We need more babies in tech
A story caught my eye this morning about London Tech Week. This is an annual week of events related to technology around the city. I’ve attended in the past in different roles, as a way to find out what new companies are working on, to identify opportunities or for networking events. The story is about a startup founder, who was turned away from entering after she tried to attend with her 8 month-old baby in a pram.
The organisers gave the reason for not allowing her entry with her child that they weren’t equipped, as the event was aimed at adult attendees. Before I had a child, I can imagine understanding the logic of this and wondering why the attendee didn’t just get someone to look after the baby. But now I’ve had my own, I completely understand! For a start, babies’ routines are extremely time sensitive. You have a complicated mix of feeds at certain times, nappy changes and naps to factor in. If breastfeeding, there is an awkward process of needing to pump milk if you aren’t with your baby at feed time. And if any of it goes wrong, there is generally chaos and several sleepless nights ahead.
The complexity of making sure that someone is looking after the baby and knows how to keep everything consistent is sometimes more trouble that simply taking them with you to places! This is also what is now encouraged by modern parenting gurus - they promote baby-wearing in slings and just showing up with your kid. I saw plenty of Instagram posts saying this. The practicalities like train travel or long car journeys or lack of baby-changing facilities in public can be somewhat glossed over!
You can’t always get support when needed, so another factor is the availability and high cost of private childcare. Then, there is also guilt and separation anxiety thrown into the mix. Which won’t exactly get you in the frame of mind for business success. We need to raise awareness of all this because those without children might not be fully aware - it’s such a difficult and dizzying thing to understand until you actually experience it!
I can see why someone would want to go to the event relevant to their business interests. It’s likely to have been a very well-considered and thoughtful plan of action. Should having a young child be a reason not to take the opportunity?
An interesting part of the story is the organisers asking if the attendee was a VIP repeatedly. It shows that in some cases, bringing a baby might be allowed. If the person was a celebrity or high powered enough in their field, perhaps allowances could be made? As if it’s a slightly wacky lifestyle choice that especially important people might be allowed. This is an event that is attended by entrepreneurs, corporate workers, journalists, investors and the Prime Minister. But for a normal woman, attending without a special status of some kind, a baby results in no entry.
Would the same happen if more of the attendees and organisers of London Tech Week were women? Would it happen if more of us spoke up about the need to sometimes bring babies / young children with us? It seems a hopeful thing to aim for in the future. After all, this child will be a future consumer of the tech being created and discussed. Shall we perhaps let them in?