# Announcing Duncan Sabien as the keynote speaker for the 2022 LessWrong Community Weekend August 26-29!

We will start taking applications on May 1, with rolling responses until all of the spots are filled. At that time an announcement will be made with all additional details.

For four days at the end of August, aspiring rationalists from all around Europe and beyond will gather at the lovely Lake Wannsee near Berlin to socialize, run workshops, talk, and enjoy our shared forms of nerdiness.

This year our keynote speaker will be the fascinating and incisive Duncan Sabien. He currently works at MIRI and is the former director of curriculum at the Center for Applied Rationality. 

Duncan regularly posts valuable new essays on Less Wrong. Some examples of his work are: 

*   [*In Defense of Punch Bug*](https://medium.com/@ThingMaker/in-defense-of-punch-bug-68fcec56cd6b)*, *
*   [*Lies, Damn Lies, and Fabricated Options*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gNodQGNoPDjztasbh/lies-damn-lies-and-fabricated-options)
*   [r!Animorphs: the Reckoning](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/1/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning)
*   He was the primary person preparing the [CFAR Handbook](https://www.rationality.org/resources/handbook)
*   and also held a talk at EA Global [Creating a Personal Autopilot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=284_dY3_u6w&ab_channel=CentreforEffectiveAltruism).

**Volunteers: **We still can use more help to organize the event. A meetup of this scale takes a lot of work to put together, and If you want to be part of the team turning this into reality, write us an email at [lwcw.europe@gmail.com](mailto:lwcw.europe@gmail.com).

Also if someone is interested in creating an activity, or object or something else that will improve the atmosphere or location or create cool new opportunities for interaction, for example like an art installation, or like the (enormously fun) cuddle fort that is made each year in the basement, there is funding to help make it happen. Send us an email to explain your idea if you’d like to make something like that.

**What the event is like: **While the keynote speaker will be awesome, most of the content is created by the participants. On Friday afternoon we will put up four giant daily planners, and by Saturday morning they are usually filled up with dozens of talks, activities, workshops and events that the attendees have decided to run. 

Aside from the content the attendees organize, it’s the serendipitous encounters, shared meals, late night discussions and new friendships that really make the event. 

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.

**Covid Situation: **We are paying attention to changes in covid prevalence and German regulations. There are still many months until the event, and we all know that the Covid numbers can quickly change. However 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.

We are excited to see you all again.