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02/04/2020

Daily Buzz: Make Your Event More Family-friendly

Make it easier for members with children to participate

For members with children, attending events without child care services is difficult—or may be impossible. To make meetings more inclusive and drive up attendance rates, consider adding child care and activities for children, writes Elise Schoening of Northstar Meetings Group.

“I rarely go to conferences solely because it’s a hassle to coordinate child care, and I have to justify the sacrifice my family has to make for me to leave for two to four days,” Mike Tatum, cofounder and CEO of Tatum Digital, told Schoening.

If your budget is too small to hire child care services, Schoening recommends partnering with licensed providers in the host city. Organizations such as KiddieCorp and Corporate Kids Events organize onsite child care programs that include games and other age-appropriate activities. Though attendees pay for these services, Schoening says offering them shows members that your events are family-friendly and that parents are welcome.

If your organization is working with a bigger budget, consider subsidizing child care costs. The International Communication Association did so for its annual conference in 2019, Schoening writes. In the post-conference survey, 90 percent of respondents said having child care at the meeting made a difference as to whether or not they could attend.

Please select this link to read the original article from Associations Now.

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