I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but EA Connect gave me the final motivational push :)

Many EAs I talk to seem to treat online vs. offline conferences like this:

Online:

• “I will register and listen in for the most interesting talks, but otherwise won’t spend much time at the conference.”
• “I will let people book a call with me, but I won’t actively source 1-1s.”

Offline:

• “I will book as many 1-1s as I can reasonably take (or more) to get the most out of the conference.”

I think this is a mistake. One should take the same approach to virtual conferences as to in-person ones, and slightly tweak their current approach (insofar as it's similar to the above) to make in-person conferences more serendipitous.

Online conferences that use Swapcard have several advantages over in-person ones:

• You can talk to people who live far away and whom you’d otherwise be unlikely to connect with.
• You can give people your online calendar instead of putting up with Swapcard's scheduling tool, making meetings lower friction.[1]
• Rescheduling is easier.
• You can take a larger number of meetings: shorter default durations feel more natural, and [...]

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