Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > March > 18 > Entry
South by Southwest parenting co-op?
New York City blogger Jeffrey Zeldman has posted an entry on his site today suggesting that visitors to the South By Southwest Interactive Festival form a parenting collective next year to pool resources. It would allow parents to bring their kids to Austin to the festival and not have to choose between spending a week away from their children or missing SXSW Interactive.
As the fest grows (and it was huge this year), I think more and more people are going to be forming groups to deal with logistics like this. It felt as if there were more first-time attendees this year than I’ve ever seen at the fest. Now that these festgoers know the lay of the land, they’ll be much more organized next year, and we’ll see things like this come to fruition.
I can speak about my own experiences at Interactive: I live 45 minutes away and I found myself getting home anywhere from midnight to 2:30 a.m. and getting up the next morning to come right back. I didn’t see my 7-month-old that entire weekend. My wife and I knew this would happen in advance and asked family for baby-sitting help. My daughter stayed out of day care until the last day of the fest, when I decided to skip the evening events and end my SXSWi early.
Even living close to town, it was still logistically tricky to be a parent and make the most of the festival. I spoke to lots of local parents and SXSWi attendees who skipped the evening events altogether to be at home. This doesn’t seem ideal to me if you’re serious about making the most of Interactive. There were some great nighttime events, lots more networking than you’d see in panels and just a lot of fun and relaxation to be had. It’s never been clearer that South by Southwest Interactive is about more than panels and keynotes. We can expect even more parties, happy hours and socials next year: parents are going to need an action plan. Zeldman’s suggestion is an excellent start.
Parents who went to South by Southwest Interactive: What were your strategies for balancing the fest and your home life?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Baby-daddy, Internet, SXSW
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.
By Prentiss Riddle
March 18, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this
Omar, thanks for spreading the word about this idea.
It's worth clicking through to Zeldman's post to see that he's not talking about a single childcare service, but rather suggesting that parents at SXSW Interactive self-organize many small ones with their friends: "You start your co-op and I’ll start mine."
What I'm looking forward to is all the frantic tweets and craigslist ads next February trying to remotely scrounge up reliable short-term nannies!
P.S. If the people running the many rock&roll camps in this town are smart, they'll double up their spring break offerings next year and advertise them in SF and Palo Alto. Bringing your kid to Austin for rock&roll camp during SXSW: what could be cooler than that?