Retreats & Workshops
15 - 70 people
We offer cozy nooks, discussion rooms with endless whiteboards, and ~40 bedrooms (with up to ~80 beds).
Conferences
50 - 500 people
Conference space for up to 140 people inside, 500 people outside. 20+ session spaces. 80 conference attendees can book accommodation on the campus.
Event Space
10 - 500 people
We can host events ranging from 20 person talks to large 500 person mixers. We can provide sound setup, music, private kitchens, snacks, catering.
What is Lighthaven?
Lighthaven is a space dedicated to hosting events and programs that help people think better and improve humanity's long-term trajectory.
Since 2023, we've hosted some of the most important gatherings at the intersection of AI, science, and intellectual culture — from David Chalmers exploring AI consciousness at Eleos ConCon, to talented high schoolers learning applied rationality at SPARC, to progress studies pioneers at the Progress Conference.
Our annual festival LessOnline and the prediction markets conference Manifest together bring 600+ writers, forecasters, and builders each summer. We've hosted multi-week programs like the MATS AI safety fellowship and Vitalist Bay's 8 weeks of longevity science, as well as intimate residencies like Inkhaven where 40 writers spent a month publishing daily.
Lighthaven is a project by Lightcone Infrastructure, which is dedicated to facilitating intellectual progress on humanity's most important questions.
Some Events We've Hosted
LessOnline
Our own festival. 400+ people who write on the internet getting together to argue, give talks, and meet each other in person.
Scott Alexander · Zvi Mowshowitz · Patrick McKenzie · ...
Manifest
A festival for people who like prediction markets. Lots of talks, betting, and spirited debates about the future.
Nate Silver · Robin Hanson · Dwarkesh Patel · ...
Progress Conference
Jason Crawford's conference on progress studies. People thinking seriously about how civilization actually makes things better over time.
Tyler Cowen · Jason Crawford · Eli Dourado · ...
The Curve
A conference trying to get people with different views on AI to actually talk to each other. Researchers, journalists, policy people.
AI researchers · Policy experts · Journalists
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Vitalist Bay
An 8-week longevity program. Researchers and enthusiasts living on campus, running conferences, and trying to figure out how to not die.
Peter Diamandis · George Church · Tim Urban
Eleos ConCon
A conference on AI consciousness and welfare. Philosophers and AI researchers debating whether AI systems might matter morally.
David Chalmers · Jeff Sebo · Rob Long
Inkhaven
A writing residency we run. 40 writers visit for a month and publish something every day, with mentorship from people who've done it.
Scott Alexander · Gwern · Adam Mastroianni · ...
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MATS Program
A 10-week AI safety research program. They run multiple cohorts per year here, training people to do alignment research.
Leading alignment researchers
Availability
Pricing
We determine pricing on a case-by-case basis, but a good approximation is:
Retreats, Conferences and Lodging:
$100 - $250 per person per day.
Events:
$50 - $125 per person.
We offer some groups large discounts (including free) if we think a project seems particularly great to us. Please feel quite free to ask us about this.
You can use your own caterer, but our default caterer offers meals from $20/meal to $50/meal that most visitors have found quite satisfying.
We do engage in some price discrimination. If we think your best alternative to our venue would be much more expensive, we may charge more than our listed price. We try to find a fair price that splits the difference between our own costs and the value you get out of the space.
We also provide more bespoke services (see below), though we generally charge more for this.
Overall we try to be reasonable about pricing, and don't expect to make much profit on the space.
What are people saying?
"The Lighthaven campus is the English muffin of event venues: light and airy, full of nooks and crannies where yummy conversations can accrete."
"Lighthaven has quickly become one of the premier conference venues in SF. Many of the most interesting events I get invited to are there."
"The venue itself is fucking gorgeous. I heard something like that ~2/3 of the time as I was walking guests of honor in & giving them a tour. Something like "wow, how did you find this place?" or "damn, you guys got a good spot.""
"A sprawling inn with an ambiance somewhere between a WeWork and the Shire."
"Lighthaven felt rambly and wondrous and fun without being pretentious? Felt like an incredibly-well-executed, 11-of-10 house party venue crossed with Disneyland."
"Lighthaven is miles and miles away the best event venue I have ever seen. I do not know how to convey how much the design contributes to having a valuable conference, designed to facilitate the best kinds of conversations via a wide array of nooks and pathways designed with the principles of Christopher Alexander."
"We had an incredible time at Lighthaven — many of the participants remarked how beautiful and cozy the campus is, and the atmosphere was extremely conducive for creative thinking and problem solving. All the little details from having lots of post-it pads and markers to mini fridges and fluffy slippers show how much thought was put into designing the space."
– Shao Wei, Topos Institute
"The conference felt like just a huge 12-hour-a-day cocktail party where, if you wanted, you could occasionally take a break from talking and go listen to a talk."
Campus Spaces
Aumann Hall
Upstairs has a common space and 7 bedrooms.
Downstairs is great for parties and weekend conferences.
Bayes House
Can sleep 30 people, and host sessions for up to 50 people.
Includes the surrounding gardens (200+ capacity).
Cantor Cottage
A house with four bedrooms.
Darwin Den
Front of building has 6 bedrooms and/or session spaces for small sessions.
Back of building has 4 of our nicest and most secluded bedrooms.
Eigenspace
4 small session spaces, a gym, and a 45 person session space.
Services We Provide
For an additional charge we can provide (among many other things):
- Catering services, snacks & drinks
- General ops-support for your event
- Event branding and marketing
We have a lot of experience running all kinds of different events, from small 15-20 person dinners to 1000+ person conferences, to 2-month fellowships and research programs.
We can't guarantee we can provide everything you need, but if you are facing some kind of problem or obstacle in the course of preparing or running your event, we can probably help you.
Recording Studio
We have a recording studio for video and audio productions. It's fully equipped and ready for professional multi-camera productions, and configured to accommodate up to 4 simultaneous speakers/guests, each with their own mics and cameras.
Aumann Hall
Bayes House
Darwin Den
Eigenspace
About Lightcone
Lighthaven is a project by Lightcone Infrastructure.
We build tools and services we think will help humanity flourish into the long term future. We also run LessWrong.com and the Alignment Forum. To contact us, use the Intercom or event form, or send me an email at [email protected].
