Home In Demand Do Babies Belong at Meetings?

Do Babies Belong at Meetings?

June 21, 2025

Tech startup founder stirs up a firestorm after posting about being denied entry to London Tech Week for bringing her baby along.

Babies are more than welcome at some meetings and events. At others, not so much. One of the latter appears to be London Tech Week, held June 8-12 in London, UK. Touted as being the place where tech innovators, investors and potential clients come together to do business, it seemed like a great opportunity for Humanvantage AI Founder Davina Schonle to meet potential suppliers, including the three exhibitors she had already arranged to meet.

After traveling three hours to get to the Olympia, where the show was held, she was denied entry because she had brought along her eight-month-old daughter. She posted about the experience on LinkedIn, saying, “This moment was more than inconvenient. It was a clear reminder that as a tech industry, we still have work to do when it comes to inclusion beyond buzzwords.”

More than 1,100 comments ensued, the majority of which were solidly on her side. Most agreed that it was exclusionary and anti-parent — especially female parents — to turn away attendees with kids in tow, and that it only underlined the need for the tech industry in particular to do more to be welcoming to all, even those accompanied by children. Her experience even sparked an article on her experience in the pages of The Guardian.

One fairly representative comment to her LinkedIn post was, “Inclusion isn’t just a panel topic, it should be a lived practice. Founders shouldn’t have to choose between showing up and showing up as a parent. We can — and must — do better.” Several pointed to other tech industry events that were welcoming to parents with children.

Others tried to bring a little tongue-in-cheek humor to leaven the outrage, such as this comment: “Was your baby planning to steal secrets and then share them in the form of toasted oat circles made into letters and then used to create artificial intelligence videos? That’s usually why babies are not allowed at technology conferences.”

There likely were practical reasons behind the decision not to let Schonle attend with her baby, others pointed out, such as a lack of insurance to cover the kid-related risks, or possible venue rules or local regulations against mixing kids into a business conference environment.

The event organizer responded to the LinkedIn post and resulting firestorm by saying in a post on its event website: “We have age restrictions in place because the event isn’t currently designed to incorporate the particular needs, facilities and safeguards that under 16s require, and include information on this as part of the booking process.” Several commenters did note that this was spelled out in the event organizer’s FAQs, which says it “reserves the right at any time to restrict entry to anyone below the age of 16.”

Some were supportive of the event organizer. As one commenter noted, “Of course, there is a debate as to whether children should be allowed in to events like this (say it quietly but I think the consensus would be no) but that could have been had without ’shaming’ an event organizer for applying their rules which, as it now appears they were, were clearly laid out.”

Then there were a few who just don’t think kids belong at meetings, period. As one said, “Business events are meant to be for consenting adults to discuss relevant topics, not for participants to be interrupted by a screaming brat that needs attention. Children should be left at home in a safe and warming environment, not exposed to the world of working adults that need a certain environment for them to work and talk about issues correctly.”

The organizer of London Tech Week responded to the uproar by saying, “We’re very sorry she had this experience and have reached out directly to apologize and discuss what happened.

“We’ve listened carefully and taken on board the feedback we’ve since received from the tech community. We are going to review our approach to age restrictions and facilities ahead of next year’s London Tech Week and will go out to the wider tech community and our partners to gather further feedback as part of that review.”

While this particular industry is especially easy to target due to its bro-culture history and reputation, meetings that don’t welcome babies-to-teens aren’t limited to the tech segment.

Do you think children should be welcomed at business meetings and events? How can planners best ensure that their event doesn’t come under fire the way this one did for having child-restriction policies? Email Sue Pelletier at [email protected] with your thoughts.