Since 2024, WICE offers an on-site childcare suite and  parenting club to all interested attendees, to benefit from on-site childcare, in ICC and Globecom. WICE will continually improve their childcare programme, as a recognised essential offering for achieving diversity in our community.

If you are organiser a ComSoc conference, looking to fund your childcare programme, please reach out to the WICE chair.

Here are some of the testimonies received from parents who used the onsite childcare in the first year of running the program: “Discovering that the ICC conference offered onsite childcare was a delightful surprise. This was our first experience with such a service, and it exceeded all expectations.”, “The childcare service not only provided my son with a safe and engaging environment where he made new friends, but it also allowed me to connect with and become friends with other parents.”, “As a family of two academic researchers, attending conferences with our child has always been a complicated process. This time at ICC 2024, it has been exceptionally easy thanks to the on-site childcare space provided by IEEE ComSoc. I hope this program will continue at ICC and expand to other conferences. I believe many families will benefit from it in the long term.”

Since 2017, WICE offers the Child Care Grant at every ICC and Globecom. The grant could be used to cover the extra cost of childcare at home, as a result of the travel, or the cost of on-site childcare.

APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY
– The applicant must be a ComSoc member who is bringing small children
to the conference or who incurs extra expenses in leaving their children at home.
– The applicant is responsible for making the arrangements for child care.
– The grants will be given as a reimbursement for expenses.

Globecom’24 Child Care Program: https://globecom2024.ieee-globecom.org/hotel-travel/ieee-comsoc-child-care-grant.