Childcare at trade shows

[annburlingham]

As far as I can tell, this year again BookExpo is not providing childcare. They do allow one to bring - properly registered and badged - a child to the show itself. Like, ha. Because a day spent with a screaming, bored child is going to be extra-productive

Comments

[nooks]

Oh, rats. For a shining moment or two I was thinking of being your childcare. There is a cheapish flight out of SJC to BUF; it could be made to work, almost, just not as well as I'd like.

But still.

[nolly]

Speaking from the other side, as an convention-runner, providing childcare can open one to all sorts of vulverabilities and liabilities, not to mention being fairly expensive for small children. Grocery stores and similar fixed locations have insurance already, and can generally locate the parent fairly easily. Neither of these is as likely with a conference/convention.

Scenario: You're running childcare for an event. One of the small children in your keeping develops a high fever, suddenly. What do you do?

Now, in a trade show environment, unlike the conventions I work with, the parent is more likely to be in a reasonably small location. But things happen, and cell phones die.

I don't know how WIscon is running their childcare, but I do know that what it sounds like they're doing is fairly unual for the reasons stated above. Is it an official convention thing, or a parent co-op? What age range is it covering?

[annburlingham]

Scenario: You're running childcare for an event. One of the small children in your keeping develops a high fever, suddenly. What do you do?

You do whatever you do for a suddenly sick adult attendee, while trying to reach the parent.

Now, in a trade show environment, unlike the conventions I work with, the parent is more likely to be in a reasonably small location. But things happen, and cell phones die.

Restaurants hand out beepers to alert people that their tables are ready. Parents could be given a beeper.

I don't know how WIscon is running their childcare, but I do know that what it sounds like they're doing is fairly unual for the reasons stated above. Is it an official convention thing, or a parent co-op? What age range is it covering?Wiscon has childcare in place for infants through toddlerhood; older kids have their own programming track, and even older kids have more options. It's an official convention thing where one signs up in advance and pays one dollar. They hire care providers, and also invite people to volunteer

[nolly]

You do whatever you do for a suddenly sick adult attendee, while trying to reach the parent.

First, as I'm sure you know, kids can get much sicker much faster than adults usually do. For an adult, you call 911 and pack them off with the EMTs. It's a little more complicated with a child you're not the legal guardian of, even with a signed release. In con-running circles, this is referred to as "Roll a 6 and the baby dies" after the relevant scenario in a training game.

Parents could be given a beeper.

Beepers aren't free, and they're subject to EM blocking and interference still. I'm now very curious about what Wiscon's budget looks like, because I know of no way for $1/parent to come even close to buying qualified childcare for that time period.

Also, maybe I just know too many single dads, but why is childcare, in this context, a women's issue, anyway? Parents come in more than one flavor, and dads can be affected almost as much (the only disparity I can think of at the moment is dads rarely breatfeed.)