From Novice to Event Organiser

My Unexpected Journey into AI Safety Event Planning

In January 2024 I took a course by BlueDot Impact called AI Safety Fundamentals, that taught the basics of AI safety in a cohort-based online course. It was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it.

Someone from a more recent cohort posted that they were considering putting on an event about AI Safety in London. I reached out to see if he needed any help.

He told me basically had had the idea and gathered some interested people, but still needed help on choosing a venue, booking it, getting speakers and getting it all organised.

I have never put on an event in my life, I don’t even like organising personal events usually, ask my friends I barely even plan my birthday, so I am not sure what came over me. But I had the urge to get this event done fast.

In 2 days I had reached out to multiple people about using a venue, several more about being a speaker and managed to get in touch with someone who would allow us to have the event at their venue Newspeak House. I’d been to some events they’ve done before and they were always about really interesting ideas where tech could be used to do good in society, so I thought we would be a good fit, luckily they agreed.

My coorganiser Vicente was happy with the location and the date, he also managed to find a speaker. So we had 2 speakers, a venue, a date and a list of people who were interested in coming. It was all coming together nicely.

A few weeks later we headed to Newspeak House and started our first ever AI Safety London event and I met my coorganiser in person for the first time. Turns out he is a lovely guy and a little taller than I thought.

As this was my first event, I foolishly didn’t expect anything to go wrong, but disaster struck! Our first speaker was unable to make the talk in person, guests had already started sitting and were getting ready for the talk we had promised. Luckily, Vicente saved the day and managed to stream our speaker remotely, so our speaker could give his original talk.

The second speaker arrived on time and gave his talk without any issues. The event moved to a pub round the corner and we got to know our guests more and they could mingle amongst themselves more too. It was great to see everyone enjoying the event and discussing the talks we had put on.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed organising an event and making sure it operated smoothly, as we could. I didn’t expect to find it so satisfying when it all came together and I saw the people engaging with the event, meeting new people interested in the same things as them and learning about AI safety. But I left the event very proud of what we had accomplished and ready to do another one.