EA - EAGxVirtual: A virtual venue, timings, and other updates by Alex Berezhnoi

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EAGxVirtual: A virtual venue, timings, and other updates, published by Alex Berezhnoi on October 13, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
EAGxVirtual is fast approaching. This post covers updates from the team, including demographics data, dates and times, content, venue, and unique features.
Transcending Boundaries
We have already received more than 600 applications from people representing over 60 countries, making our conference one of the most geographically diverse EA events ever. For many of them, it would be their first conference. If you are a highly-engaged EA, you can make a difference by being responsive to requests from first-time attendees.
The map below shows the geographical distribution of the participants:
Still, we would love to see more applications. If you know someone who you think should attend the conference, please encourage them to apply by sending them this link!
The deadline for applications is 8:00 am UTC on Wednesday, 19 October.
Dates and times
The conference will be taking place from 5 pm UTC on Friday, October 21st, until 11:59 pm UTC on Sunday, October 23rd.
Friday will feature group meetups and an opening session.
On Saturday and Sunday, the sessions will start at 8 am UTC. We try to make the keynote sessions accessible to people from different time zones but the recordings will be available if you cannot make it.
There will be a break in the program on Sunday between 3 am and 8 am UTC.
Content: what to expect
We are working hard on the program. Here are the types of content you might expect, beyond the usual talks and workshops:
Career stories sessions
Office Hours hosted by EA orgs
Q&As and fireside chats
Group meetups and icebreakers
Lightning talks from the attendees
Participant-driven meetups on Gather.Town
We have confirmed speakers from Charity Entrepreneurship, GFI Asia, Manifold Markets, Spark Wave, CEA, GovAI, HLI, and other organizations. Some exciting confirmed speakers: Spencer Greenberg, Seth Baum, Varun Deshpande, Ben Garfinkel, David Manheim, and others!
The tentative schedule will be available on the Swapcard app at the end of the week, but it is subject to slight changes in the leadup to the conference.
Virtual venue
Our main content and networking platform for the conference is the Swapcard. We will share access to the app with all the attendees a week before the conference and provide guidance on how to use it and get the most out of the conference.
We also collaborate with EA Gather.Town to make an always-available virtual space for the attendees to spark more connections and unstructured discussions throughout the conference. There will be spots for private meetings and rooms you can book for group meetups: just like the real conference venue!
There will be sessions led by EA Virtual Reality as well! Gather.Town and EA VR are optional but are exciting opportunities for those who want to experiment with formats beyond usual live streams and calls.
Call for volunteers
We think volunteering for such events can be a very fulfilling experience, and organizers depend on motivated people like you to support us and make the best out of this event. We are currently looking for volunteers to help in a wide range of positions, including chat management, moderators, emcees, and more. If you attending the conference, please consider becoming a volunteer.
We are very excited about the event and hope to see you there!
EAGxVirtual Team: Alex, Jordan, Dion, Amine, Marka, and Ollie
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.