Doesn't that sound scandalous? Sadly, it's not scandalous. But it is pretty darn cool:
I just signed up for free childcare. At a computer science conference, no less.
Yes, of course I'm talking about the Grace Hopper Conference. Continuing their fine tradition of being one of the coolest conferences ever, GHC (as of last year, I think?) now offers childcare. And it's free. Free, available, convenient childcare! Even during the banquet! (Not during the Friday night festivities, I noticed, but other than that, the hours are really good.) What a concept!
This will be my third conference traveling with both Baby Jane and Mr. Jane, and this will be the first time Mr. Jane will be tagging along for the GHC festivities.* And this is the first time I'm feeling pretty relaxed about having Baby Jane at a conference with me. The last two times were somewhat of a nightmare. OK, some of this was because Baby Jane was not yet 3 months old (in both cases....not something I would necessarily recommend), and so there was the whole breastfeeding thing and the sleeping schedule thing (or lack thereof) and the whole new-baby thing to deal with, not to mention sleep deprivation and serious Mommy Brain. But a lot of it was the logistics of dealing with a baby and a spouse and trying to go back and forth between the conference events and family duties. I skipped out on a lot of stuff---most of the lunches, the big dinner (I did make it to the banquet for one of the conferences, but skipped out really early), a lot of the key networking stuff. I mainly went to my talk session and maybe 1-2 other sessions, in each case. There was no childcare available, so Mr. Jane and I did some serious juggling to make it all work (translation: make the kid and spouse invisible to the conference).
This time around, we don't have as many logistical issues---I'm not breastfeeding every 2-3 hours anymore, for instance, which makes a huge difference. But having that childcare really helps. It means that Mr. Jane can go with me *and* get some work done *and* take in some of the conference events. It means that I don't have to leave Baby Jane home alone with Mr. Jane, so he doesn't have to single-parent. (Which he would happily do, and has happily done in the past. But single-parenting is HARD, even for "just a few days".) It means that I can be my career self and my personal self at the same time and in the same place/space, and that I don't have to hide either identity!
It means that Baby Jane can be exposed to an environment that celebrates technical women. And maybe she's too little to understand or remember the experience, but maybe she'll pick up some of the strong, powerful women vibes, by osmosis or something.
Thank you, GHC organizers! Now, if only the rest of the CS conference world would get on the boat with this.....
* Not a totally done deal yet, but looking pretty likely.
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I'm not even in your field and this fills me with hope. Huzzah!
Awesome! I'm a student rep for the organizing committee for my favorite small conference next year. It gets lots of students and probably 50%-ish women. I suggested childcare to the female lead organizer, who said it had never occured to her! But she's going to try to make it happen. I didn't mention a pumping room at the time, but I think I might email her to suggest it.
ecogeofemme, definitely suggest the pumping room! I've never seen this at a conference but it sure would have come in handy---particularly at the conference where I was staying at a different hotel than the official conference hotel, and had to go back to my room to pump (thus missing out on some important sessions).
Oh my god that is so wonderful! Every frickin' conference should be that way, no excuses! I'm so glad you are getting to have this experience!
The Women, Work & Computerization conference in Bonn about a zillion years ago had childcare for a very reasonable price. We could even take the kids to the banquet. Mine zonked out in the middle of the noise and slept until there was literally no food left on the table... It was a wonderful conference, I have bitched about this for years after for every conference, but they say "no one needs it". I even organized child care for a little conference I organized, and indeen, no one responded to the box "need childcare". Sigh.
Aw yes, Grace Hopper Celebration is amazing like that :) I am going too, actually, and would love to meet you. Ping me at girlyscientist@gmail.com if you like the idea!
Oooh, sciencegirl, I was going to blog about that actually and see if anyone wanted to meet up! I'll drop you a line; watch for the post, too.
I maybe she's too little to understand or remember the experience, but maybe she will pick up some of the strong, powerful women vibes...
I had been wondering if Baby Jane (who will be too old for that name soon!) was coming along. (Working my way backwards, slowly.)
The SIGCSE conference had childcare last year for the first time and it seemed to go really well. Hopefully this is the wave of the future!