In 2013, the Effective Altruism movement came together for a week-long Summit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Attendees included leaders and members from all the major effective altruist organizations, as well as effective altruists not affiliated with any organization. People shared strategies, techniques, and projects, and left more inspired and more effective than when they arrived.
Following last year’s success, this year’s Effective Altruism Summit will comprise two events. The Summit will be a conference-style event held on the weekend of August 2-3, followed by a smaller Effective Altruism Retreat from August 4-9. To accommodate our expanding movement and its many new projects, this year’s Summit will be bigger than the last. The Retreat will be similar to last year’s EA Summit, providing a more intimate setting for attendees to discuss, to learn, and to form lasting connections with each other and with the community.
We’re now accepting applications for the 2014 events. Whether you’re a veteran organizer trying to keep up with Effective Altruism’s most exciting developments, or you’re new to the movement and want to meet the community, we’d love for you to join us.
I'm still curious as to why there is an application. Most conferences don't have applications.
Why is there an application?
Space limitations: http://lesswrong.com/lw/jxd/effective_altruism_summit_2014/apw3
This raises the question, Why not choose a larger space? Perhaps because of financial limitations.
Maybe they want an idea of how many people will attend. If people just needed to type in their names and e-mail addresses, it could be that a lot more people sign up than attend. Also, they might have space limitations, and so they might have to turn people away. Normally rationing of conference attendance is done by charging a fee for a limited number of slots. Maybe they wanted to base attendance on interest rather than willingness to spend.
But it would be nice to hear an official explanation.