Boosting India’s contribution in matters of global concern

EAGx India 

EAGx is an international conference that is hosted in different regions of the world every year. 

Indian Network for Impact hosted the first Indian edition in early 2023, over 2.5 days. 

Our attendees were people who were keen to contribute their talents and resources to improving large-scale problems that affect millions of lives across the globe, such as pandemic prevention, extreme poverty, risks from advanced AI, animal welfare and more. Alongside experts and career professionals with decades of experience, we also invited uni-level students and early career professionals – allowing the latter to benefit from refining their thoughts with experts and senior professionals.

Our conference was optimised for networking, as fostering meaningful connections between our attendees was our primary aim. We had huge open spaces for walking and talking, hundreds of seating spaces to meet others and strike up conversations, chatty tables with specific conversation agendas, prompt cards strewn everywhere to inspire deeper conversations  Most importantly, attendees could access other attendees’ profiles beforehand via an online platform and book one-to-one meetings with anyone, including speakers and experts, according to their available time slots – acting like a specialised LinkedIn plus Calendly! 

It deserves explicit mention that in all our events, it is completely normal to reach out to others whom you don’t know yet and schedule meetings with them. People here, whether young or senior, see everybody as an ally. Our community members are often willing to talk, connect you to other people and refer you to relevant opportunities.

There’s another EAGx happening in India in October 2024, in Namma Bengaluru – you can apply here!

A brief report of happenings at EAGx India 2023 

• The conference hosted ~200 attendees, including ~40 speakers. About 70% of attendees were from India, with others coming from the UK, US, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and Europe. 
• We were aiming to support impact-focused Indians by integrating them with an elite international community of like-minded people, upskilling, offering career advice that’s relevant to their local context, and addressing gaps between our attendees and the high-impact careers they’re pursuing.
• We asked attendees to prioritise meeting others, peers, and experts, since this is the main advantage of gathering in-person, and talks and content can always be consumed online. The talks and panels were all in English, and included:

• South Asian Air Quality by Santosh Harish (Open Philanthropy)
• Biosecurity in Asia by Vorathep Sachdev (Effective Thesis)
• AI Governance Q&A with Michael Aird (Rethink Priorities)
• Farmed Animal Welfare in India by Jayasimha Nuggehalli (Global Food Partners)
• AI safety research agendas and opportunities by Adam Gleave (FAR AI)
• Development Economics and Indian Growth by John Firth (Global Priorities Institute)
  Watch all talks here.

• The event received a recommendation score of 8.77/10, with attendees forming an average of 12.36 new connections—surpassing industry standards for similar conferences. Some quotes from the feedback survey suggest that impactful connections took place:

• “I attended a talk by Michael Aird about AI Governance and the result was finding out new career opportunities within the AI policy and advocacy space.”

• “Talk by Karolina about Charity Entrepreneurship made me seriously consider applying for CE’s next incubation round, and even in general, made me consider starting my own organisation at some point, even if not now.”

• “I met X who might be a good candidate for a job I’m hiring for.”

Relevant links:

• Watch one of our organisers, Anu, speak at the conferences: 
  • First timers at EA Global | EAG London 23

What it means to be in an EA Space | EAGxIndia 2023