“12x more cost-effective than EAG - how I organised EA North 2025 (and how you could do something similar)” by mtths

<p> I put on a small one-day conference. The cost per attendee was £50 (vs £1.2k for EAGs) and the cost per new connection was £11 (vs £130 for EAGs). </p><p><strong> intro</strong></p><p> EA North was a one-day event for the North of England. 35 people showed up on the day. In total, I spent £1765 (≈ $2.4k), including paying myself £20/h for 30h total. This money will be reimbursed by EA UK[1]. </p><p> The cost per attendee was £50 and the cost per new connection was £11. These numbers are significantly (over 10x) lower than for EAG events, suggesting that we should be putting on more smaller events. </p><p> I am not arguing that EAGs should not exist at all. A local event will likely never let me connect with someone living on another continent in person. </p><p> My main goal with this post is to encourage individuals to put on more events like this (25-75 people from a set of nearby cities). </p><p> I also hope that this post inspires existing organisers to further bring down costs of larger events, including EAG events. </p><p> If you would like to read more about EA North 2025, read this retrospective.</p><p><strong> why [...]</strong></p> <p>---</p><p><strong>Outline:</strong></p><p>(00:32) intro</p><p>(01:43) why you can probably do this, too</p><p>(02:31) what I spent the money on and a comparison with EAG London 2023</p><p>(03:17) budget breakdown</p><p>(04:53) cost per attendee per day</p><p>(05:22) cost per connection</p><p>(07:24) what I spent my time on</p><p>(08:30) ideas for being even more cost-effective</p><p>(09:33) recommendations to funders</p><p>(09:55) reconsider how many resources you spend on small applications</p><p>(10:53) consider providing funding upfront</p><p>(11:27) thermal printers are cool and cheap</p><p>(11:59) conclusion</p> <p><i>The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.</i> </p><p>---</p> <p><b>First published:</b><br/> May 2nd, 2025 </p> <p><b>Source:</b><br/> <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/12x-more-cost-effective-than-eag-how-i-organised-ea-north?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/12x-more-cost-effective-than-eag-how-i-organised-ea-north</a> </p> <p>---</p> <p>Narrated by <a href="https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p> <p>---</p><div style="max-width: 100%";><p><strong>Images from the article:</strong></p><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/frxg1tzdvmhwkyehkjyi" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/frxg1tzdvmhwkyehkjyi" alt="" style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/qji821rlunbltmaqibfw" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/qji821rlunbltmaqibfw" alt="" style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><p><em>Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try <a href="https://pocketcasts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Pocket Casts</a>, or another podcast app.</em></p></div>