Vancouver Forum for Effective Altruism

Everyone wants to do good, but many ways of doing good are ineffective. The EA community is focused on finding ways of doing good that actually work.

This led to many ideas like the following:

• It’s critical to pay attention to how many people are affected by a particular intervention. When we do this, it seems that some ways of doing good are over 100 times more effective than others.
• We should focus on problems that are important, neglected, and tractable
• We can do a lot of good with our careers.
• New technologies might threaten to wipe out life on earth, and reducing this risk might be a key priority.
• Some sentient beings are ignored because they don't look like us or are far away.

Effective altruism isn't one organization, it's a broad community of people working on a diverse set of projects with a common goal: doing as much good as possible. Below are some things people have done:

• Prevented deaths from neglected diseases
• Founded a research institute to research global priorities
• Pushed for safer technological progress
• Successfully campaigned against battery-cage factory farming
• Inspired early employees of the largest mobile money service in Senegal
• Advocated for human challenge trials to understand COVID-19

Effective Altruists are known to be savvy networkers. We know that there's no way to change the world alone. That's why we gather at conferences around the world to coordinate and spur innovation.

Vancouver has long been a place for people in the effective altruism community to work and visit. UBC has had an EA club for years; Rethink Charity and it spinoff organizations got their start here; Students for High Impact Charity piloted in Vancouver schools, too.

On Friday, we are gathering for dinner and a social mixer (6-9pm) at the Odd Fellows Hall. It's on 8th Ave West between Granville and Hemlock.

On Saturday, we're spending the day together (10am-5pm) to explore the core questions of effective altruism, find opportunities to maximize our impact, and enjoy decent vegan food. Refreshments like coffee and tea will be available throughout.

As farmed animal welfare is a huge concern for many people in the community, we walk our values by ensuring that food at virtually all EA events is vegan.

Info: Join us at the Oddfellows on Friday evening for dinner and networking with local members of the effective altruism community.

Info: Effective Altruism begins with the question: How can I do the most good with what I have? Spend the day in conversations about the biggest problems of our time and what we can do about it. Out of respect for animals, lunch will be fully vegan. It will be served at noon.

Info: TBA!

Host or Publisher Rethink Charity