On 03. März 2014 at 13:32:23, jan i (j...@apache.org) wrote: > On 3 March 2014 10:54, Isabel Drost-Fromm wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > Maybe for this year's ApacheCon this idea is a bit too late - but I > > thought it makes sense to get the discussion started anyway (maybe it even > > benefits myself at a later event ;) ): > > > > I don't know about the US tech conferences, the trend I've observed in > > past years here in Europe is that more and more events are making an effort > > to be family friendly - in particular the community focused ones. There's > > events which provide complimentary child day care, conferences with special > > kids tracks, play and relaxation areas etc. For a more detailed overview > > see also: > > > > http://blog.isabel-drost.de/posts/on-geeks-growing-up.html > > > > As a side effect, the play areas often are occupied also by "older > > children" - three years ago I've seen geeks sort the balls in a ballpit at > > Chaos Communication Congress by colour - working out the most efficient > > algorithm to do that ;) > > > > For Berlin Buzzwords this year is the first year we are offering day care > > for children - financially this worked out really well as a local online > > babysitter service offered professionals in turn for visibility at the > > event. I'm happy to share experiences after BBuzz is over. I'm also happy > > to get you in touch with the people behind Chaos Communication Congress, > > FrOSCon (they even shipped their kids track to another interested > > conference this year), EuRubyCamp. On the Java side of things Devoxx > > (biggest EU Java community event) seems to have a similar offering. I have > > been told that in the US OSCON features a kids track. > > > > Lacking really deep knowledge about the US tech community I can only > > provide insight from a European perspective - would be great to see > > ApacheCon drive this trend. > > > Apachecon will be in europe later this year, so the european perspective is > equally important. > > I think the idea is good. The entrance fee to AC is pretty high, but maybe > we could combine your idea with the idea of having a day (or half) where we > in general open up, and give spouses, our kids etc a chance to see why we > like spending soo much time with apache...meet some real people. > > rgds > jan I.
Great post Isabel thank-you! A number of software / ASF people I know, by virtue of working remotely, are also defacto “child handlers” while their partner works in a normal face-to-face job. It would be nice to facilitate conference attendees/speakers without requiring major family upheaval to take place. -- Dave Cottlehuber Sent from my PDP11
