Provide non-alcoholic, low-caffeine and low-sugar drinks

Lots of events assume that everybody drinks alcohol and caffeine, and just has water and fruit juice for everybody else. More variety!

The tech industry has a problem with alcohol. There’s a bit of a drinking culture. Lots of events assume that everybody attending drinks alcohol, and will be comfortable drinking alcohol at the event. That excludes people (like me!) who don’t want to drink.

Similarly, not everybody wants to drink caffeinated or sugary drinks, so you should find alternatives for them as well.

You should have an equal number of alternatives, and make them equally visible. If you have a wide variety of alcohol drinks, and a token fruit juice, there’s scope for improvement.

Further reading

• Ernest W. Durbin III did a Twitter survey about drinks at conferences, and their article includes suggestions for good alternatives. They’ve also got links to other articles with more discussion of food and drink at conferences.