For Iowa State and Ames community members interested in learning strategies to make the working environment more “family-friendly,” an interactive conference will be held April 7.

“Family-Friendly Workplace: Strategies for Academic and Businesses Communities,” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at the Memorial Union.

There will be four “break-out sessions” during the conference, and attendees can choose to attend one of the informational discussions.

The sessions include “Getting Started,” a program that will center on how to initiate “family-friendly” programs; “Employees Speak Out”; “Family Friendly Management”; and “Flexible Time, Flexible Space.”

James Levine, consultant to Corporate Family Solutions, is the keynote speaker for the conference, and his speech is titled “Daddy Strategy at Work: Creating a Father-Friendly Business.”

Cathy Strohbehn, coordinator of the conference, said the workshops are geared toward faculty, staff, community members and students.

“It’s geared toward people in the workplace and people who will be in the workplace in the future,” said Strohbehn, adjunct assistant professor in hotel, restaurant and institution management. “It’s not just focusing on businesses but higher education.”

People in both academic and business settings will benefit from the conference, said Shirley Gilmore, committee member and associate professor in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management.

“We’d like to have a representation of both groups,” she said.

Strohbehn said the ideal “family-friendly” environment is one where employers recognize that employees have many different roles, including “outside commitments to their families.”

Gilmore said a “family-friendly” work environment operates twofold: Employers need to understand their employees’ family commitments, and employees shouldn’t take unnecessary time off of work.

“So many employees have someone else who maybe relies on them — children or parents or spouses that have special needs,” she said.

Strohbehn said conference committee members got the idea after attending a similar conference last year that focused just on creating a “family-friendly” atmosphere in a business.

“[We wondered], ‘Does higher education provide a family-friendly work environment?'” she said.

Strohbehn said she hopes the conference will be successful.

“I think people will hopefully come away with ideas they can implement in their own offices,” she said.

Strohbehn said there has “certainly been a lot of interest in the idea” surrounding the conference, which committee members have been planning for about a year.

“It’s been a neat sharing of ideas across disciplines,” she said.

Although registration is suggested, reservations will be taken at the door, outside of the South Ballroom in the MU. The conference costs $50, which includes a lunch fee.

Online registration is available at www.public.iastate.edu/~BACON_CENTER/conference/.