Less Wrong Community Weekend 2022
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- 26 August 2022, 12:00 pm—29 August 2022, 10:00 am
- Badeweg 1, Berlin, Germany
- Contact: lwcw.europe@gmail.com
Less Wrong Community Weekend 2022!
When: Friday 26th August—Monday 29th August 2022
Where: jh-wannsee.de (Berlin)
The tickets:
Regular ticket: 150€
Supporter ticket: 200/300/400€
Angel ticket: 75€
We’ve closed applications now
This year’s awesome keynote speaker will be Duncan Sabien whose talk is: “The moments that matter”. Duncan is the former director of curriculum at CFAR, the primary preparer of the CFAR handbook, and a regular producer of consistently interesting and thought provoking essays such as In Defense of Punch Bug, and Lies, Damn Lies, and Fabricated Options.
From Friday August 26th through Monday August 29th aspiring rationalists from all around Europe and beyond will gather for four days at the lovely Lake Wannsee near Berlin to socialize, run workshops, talk, and enjoy our shared forms of nerdiness.
What the event is like: On Friday afternoon we put up four wall-sized daily planners and by Saturday morning the attendees fill them up with 50+ workshops, talks and activities of their own devising such as Icebreaker games, Rationality techniques, EA community building discussions, Comfort zone exploration workshop, Polyamory and relationships workshops, morning meditation sessions in the Winter garden and many more.
This is our 7th year and we feel that the atmosphere and sense of community at these weekends is something that is really special. If that sounds like something you would enjoy and you have some exciting ideas and skills to contribute come along and get involved.
And of course if you want to spend some time relaxing and recharging on your own you can hike in the forests, sunbathe or stroll lazily along the banks of Lake Wannsee whenever you like. The venue for the event, Wannsee youth hostel, is nestled amongst the beautiful lakes and forests of South West Berlin and provides shared accommodation, a canteen, a selection of large and small seminar rooms and plenty of comfortable spaces inside and out for us to use as we please.
Application Process: There are usually about 20% more people who would like to come than we have spots for, so priority will be given to those who seem particularly interested, or who plan to make interesting contributions by running a talk, workshop or activity. However, everyone is welcome to apply. So apply now and tell us about why it would be awesome to have you as part of the group!
The primary ticket will be 150 euros, but if you want to be an unusually and exceptionally cool person, we also have supporter tickets that allow us to help people who need financial help, and improve this and future community events.
Update: we’re good with Angels for now, thank you! Also we are hoping that some of you volunteer to be an ‘on-site angel’ for a half priced ticket who will help us set everything up, keep things clear, prepare to make sure the snacks table is kept filled, and similar tasks. They will only be expected to work either before, after or during the event while joining sessions is still often feasible. If this sounds interesting to you, file a normal application and mention that you want to be an Angel in the Additional Information field. We will contact you about the details.
We do have funds to help people who would struggle to afford the ticket. If you need help, choose a regular ticket when applying and send us an email explaining your situation after your application has been accepted.
Also tell your friends about this event if you think they will be interested!
When: Friday 26th August—Monday 29th August 2022
Where: jh-wannsee.de
The tickets:
Regular ticket: 150€
Supporter ticket: 200/300/400€
Angel ticket: 75€
We’re closed for applications now! However, if you really want to be put on a waitlist in case someone cancels, here is where you can send your application. Remember that this is not likely to happen and if it will, may be last minute, even on Thursday preceding the event
If you have any questions, please email us at lwcw.europe@gmail.com.
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Hi! Questions about volunteering follow:
“They will only be expected to work either before, after or during the event while joining sessions is still often feasible.”
Could I get a rephrasing of that? I’m not certain, if the options of before/during/after are (or can be) exclusive, and I am also unclear on what is meant by “joining sessions is often feasible”.
I am happy to help, but I would like to know how much of the time during the event (if any) would be, basically, not the event^^
Best regards
Hey Elias, good questions!
What we need a lot of help with can, for the most part, be separated in three different time frames: before, during, and after the event. This means, specifically:
Before the event: Buildup. e.g. Building the reception/welcome desk, preparing workshop rooms, hanging up signs where the workshop rooms are, building the cuddle fort, prepare snack tables, …
Buildup will begin Friday at 9am at the location (official begin is around 6h later, so you’ll probably need to sleep over in Berlin the day before
During the event: Ops. e.g. Primarily re-filling snack tables, and other similarly small miscellaneous tasks which can be done between sessions.
Continuously during the event, but I don’t expect you to re-fill snack tables throughout the night or during meal times etc. Just have an eye out for the snack tables
After the event: Teardown. e.g. Bring back meditation pillows, dismantle the cuddle-fort, clean snack tables, remove signs, get the room keys from everyone back, …
Teardown will take a few hours on Monday (should be less than 6h, but any help is appreciated)
I’d want volunteers to commit to one or more of these time frames. This makes planning and coordination significantly easier.
At this point, we have a number of volunteers during the event, but are short-handed for tear down. We also appreciate additional help for buildup.
Best regards
Felix (Angel Coordinator)
I’m in Berlin, are things easier if I don’t sleep there and/or visit one day?
No, it won’t be easier. Because of the hostel’s policies we cannot offer attendance without accommodation. A lot of our events last well into the night, so it could also be difficult for you to go back home or you would miss some interesting talks or workshops. Just for sake of clarity: if for personal reasons you prefer to spend the night someplace else, we won’t force you to stay. The best the hostel (and we) can offer, are a few single person rooms, and even those come without AC and we understand that it still may not be enough for a decent night’s sleep
If you already know you might only be able to spend one of the days with us, please note that in your application, it may be important for our decision processes
Regarding the schedule, when does the event start on friday and end of monday ? I would like to already book my trip to take advantage of low prices.
On Friday we begin with an optional welcome lunch at noon. About 3-4pm we give keys to the rooms and the official beginning is usually about 5pm. Any lectures/workshops/etc. begin in earnest only after dinner on Friday, so it’s fairly easy to join any time during the day
The official wrap up happens on Sunday afternoon but events happen until Sunday night. On Monday there might be a morning run or workout scheduled, but no more plans at the hostel. Usually on Monday afternoon, evening and even on Tuesday there are some afterparty-type events locally, e.g. rock climbing, meeting in a park with alcohol drinking and such
Question from off-site: the meetup is at a hostel, does this mean that we do not need to book a hotel?
Answer: yes. Accommodation and provisions are all provided. The food at the hostel is decent and by default we ordered vegan for everyone. They offer some allergen-free options (though as an aunt to a celiac kid, I wouldn’t trust their gluten-free option), closer to the event we’ll ask you to fill some more exact information and contact the hostel about the dietary needs. Apart from the regular meals, there are also plenty of snacks clearly labelled for vegan or vegetarian and nobody goes hungry. We rent bedlinens and towels for everyone, so also no need to bring your own
Question from off-site: what methods for financing are available
only bank transfer or stuff like cash/crypto/whatever
Answer: We only support SEPA by default. Easiest alternative is asking a friend to issue the transaction for you. If necessary we can work out an alternative. Send an email to lwcw.europe@gmail.com and we’ll find a way.
Accepting crypto etc would make the bookkeeping quite difficult. Bookkeeping is boring and arduous enough without having an additional PayPal account or crypto wallet, and we’re all doing this stuff in our free time, so we have decided against offering more other official methods so far.
Question from the announcement post: Is there going to be any covid-related precaution? I assume it would be mentioned if so, but I believe an explicit statement is better anyway
Answer: We take the question of Covid safety seriously
Currently Covid is on the wane, most people have been vaccinated or already infected, the event is to be held at the end of the summer, and Covid exhibits a strong seasonal pattern in Europe. While right now we can’t declare anything with certainty and it looks like we won’t need many precautions, we will monitor the situation closely and decide on the details as we get closer to the event
In any case, such an event will involve taking more risk than some people are comfortable with, and I expect some people not to attend because they want to be careful. It’s quite likely that it can lead to a few Covid cases among participants, which is may or may not be an acceptable risk to take depending on your personal philosophy
Update, since we’re getting closer to the event and the epidemiological situation is clearer:
We expect of everyone to arrive with the best vaccination protection available to them. It is mandatory to test yourself within 24h of your arrival and to stay home when tested positive. In such a case we hope to be able to offer you a refund, depending on our financial situation. Right now we are in the process of evaluating further measures to reduce the risk for everyone, it may include e.g. daily testing, setting up more outdoor spaces, recommending to wear masks etc. It is a fine balance between diminishing the risks and making the event enjoyable
Question from off-site: will there be any online events or talks?
Answer: no. This event is intended to be in-person and a lot of the value people get from it is derived from personal contact. For the same reason we also opted against recording of the sessions for later publication