How EA DC can help you get the most out of visiting Washington DC

Andy Masley

How EA DC can help you get the most out of visiting Washington DC

Andy Masley

4 min readJan 17, 2025

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G_Klw

EAs in DC have a reputation for being especially nice, supportive, professional, and energetic about their work.

Hell yeah! I love visiting DC, and seeing the EA DC crowd is a high point of each trip.

SummaryBot

Executive summary: EA DC offers extensive resources and networking opportunities for visitors interested in effective altruism and policy, enhancing their experience and connections in Washington DC.

Key points:

EA DC acts as a crucial hub for networking in various policy-oriented cause areas within the effective altruism movement.
Visitors can maximize their visit by filling out a visitor form to connect with the right resources and individuals tailored to their interests.
The EA DC network provides options for office spaces and accommodations, facilitating a productive stay.
Emphasis on understanding and integrating into the professional culture of DC, which is highly network-driven and influential in policy sectors.
Access to a vast array of resources on policy areas such as AI, biosecurity, and more through platforms like EmergingTechPolicy.org.
Encouragement to explore DC's cultural and recreational opportunities, with recommendations available from community members.

This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.

Comments

How EA DC can help you get the most out of visiting Washington DC — EA Forum

If you’re visiting Washington DC to learn more about what’s happening in effective altruist policy spaces, we at EA DC want to make sure you get the most out of it! EA DC is one of the largest EA networks and we have a lot of amazing people to draw from for help. We have a lot of activity in each major EA cause area and in a broad range of policy careers, so there are a lot of great opportunities to connect and learn about each space!

If you're not visiting DC soon but would still like to connect or learn more about the group you should email us at [email protected] and explore our resource list!

How to get the most out of DC

Fill out our visitor form

Start by filling out our visitor form. We’ll get back to you soon with any resources and connections you requested! We’d be excited to chat over a video call before your visit, get you connected to useful resources, and put you in touch with specific people in DC most relevant to your cause area and career interests.

Using the form, you can:

Connect with the EA DC network

If you fill out the visitor form we can connect you with specific people based on your interests and the reasons for your visit. After we connect you, you can either set up in-person meetings during your visit or have video calls ahead of time to get a sense of what's happening on the ground here before you arrive. To connect with more people you can find all our community resources here and on our website. Follow along with EA DC events here.

Get added to the EA DC Slack

Even if you’re just in town for a few days, the Slack channel is a great way to follow what’s up in the network. If you’re okay sharing your name and reasons for your DC visit with the community you can post in the Introductions channel and put yourself out there for members to reach out to.

Get hosted for your stay

We have people in the network with rooms available to sublet, and sometimes options to stay for free.

Find an office to work from during the day

There are several spaces people in the EA DC network use for co-working that visitors can rent. Other EAs in DC enjoy co-working from cafes and other locations. Please indicate that you’re interested on the visitor form or email us at [email protected] if you’d like to be connected to office and co-working opportunities during your stay.

Be aware of DC professional culture

DC is very networking-oriented. It's natural for professionals in DC more broadly to take meetings with new people and get them filled in on what's going on in their areas of expertise. There are a lot of ideological and affinity groups in DC who exist to get new people onboarded to the professional networks in the city. As an example I once heard EA DC get compared to a very effective network of Canadians in the city who help other Canadians get ahead. A lot of the knowledge about policy in DC often exists in small pockets of people in different parts of the government, so staying networked matters a lot for accessing that knowledge.

EAs in DC are especially excited to get more people involved in their cause area networks. If you're unsure about your value add to a specific cause area or profession you should still feel very comfortable meeting with a lot of people and asking for additional connections and resources. One of the biggest mistakes I've seen newer people make is hesitate to reach out to more people in the EA DC network because they're concerned they're taking up too much time. We have a lot of people who are excited to talk to you! Even just having a 15-minute meeting with someone who's a local expert on a policy topic you're interested in can give you a lot of useful new knowledge, connections, and motivation. After every call or meeting you should feel very comfortable asking for additional connections and resources.

We aim to maintain a healthy split between professional and personal spaces. We're happy for you if you make friends in the EA community in DC, but you should treat official EA DC events and meetings you're in as existing for professional purposes and behave accordingly. Everyone in official EA DC spaces is expected to abide by our code of conduct.

Explore resources on different policy areas EAs in DC are focused on

Our members can recommend resources on their cause areas and careers. We don't have too many public collections of resources relevant to specific EA cause areas in DC, but our members maintain large resource lists for people considering their specific fields. We'll add to this post in the future as we collect more to publicize!

EmergingTechPolicy.org is a great resource for people thinking about policy careers in AI, biosecurity, China & tech, cyber, nuclear security, and space governance. If you're visiting DC to learn more about any of these we strongly suggest starting here.

Get recommendations for things to do in DC

DC’s otherwise a great city to visit. We have fantastic food, one of the best public transit systems in the country, lots of fun activities and culture, and obviously lots of exciting ways to connect with people working in and thinking about policy. You should make sure to ask EA DC members about their favorite things to do in the area. I have a separate guide to the city here. I’ll also plug my DC vegan food recs. If you’re considering living here, here’s another EA’s list of selfish reasons to move to DC.

Some notes on the EA DC network

EA DC is one of the largest professional communities of effective altruists. We have very active networks in each major EA cause area who can talk to you about their areas of interest and expertise.

We currently have active monthly meetups for EAs working in and thinking about AI, animal welfare, biosecurity, climate change, democracy preservation, and global health and development. Each has a much larger professional network connected to it.

Most of our more active members work in policy in one way or another, either in Congress, in the executive branch, or in think tanks and non-profits trying to influence the government.

EAs in DC have a reputation for being especially nice, supportive, professional, and energetic about their work. We consistently get amazing feedback about getting involved with the network and hope you'll have the same great experience!