This week, #BWEchat‘s topic was kids at conferences in a town hall type of setting with no special guest. I personally don’t have kids, but I’ve definitely been to conferences and conventions where kids were welcome – and have had both good and bad experiences. Some of the questions posed this week included:
- Does a con’s child policy affect your decision to attend? More or less likely to attend if kids are allowed?
- Under what circumstances do you think professional conferences should allow kids?
- Does it affect your business networking having your child with you?
- As an attendee, are you concerned about kids disrupting conference sessions? What about as a speaker?
- Does the age range of the children allowed at a conference matter?
The topic at hand definitely sparked some great conversation from parents and non-parents alike. Here were some of my personal favorite tweets from the night:
- @karonwarren: I don’t think it matters who the conference is for; it’s a professional environment & should be conducted as such.
- @LindsayDianne: Any conference that I go to, I’m trying to learn. For me, it’s more likely to be effective without having to parent.
- @nlowell: I’m more concerned abt ‘entitled adults’ highjacking the panel than kids
- @theresesquared: Kids can keep the audience and speaker on their toes. That’s for sure. If they’re bored you’ll know it.
- @2xKnight: Clear guidelines for what to do with disruptive children would help. No matter the kid’s age.
- @BlackCanseco: Kids can disrupt a conference but so can really annoying adults.
- @AngEngland: I think that part of the responsibility of being a mother going to conferences is to have back-up plans in place.
- @SherylLoch: The tip is start teaching your kids to sit & be quiet LONG before the conference. Start at like…birth.
- @OneBrownGirl: I think that the rules for blogging are still being invented. What works at one conference might not work at another..vice versa
Thanks to everyone who came out for a great discussion on this topic! Next week, we’ll be talking about how to ad humor to your blog with special guest Jordan Cooper (@notaproblog), so I hope to see you all there. Remember, #BWEchat takes place every Wednesday at 9 PM EST, hosted from @blogworldexpo, so mark us on your calendar!
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