tl;dr: Effective Altruism Outreach is launching a new EA Global X (EAGx) conference series, with local events organized by leaders in communities around the globe. We are offering a limited number of applicants the position of EAGx Event Director in the inaugural 2016 series. We’re seeking people who are knowledgeable and passionate about effective altruism, have established EA communities in their regions, and are willing to dedicate themselves to a long but rewarding endeavor.
Interested? Apply today through January 31st for an opportunity to shape the future of EA.
(If you are too busy to orchestrate the event but know someone else in your community that may be keen to take on the role, we welcome you to forward them this application.)
Organize an EAGx event
EA Global X organizers have the opportunity to shape the future of EA. Each event has two goals that will be explained in further detail below: (1) Strengthen and spread the vision of EA. (2) Upgrade your EA community.
The EAGx vision
Spread the idea of Effective Altruism
Our EAGx organizers are frontline representatives of not only their local hubs, but of the entire EA community. Many of your attendees will be encountering effective altruism for the first time at your event so it’s key that all EAGx events be a paragon of what EA is all about.
In particular, EAGx events will emphasize the two steps to being an EA - namely, (1) figure out how to do the most good, and then (2) do it. They will also showcase critical EA virtues - e.g., epistemics, excitement, belief-action coherence, curiosity, and capacity-building.
Shape the Effective Altruism movement
One of the reasons EA has been successful as a community is the existence of strong local EA presences in cities like San Francisco, Oxford, Melbourne, Basel and more. Local EA communities benefit from network effects that allow them to more easily attract new contributors, pool resources to work on worthwhile projects, and exchange ideas.
EAGx is an excellent opportunity to take your EA community to the next level. This means you should think of EAGx not as a discrete event, but as part of an overall strategy to build an exceptional EA community.
How this might look:
EAs currently working on animal welfare are leading a drive to recruit more scientists for in vitro meat development. Meanwhile, 80,000 Hours has published findings that the EA movement might be critically lacking in the amount of policy campaigners inside the movement. Your EAGx event outreaches to recruits top biology graduate students at nearby universities and analytically-minded political strategists from local professional associations. Now, in less than a year - thanks to your event acting in concert with EAGx events all around the globe - EA is now full of exactly the people it needs to accomplish world-scale positive change.
EAGx organizers are on the front lines of EA: turning it into a movement which can actually figure out how to do the most good, and then do it.
What do organizers receive?
Put simply, strategic support and coaching, as well as branding/marketing templates and guides
Funding support
- A/V stipend
- Connections to potential donors
- Additional funds, by application
Help with audience-building and feedback
- Determination of target audience and approach
- Evaluation forms and systems
Consulting on major decisions
- Program structure and content
- Venue advice
Other benefits
- Speaker recommendations and introductions
- A fully functional website template and domain
- Featuring on the EA Global website
- Marketing recommendations and templates
What is expected of EAGx organizers?
An EAGx event is a fantastic opportunity to have an impact, grow your abilities, and build a merit-based reputation in the EA community. (Organizers of EA Global have received job offers from EA organizations, since organizing a major event requires a wide range of sought-after skills.)
That said, with great power comes great responsibility. EAGx organizers agree to fulfill the items below, which help each EAGx event shape EA’s trajectory in a positive way.
Responsibilities
- Strategic marketing of your event to audiences who can diversify and substantially contribute to the movement (e.g., groups who have skills that are underrepresented in the EA community; groups with high epistemic standards, etc)
- Commitment to spreading a broad set of EA ideas
- Creation and leadership of a local team
- Fundraising or sponsorship-getting
- Maintenance and updating of website (coding skills not required)
- Speaker management
- Developing policies to protect against disaster scenarios
- Arrangement of high-quality A/V
Requirements
- Event director application
- Bi-weekly Skype calls with the EAO team member (weekly for the four weeks leading up to the event)
- Creation of a draft event program and a final version, two and one month out, respectively
- Adherence to branding guidelines (these make it so that every EAGx conference sends coherent signals)
- Post-conference event, no later than two weeks after EAGx (to build the local community)
- Attendee follow-up email with a feedback form and an invitation to a post-conference event
- Event director monthly group Skype call
- Video production, with videos sent to EAO team no later than one month after EAGx (so we can showcase your event to the rest of the community
- A feedback form to tell us how we’re doing
I don't see a mention of when the EAGx events will eventually be. If one does sign up and gets approved, how long of a commitment is this?
It would be a commitment up to when you actually run the event - I'm pretty sure dates are up to the individual organisers.
That's right. We're also asking that organizers plan a follow-up event(s) to capture the interest generated by the event, but otherwise intend for the commitment to end post-conference.