{"id":197909,"date":"2025-06-19T19:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T19:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197909\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T19:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T19:24:16","slug":"how-would-a-baby-have-affected-london-tech-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197909\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How would a baby have affected London Tech Week?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news of a serial female entrepreneur being denied access to London Tech Week<\/a> made the front page of The Times after sparking outrage in the community.<\/p>\n

Davina Schonle, founder and CEO of Birmingham-based Humanvantage AI, was refused entry to the event for bringing her eight-month-old daughter along.<\/p>\n

The former CEO of DS Consulting Group took to LinkedIn to share the story. The post<\/a>, which garnered thousands of reactions and comments, included the paragraph: \u201cIt\u2019s a 3 hour drive one way for me to come to London.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage I limit how many hours I am away from my baby girl. This is about new environments for her as much as it is about me. I should be able to build my company with her by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another entrepreneur who understands what it means to juggle family life and business commitments is Vimla Appadoo, co-founder and chief culture officer at Honey Badger, which advises businesses on inclusivity, diversity and culture.<\/p>\n

Vimla (pictured below) herself undertook a three-hour journey to speak at BusinessCloud\u2019s Northern Leaders Futures event at KPMG in Leeds this week \u2013 with five-month-old son Adi in tow.<\/p>\n

\"Vimla<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should have absolutely made it more accessible [for Davina to attend],\u201d she told me as Adi gurgled away. \u201cIf they\u2019ve turned up with a baby, at least try and figure out what the wiggle room is \u2013 they\u2019re there already, they\u2019ve made that commitment, so find out how to make it work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI also don\u2019t understand why organisers don\u2019t make it clear from the outset whether an event is child-friendly or not. Just: \u2018I can come to this\u2026. or I can\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Empowering parents<\/p>\n

Beckie Taylor, exited co-founder of Tech Returners, runs inclusive events herself as co-founder of Empower.<\/p>\n

\u201cLondon Tech Week obviously hadn\u2019t really thought about it [despite the fact that] they were targeting that demographic, with a lot of uptake around the women at the event,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, but I think that it\u2019s hurt their reputation. They\u2019re going to have to think about it for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago I interviewed Beckie<\/a> (pictured below) at the DTX conference in Manchester after she spoke on a panel compered by my colleague Chris Maguire.<\/p>\n

\"Beckie<\/p>\n

She had her son with her \u2013 and simply handed him over to her Tech Returners co-founder James Heggs, who played games with little Ethan while we chatted.<\/p>\n

Beckie, who also spoke at the event this week in Leeds, continued: \u201cSo the child [at London Tech Week] was in a pushchair, right? I don\u2019t understand what would have been the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe child wouldn\u2019t have caused any challenges, and I think their response hasn\u2019t really covered any of that. It\u2019s just very formal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"subscribe<\/a>
\nAccessibility<\/p>\n

Beckie says making events accessible can include concessionary ticketing, making it clear that mum or dad are welcome to bring their kids along and providing a quiet space for them if needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your child starts getting a bit grouchy at an event, you take yourself out: we had a lady at our Empower Female Founders Conference this year who apologised for leaving an hour towards the end because her child was tired and not being stimulated, while there were quite a lot of people around. She was conscious of not spoiling other people\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do not think we would ever have a situation where there are a little group of children at the front, near the stage, and you can\u2019t hear the speakers. It just wouldn\u2019t happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

What does it take to be a modern entrepreneur in 2025?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe female founder who went to London Tech Week had probably planned her day \u2013 dedicated talks that she wanted to go to, things that she wanted to learn \u2013 and then if, within that, she had needed to leave, she would probably have gone to a quiet space or a cafe and managed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should she miss out on all that knowledge and connection just because she was pushing a pushchair?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very different when you\u2019ve got your own business: when you\u2019ve got a baby,\u00a0 they almost have to come with you, or your business stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vimla, who says it\u2019s still not common for a man to take their kids to events, also has a daughter aged four.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s more of an understanding now [in business] that parents have kids and that those kids have needs,\u201d she concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I have had him on me \u2013 or been breastfeeding \u2013 in client meetings, no one\u2019s batted an eyelid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot of my clients are women-led organisations, so I don\u2019t know if that has something to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

How brain tumour tragedy inspired Featherbed Tales<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news of a serial female entrepreneur being denied access to London Tech Week made the front page…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,25554,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-197909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-businesscloud","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114711669308736287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}