If you’re not careful about the food and drink you serve at your tech event (well, really any event), you could leave people feeling hungry and exc...
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There are only positive benefits to thinking in these terms. I've never heard anyone say "damn, I wish the food here was more cheap and generic". Any time I've been part of an event that gave a bit more thought to any of this, people noticed and appreciated it, regardless of their own restrictions. It's also positive signaling towards inclusiveness in general, which is always a good thing.
Pizza and beer also have sort of "fratty" cultural connotations, which can be unintentionally offputting to some. It's likely subtle, but it's just one more reason to give this some care and thought.
I have no dietary restrictions but my waistline doesn't take well to pizza and beer. A healthier option is way more likely to pull me into a meetup.
I've been on both sides and I can say that is really hard to provide healthy/varied options when arranging food for events.
Sometimes you don't control it directly, but is the host company taking care, and even if you insist on the needs they can mess up.
Sometimes you are the one in charge, on top of arranging speakers, hosts, sponsors, swag... So calling a pizza place is the easiest option. Here in Berlin at least there are great vegan friendly pizzerias.
I understand perfectly this post and I share it 100%. I just would like to ask that if you are attending to a community event (and not a corporate one) give a hand to the community organizer to improve things rather than complaining. We got to know a fantastic "freelance cook" this way that prepares us amazing vegan food for events. Getting those kind of contacts is hard.
Crazy suggestion: Why not run meetups 3-6PM instead of 6-9? Let people go home and eat whatever they want! Keep it inexpensive to run a meetup! Let people not have to choose between going to a meetup vs. seeing their families!
Obviously the situation is different at a conference, and there it's really important to accommodate people's needs, since they're stuck for a few days with you. Definitely put special meal options on the menu. For people who don't fit into standard boxes, my best suggestion is what I've had done for me a few times: Give people with special restrictions the option to speak directly with the caterer/restaurant(s) and negotiate their needs. I've always found that caterers deal with unusual needs all the time, and just want to make sure everyone is satisfied with the service.
The problem struck me recently. Personally I'm not allergic/intolerant to anything, and I'm very grateful of that now that I'm in my 30's. But the wife of a colleague of mine recently got hired and she's quite allergic to nuts and other shell fruit.
I knew about her for quite some time but now that I have to spend much more time in proximity I took the commitment to learn how to live with people with such allergies and not mess up their health because I wasn't careful enough.
One thing I think tech seems to take on board is the idea that the industry is different to others with the way it handles alcohol consumption. This is definitely anecdotal, and am sure culturally this is different in other countries, but Australia has an obsession with alcohol consumption regardless of industry. However some of the "benefits" (using that term loosely) is that there is some level of maturity around understanding cultural or medical reasons to not drink. Again, anecdotally, I've found that the tech industry has a lesser obsession with drinking than others here (finance, professional services etc.).
One thing I've definitely taken for granted is that a lot of organisations here are very accomodating to peoples needs - anything planned or run internally is (usually) very accomodating. However, meetups are still the usual pizza and beer culture - likely inherited because its the "cool thing" from US based tech culture.
I hope that this culture shift is something that continues globally - as Ben has said in the comments above, there's literally no downside to this (bar perhaps the additional cost - but having less food that is high quality is better than more low quality food in my opinion).
Being careful about what you eat is very important. I used to be very careless about what I would eat, and I had some serious health problems. I woke up with awful skin irritation one day, and I was utterly worried and confused. My friends suggested that I run some food intolerance tests at intolerancelab.co.uk/food-intolera..., which I did. It turned out that I was allergic to many ailments that were a part of my daily meals. They were causing this allergic reaction, so my doctor suggested that I should follow a strict diet. I would recommend you to start looking after your health and be very careful about your nutrition.
We've recently decided to make the JS meetup that I run an alcohol free event. We used to head to the pub after the talks and the main benefit from that was the conversation. We can get the same benefit by staying at the venue, having soft drinks and chatting.
Food is one I want to address in the future too, but small steps at a time!
As an event organizer, I struggle with this. Obviously, I want everyone possible at the event - the more the better, whether this is a free or especially if it is a paid event. Doing anything that might potentially turn away an audience member just isn't in the typical event organizer's DNA.
That being said, there's always the balance between what can I do to please the largest number of people on my budget while still accommodating everyone as best I can. So, first, let's differentiate between a paid conference and a meetup. You focus on pizza and beer, which is generally not the paid conference menu, but a meetup menu.
Keep in mind, most meetup organizers that I know of pay for the food for everyone out of their own pockets. Some meetups do have sponsors or patrons that help, but in many, if not most, cases, the organizer either pays for all or a large portion of the food and drink. In some cases, a host will sponsor, but not give organizers a lot of option for food. I personally spent hundreds of dollars every year running meetups that were free to attendees...food/drink sponsorships were rare and thus I didn't feel in a position to place extra requirements on them for what they provided.
In fact, I spent hundreds of dollars buying pizza even when I didn't eat pizza (I was significantly overweight and pizza was not in my diet). I planned ahead for myself, preparing food for myself at home before I went. To this day, I generally try to avoid pizza and beer at meetups, and I generally assume that this is what a meetup will provide.
I do think you provide a nice compromise solution that, whenever possible, the organizer note what kinds of food will be served. This will allow people to decide whether they can partake in advance.
I think it is fair to expect more from paid conferences. Keep in mind that, in my experience, food is generally the single biggest cost for an event. Big conferences in conference hotels/convention centers often have a lot more flexibility and generally can, should and do accommodate different dietary restrictions. Smaller "community" conferences often have to make concessions to the limitations of their budget and catering options (depending on the venue). I think it is still fair to expect more from a paid conference than a free meetup, but its still important to keep in mind that not all events have the same resources available to easily make significant accommodations on food.
As a vegan person, THANK YOU
Yes! A fellow vegan programmer! And lots who attend tech events apparently.
Being blessed with no allergies, I'd never even really thought about all the different options you should have available for people. Thanks for this post.