.
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.de, flixtrain.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
I am writing up two charity ideas I’ve wanted to investigate, but haven’t been able to, in the hopes someone will investigate them further. If you end up investigating either, I'd be most interested to see what conclusions you come to!
Vulture preservation as a global health intervention
Since the mid 1990's the vulture population in India has been rapidly declining. The reason is due to a few chemicals which are fed to livestock, which is highly poisonous to vultures.
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Summary
This post will summarize the trajectory of Wild Animal Initiative’s field-building for wild animal welfare science so far, along with patterns and indicators we want to see more of going forward. Beginning with an initial phase focused on establishing credibility and awareness of the field, through a second phase that has placed more emphasis on the distinctiveness and broad priorities of the field, we are now moving into a third phase designed to co...
