How can we make work and care work better together?
parentsxwork brings together working parents, founders, organisational leaders and experts to rethink what supportive, equitable and realistic ways of combining career and care can look like.
This is not just a conversation about the future of work. It is a working session designed to move from evidence to action.
Together, participants will explore questions around parental support, mental load, shared care and working conditions, and turn insights into practical tools that can be applied beyond the event.
What to expect:
parentsxwork is designed to be participatory, practical and international.
Action-oriented sessions: Work with experts and practitioners on approaches you can take back into your own workplace, organisation or everyday life.
Perspectives across roles: Connect with parents navigating work and care, founders and leaders redesigning workplace structures, and experts working on parental support and equity.
Practical toolkits: Explore strategies around shared care, mental load and working conditions that support parents, with a focus on ideas that can actually be implemented.
International exchange: Learn from different experiences, systems and approaches from across Europe.
The event is built around the idea that better solutions emerge when the people affected by a challenge are part of designing them.
Whether you are experimenting with how to combine career and care yourself, leading a team, building an organisation or working professionally on these issues, parentsxwork is a space to learn from one another and imagine what could work better.
Creating more equitable workplaces is not only about supporting individual parents to “manage it all”. It is also about changing the structures around them.
When and Where?
📅 November 19th, 2026
⏰ 9:15 - 18:00 o’clock
📍 Impact Hub Vienna
Come and experience the energy of our community. Register now to secure your place.
Programme
9:15 – 10:00 | Coffee & Connection
Arrive, grab a coffee and meet fellow participants before the programme begins.
10:00 – 10:30 | Welcome & Warm-Up
Opening with Deirdre Shea Swanson followed by an interactive warm-up with Alexa Starks from Mothered Media.
10:30 – 11:30 | Design Your Family Operating System with FamilyWorx
An interactive workshop bringing tools from organisational development into family life. Explore responsibilities, ownership and shared leadership – and leave with concrete ideas for creating a family system that works for you.
11:45 – 13:00 | Lunch Clubs
Choose what you need: time to recharge, space for family needs, or the opportunity to continue the conversation over lunch with other participants.
13:30 – 14:30 | AI & Family Life
Explore your own framework for using AI in family life: where can technology genuinely support you, and where do you want to draw the line?
15:00 – 15:30 | Work x Care Panel presented by WOMENTOR
What needs to change so that people no longer have to choose between professional ambition and care responsibilities?
The Work x Care Panel, presented by WOMENTOR, brings together different perspectives on careers, leadership, care and the structures surrounding them.
Together, we will look beyond the question of how individuals can simply become better at “managing it all” and instead ask what organisations, workplaces and communities can do differently.
Joining the conversation:
Josefin Schulze - Managing Partner at WOMENTOR
Nadia Tor - Sales Director at G&E ZTE Austria
Leonie Bleiker - Feminist Coach
Jakob Detering - Managing Director, Impact Hub Vienna Group
Moderated by Deirdre Shea Swanson.
Expect an open conversation about what is already changing, what is still missing and how we can create working environments in which career development and care are not treated as competing priorities.
16:00 | WOMENTOR Mentoring Kick-Off
Meet Your Match. Connect Beyond.
You've been matched – now it's time to meet in person.
From 4:00 PM, we are bringing together the mentees and mentors from this year's WOMENTOR Mentoring Program for a dedicated kick-off session.
It is a chance to meet your mentoring match, connect with people beyond your own mentoring pair and start the journey with new conversations, perspectives and connections across the WOMENTOR community.
✨ 1. Arrive & Connect
Come in, grab a drink and settle in.
Meet your mentoring match in person and get to know some of the other mentees and mentors joining this year's cohort.
⚡ 2. 60 Seconds to Connect
Who else is in the room?
We'll split into smaller groups, where everyone gets 60 seconds to introduce themselves and share a little about who they are and what they do.
A quick way to discover the people, experiences and expertise within this year's mentoring community.
💬 3. Real Talk Roundtables
Then we go a little deeper.
Across three short rounds, you'll move between tables and exchange experiences, questions and perspectives with different mentees and mentors.
We'll explore three topics:
Career & Care – How do we navigate our careers alongside everything else in life?
Visibility & Voice – How do we make ourselves and our work more visible?
Leadership & Boundaries – How do we lead with care while setting healthy boundaries?
There are no perfect answers. The idea is to share experiences, ask questions and learn from one another.
💜 4. Give a Thought. Take a Thought.
What is something that has inspired you, helped you or simply stayed with you?
It might be a piece of advice, a favourite quote, a book, movie or song recommendation, or one thought you would like someone else to hear.
Write yours on a Post-it and add it to our community board. Then choose a thought left by someone else to take with you.
You might leave with exactly the idea you needed for your next bold step.
🚀 5. Wrapping Up
We'll close the session together, share a few final thoughts and send you into your mentoring journey with new perspectives, ideas and, hopefully, a few new connections.
We can't wait to bring this year's WOMENTOR mentoring community together.
Open throughout the event: I Need / I Can Offer
Every person in our community has something to share, and something they can learn from someone else.
Our I Need / I Can Offer community board will be open throughout the event.
Add something you are looking for, whether that's advice, expertise, a new perspective, an introduction or a connection, and something you can offer someone else in return.
Take a look at what others have shared, start a conversation and see where you might be able to support one another.
A strong network is not just about who you know. It is about what becomes possible when we share what we know.
Come for practical ideas, stay for meaningful conversations. And maybe leave with new perspectives, new connections and tools you can put into practice.
Want to showcase your business and connect with an inspiring community?
Are you a founder, entrepreneur or service provider whose work connects to care, work or leadership? Then this opportunity might be for you!
On November 19, WOMENTOR will be part of parentsxwork at Impact Hub Vienna, where we'll kick off our next mentoring cohort with a panel discussion and Mentoring Tables.
And we'd love to bring our community along! Through a Micropartnership with parentsxwork, you can showcase your business, connect with like-minded people and introduce your work to an engaged audience.
Whether you'd like to share promotional materials, create a special offer for participants or contribute in another creative way, there's room to shape the partnership around what works for you.
Exclusive offer for WOMENTOR members: €250
Interested in becoming a Micropartner? Get in touch with Deirdre, a WOMENTOR community member and parentsxwork event host, to explore what a Micropartnership could look like for you.
The event is organised in partnership with parentsxwork.