This sounds like a really good idea! In fact, if there's any chance for us to give it a try at ApacheCON EU -- it'll be pretty nice.
Not sure how feasible it is for ApacheCON US, but on a related note: I've always wondered about combining my two favorite passtimes: ASF and euro boardgames ;-) Has anybody ever tried open gaming/hacking area at these types of conferences? Do these two mix well? Thanks, Roman. On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 1:54 AM, Isabel Drost-Fromm <isa...@apache.org> 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. > > > Cheers, > Isabel >
