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Are Booth Babes Going Away? (Video)
Michael Steinhart, Editor in Chief of The Enterprise Cloud Site, went to this year's New York Cloud Expo, and saw only one booth with beguiling, scantily-dressed females trying to attract people to their employers' display. But Michael says one booth with babes was one more than last year, when the same show had no booth babes at all. So we wondered: Are booth babes going away? And if they are, is it because of political consciousness or tight budgets? Since Michael has put more time than we have into thinking about these questions, we fired up our webcam and had a little conversation with him about the future of booth babes at IT conferences and trade shows.
Based on the IT industry here (Ireland) at least, there's been a huge increase in the number of gay men in IT, or out gay men at least. Not much use in having a booth babe if the guy buying the product doesn't like boobs.
Seriously, the only people who really give two craps about booth babes are a) hypersensitive gender warriors and b) tech writers on a slow news day.
This year the expo had more booth babes than last year, which raises the question "Are Booth Babes going away?".
Say what now?
Booth Babes in general seemed to be on the decline. However after Conan 'O Brian brings the practice new respect, they may be on the rise again...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They will probably be a fixture at car shows for all time, and in Korean gadget reveals, but they seem so out of place at a software conference.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Even women are more likely to want to talk to a well-dressed, attractive woman than the pushy marketdroid or worse, the obese engineer wearing a t-shirt and ripped jeans who smells like he hasn't bathed in a week. It's not just about appearance; it's also about appearance. Know what I mean?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
(cries to heavens in crane shot)
I resent that some business is attempting to grab me by the balls rather than by my rational self.
Bruce Perens.
Many times those events are not even that informative!
I was at a recent tech conference and the booth babes were not the ones from Comdex of yesteryear in bikinis. They were hired women who were very attractive but were wearing acceptable clothing. Mostly business casual, slacks and a button down blouse.
IT folks they were not, pretty faces yes. As someone has to scan your badge or hand out a trinket.
The whole presence of scantily-clad women as a way of attracting attention to your booth assumes that the people whose attention you want to attract are heterosexual males who are inclined to pay attention to your exhibit because there's a scantily-clad woman there. It implicitly assumes that you're not trying to get the interest of/don't care about the opinions of, among others: women, homosexual men, the devoutly religious, etc. In the same way that an ad campaign that includes a of, say, racist caricatures of Asians effectively writes off the Asian population as potential customers (at the very least), this sort of thing writes off whole groups of people who are, you know, actually present in the tech industry. Funny how an industry that supposedly prides itself on evaluating results and actual ability so often tacitly assumes that it is the exclusive domain of straight, white males. It's almost as if cluelessly ignoring the reality of privilege, racism, sexism, and heteronormativity leads to cluelessly privileged, racist, sexist, heteronormative behavior.
DO NOT clicky on the linky unless you get your kicks seeing Conan 'O Brian in fishnets and a really tight package. Jesus. Christ. Shit. My eyes.
Booth babes are pretty.
Pretty is attractive.
Attractive is good marketing.
Its not just about sex. Its about hiring some attractive people to represent your company. Because your engineers are probably unshaved smelly cave dwellers that probably don't make a good impression at conventions. So how do you make your engineer or software developer seem credible? Put a 21 year old aspiring model next to him that smiles and makes eyes at everyone that gets near the booth.
Is it dumb? No more dumb then the people buying your products. Which isn't an insult against them... people are just like that. Get over it. We're not robots. We're semi intelligent social opportunistic primates. And even women like having attractive women around.
Open a women's magazine. What do you see? Is it lots of half naked men? Nope... half naked women.
As to getting the attention of gay men... All respect, but they're by definition a minority. Were they not the species itself would be in some trouble. So while it might make some sense to reach out to any demographic, the reality is that its probably a marginal issue at best.
All of that said, possibly there is something to be said for not having such aggressive marketing at conventions. Rather, put your unshaved cave dweller out there sans smiling boobs... and just see what happens.
It will either be fine or it won't. And we'll learn something either way.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Men are men. Our attention is drawn to curves. We can act respectful, but can't deny biology.
"But Michael says one booth with babes was one more than last year"
If everyone has booth babes then the incremental effect of one company adding booth babes is about ZERO. You can be at booth A and still see B, C, D, E ....
If no one has booth babes then the incremental effect of one company adding booth babes is significant.
Most geeks learned early on that babes aren't interested. The more attractive a female was, the more likely she was to snub any geeks that approached.
So, geeks associate hotness with unattainability (and, in some cases cruelty), and as such their feminine wiles don't have the same effect as they might on a grown-up football player.
Geeks respond better to fellow geeks with a common cultural background and a solid technical understanding of whatever is being advertised.
The market is simply adjusting to what actually works for this demographic.
I like looking at booth babes as much as the next guy, but c'mon. It's just unprofessional. And frankly, I don't want to talk to a hired salesmodel at an IT conference, either. I want to talk to a technical person who knows the freaking product and can answer detailed technical questions about it. If I wanted a brochure, I'd go to the website. It's a waste of my time and your money to have anyone in your booth that doesn't know the product inside and out.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
And conversely, one man's junk is another man's treasure.
Just ask the gays.
And those "studs" wound't be men who pretend to have any sort of self worth by prettying themselves up and are thus worthless whores?
I gather OP's main concern is that he has no desire to bang female whores.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Ok, yes they are. But they certainly are not scantily clad. The one on the right might be attempting a provocative stance. Or she just stands that way.
'Wonder what the funky eye makeup is supposed to mean?
I may as well fess up: I've never really liked trade shows. I don't "get" them. I haven't been to one in several years. Maybe it's because my Live-In Booth Babe for the last 22 years is also my best friend and I'd rather go for a hike with her.
So, any takers on the eye makeup?
(see comment subject)
FTFY, Calculon style
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
In what world is a full coverage t-shirt "scantily-dressed"?
When it's wet?
More Twoson than Cupertino
They probably became sexist about the time that they're trying to sell video games with unrelated tits. Not that I care if they want to do that, but I'd say that if you wanted to meet an example of "blatantly using sex to sell unrelated stuff," this would be one of those times.
So, yeah, if you're selling the latest hentai-based video game, they're right on topic. When you are selling Call of Duty? Not so much.
That is what we, in Dutch, call the summer time when cucumbers are everywhere in the supermarkets, and news is scant....
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
As the Gay Population is probably between 3%-10% I doubt that make it a major factor.
But I expect the real reason is simpler. Booth Babes attract people however it may not equate in increased sales. While booths with people who know the technical details, or are good sales people, do.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
my first thought was of Jen in the I.T. crowd getting the task of "entertaining" the visiting executives ...
Second thought is that "good marketing" is also a great way to quickly kill a bad product - if your product doesn't "perform" (choose a metric any metric) then "good marketing" will have the unintended consequence of letting a lot of people find out that your product is worthless. These people will "get the word out" and ipso facto - yadda yadda yadda - good bye product/company
example: the whole dot com boom and bust
of course large amounts of money have been made by "good marketing" and mediocre/"good enough" products - (depending on your preference) Microsoft and/or Apple are great examples
as far as "booth babes" go - my guess is that this is a cyclical phenomenon (they aren't going to go away - because they generate "booth visits" - which is the point of going to an expo). It is possible that the whole convention/expo thing is becoming obsolete but that is another subject...
It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to. http://mylyceum.us/
Interop had way fewer booth babes this year too compared to last year
When you're $100k in debt with only a degree in Women's Studies to show for it.
Hey, who let Archie Bunker use their computer?
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Actually, I would say that it's equally unprofessional and sexist to assume that somebody who's physically attractive can't be intelligent and/or knowledgeable about your product. While it's often true that supermodels tend to not be software engineers, it's equally true that many software engineers tend to not be good public speakers, etc.
What you want is somebody who *presents* good in public. This includes knowledge of product, personal appearance, and ability to speak to a customer or crowd. Being good-looking doesn't preclude you from being a good rep, it just enhances the other skills in various ways.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-10-16/
Booths need:
Magic tricks
Special effects
Raffles
Booth babes
#1) Booth babes are offensive to the larger population of women, even in the tech industry, there are more and more women present compared to say... the 1990's where it was almost 100% male dominated. In fact, there was a recent story about a female journalist harassed at E3 because it was just assumed by some that any woman at a gaming convention must be 'meat'.
#2) They are as clueless as their looks would lead you to believe. I remember being at a Motorcycle convention, and while that was once a male dominated event, the new market for motorcycles is now women -- but I digress... at the "Vespa" booth (Vespa, of all places, scooters appeal to women!), we had a question about some seriously radical Vespa merchandise (I think I was a cool looking leather bag, or a jacket), and I go to ask what I thought was a saleswoman, but she didn't know anything about what it was or how to buy it, even though she was dressed in Vespa branded attire. Point is; I was interested; but they lost a sale because the lady was apparently hired as decoration, but wasn't trained to even point me to a real salesperson!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Oh now I *have* to click it!
+1 Disagree
Holy shit! I hadn't even started the video until reading your comment, but I am shocked and appalled that there is a background of cats behind this douche in the video. I didn't watch the whole thing, but skipped through enough to see that there were no booth babes in the video! Why would I want to watch this video about booth babes, when there are none in the video?
When you're $100k in debt with only a degree in Women's Studies to show for it.
Nod. And in that case, what makes her "scantily dressed" is not what she's actually wearing, but that she's there at all.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I'm not sure how huge Booth Hermaphrodites would go over.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Right, I was so appalled that I even overlooked this basic fact:
Why are the no booth babes in the video?
Booth babes (of either sex and orientation) are a red flag that the company you are dealing with would like to grab your attention using the nether regions of your body rather than engaging your mind with a fantastic product. Easy tip off that they are more interested in flash over substance that will leave one looking foolish for having selected their product.
Look - don't buy.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Most times I would end up walking the floor its because I am interested in the technology or possibly talking with engineering folks much smarter than myself who sometimes get let out of their cages and are able to attend.
When I see a booth filled with babes and well dressed sales guys picking their noses it is a huge turn off when I go to their booth I can always expect to find extraneous people with no domain knowledge and sales goons knowing less about their own product than I.
There are plenty of booths with attractive women who actually work for the company and know their shit. Much more of a turn on to me than supermodels standing around looking pretty.
Have not attended mass market consumer oriented shows. Something like E3 I can see being a different matter entirely where more chicks always make things better.
I feel bad for these so to be former booth babes. Now they will have no work and not get paid. This means they may have to do even worse jobs. I remember back in the Comdex days we had to hire one and it cost us quite a bit of money. I talked with her and I found out the girl made a good living being a pro booth babe. For her it was better than turning tricks.
-- A computer without Windoze is like a choclate cake without mustard
I read an anecdotal story about a girl that used to be hired as a booth babe and got neat money from it. Used to, because the feminazis destroyed her job opporuntities.
What happened with womens rights really, It's a voluntary job after all and it apparently pays well?
The booth babes aren't going anywhere only the nerds have discovered soap. I'd rather speak to a guy who knows what he's talking about only if he didn't smell. I don't mean Italian but just taking a shower more often works -- that's what the marketing have found out.
You ask hookers, strippers.... there are 2 types of conventions they love: IT and Republicans. Geeks love hot girls who are getting paid to be nice to them.
So... He attended the show and all he took home from it was an article about gimmicks and the freebies he scored and this sensationalist piece of junk about booth babes... Sounds like he was just there scabbing freebies on a company funded junket in Vegas.
This guy is clearly just an attention seeker trying to fire up the feminists... the girls shown are hardly your typical "booth babes" and his claim that the "Solar VPS" booth was bro-centric (I assume he is talking about the "spacemen") shows he hasn't even bothered to look at the companies marketing materials or website to see the space / solar system theme of all their products and services.
And yes a lot of trade-show organisers in certain regions and industries have cracked down / set guidelines on booth babes, but this wasn't due to changing sensibilities but rather a response to vendors who were really pushing the limits of existing ones with things like body painted models and models wearing miniskirts that should probably be classified as belts.
Won't someone please think of the poor out-of-work blackface minstrels?
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Is it sexist that male strippers exist?
If the answer is no, then it isn't sexist that booth babes exist either.
"...the feminazis..."
Rush, is that you?
CPU, memory, SSD storage, lots of silicon. big boobs, lots of silicon polymer. yes, I can see a correlation there
Lots of things are completely acceptable. According to almost half of the population of the US, widespread surveillance on citizens is completely acceptable.
Blackface had its day, and then its day went. It appears that the same is true of booth babes. I don't weep for the loss of either job. We technologists are, after all, in the business of making old jobs obsolete. I certainly hope that former booth babes find decent jobs in a new environment; perhaps something in green energy?
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
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this convention.. does it have a history of booth babes? because last year there were none. now this year, there is one, and does he by chance think they just don't do it at this particular show?
E3 was as loaded as ever with booth babes. so he might be looking in the wrong places for signs of this non-existent phenomena..
I wager booth babes are pricey entertainment that would only not be present if someone couldn't afford to hire them, or there was no task for them to do. dressing up, or acting, or whatever.
IMO the article is useless because there's no other signs that booth babes aren't being used anywhere else. it's just this show.
and booth babes are pretty useless when it comes to conventions in the first place. its like, they are hired as entertainers, yes, but there usually has to be good reason to do it. like everyone else has them, or they are dressing for a part in some advertisement. if none of this is true, they have no reason to do it.
Feminism: letting women be whatever they want to be...unless it contravenes our image of what they should be, then we require that they conform with our idea of what's "right".
I'm sure they're feeling empowered already!
-Styopa
Won't someone please think of the poor out-of-work blackface minstrels?
So you think that hiring a woman is equivalent to hiring "blackface minstrels?"
I don't think you got that quite right.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
I find the booth babe concept to be stupid and tasteless too. But I'm not going to judge people who participate in a harmless activity.
Feminists don't usually judge the people either, they judge the activity and those who promote it (the companies paying for the booths, and in part those who attend the conferences and are OK with it), much like you just did in your first phrase, implicitly.
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This site has some nice pics from the E3 event, focused on booth babes: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2216/
Another one just got fired yesterday!
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/06/27/drag_queen_fired_from_pride_for_blackface_performance.html
She would have lost her job fairly quickly anyway. One of the qualifications of being a booth babe is being young.
Using booth babes objectifies women, although, if you are a woman wh's prepared to put up with that for whatever the money they pay, I guess I'm OK with that. But using booth babes also shows contempt for men. It's saying "my product may be good or bad, but that doesn't matter because I can make you think with your dick".
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Another rounds goes to these PC Taliban. Funny how these extremists (fringe feminists, Islamists and the Christian Right) have such an aversion against women dressed less than in a goddamn burka. Sex sells, that is a fact and not really a bad thing.
The first commenter was specifically mentioning booth babes and booth studs. So both is proper. Any would be better, yes, but that's not what he said.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
If only.
Until you work with a social retarded aspie fag you will not understand what women complain about r.e. sexual harassment. He's was lucky. In my youth, being hit on by a fag would have required me to kick his ass.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Okay, that was pretty funny. Hilariously inaccurate, but funny.
It's about respect, imagine you were at a conference, and because some management type decided geeks are too unappealing they hired bodybuilders and male models to stand out in front of the booths. Wouldn't you find that a little insulting, that despite all your knowledge and experience some dude with a six pack is more welcome at a tech conference than you?
I stole this Sig
So it's a compromise, then? Neither men nor women get the full respect they deserve, and some of each are willing to put up with that so that they can have what they want from the other party. It appears to be under continuous negotiation, and neither party is ever getting exactly what they want because each wants something that directly opposes what the other wants. The extremists in each party who refuse to compromise make so much noise that the majority of each party, the rational ones who agree that some kind of compromise is necessary, cannot effectively negotiate what that compromise should be.
First off, apologies to all who thought the video would feature actual babes. There are some interspersed throughout the conversation, but for the most part, you're looking at my ugly mug, sandwiched between two kittens. Rowr. Second, the company that featured booth babes did get back to me, and I wrote about it here. I'd love to continue the conversation!
>>Who cares?? > c) Female geeks at tech conferences.
And their friends and coworkers. And people who don't like being pandered to. And people who might have actually been interested in the product. And people who'd rather deal with companies that made an effort to understand who their customers are (unlike the company who had booth babes at the RSA trade show.) If you want an effective booth babe, have her be the lead developer for the interesting product you brought, not somebody in a tight dress.
If you want to sell me your product, you'll bring somebody who can tell me why it's interesting, and ideally somebody who can answer my technical questions about it or at least point me at the information. If you aren't doing that that, I may waste your time and seating space trying to win an iPad after I've seen the booths I care about at a show, but otherwise the best you'll do is get me to pick up a tchochke with your name on it.
I'm fine with booths that have people who are there for entertainment value, as long as you can also get me information, whether that's the noisy shill show or the technical celebrity (it was fun to see Ron Rivest at the RSA show some years ago, and Dan Kaminsky's always broken something important recently.) But if you've got professional booth staff, make sure they know at least a couple of sentences about your products and can point customers to the right people, whether that's the sales rep or the techie, and make sure your display has enough information that I can decide whether to find out more or move on without wasting your time. The kinds of companies that hire booth babes somehow never respect them enough to give them that much training.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Heard a story on NPR a year or two ago about a woman from some car company who worked at car shows. It puzzled some of the attendees to have a woman at the booth who wasn't there for decoration, she was there to talk about engines and design and was dressed in a suit like the other car company people.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
And sometimes the professionally dressed woman is the lead developer, not just a marketer. And sometimes the professionally dressed man is a professional booth shill, and he's surprisingly good at it.
I've worked trade shows also (usually when I've been a sales engineer, developer, or sometimes consultant; $DAYJOB's trade show people usually use some local employees, some headquarters marketing people, and some speakers from headquarters.) Some of the marketing people know the products, some are logistics folks who are good at getting the booth to the show, working with the local union to get it assembled, making sure that everybody who's scheduled to work the show knows what we're presenting, etc. There are shows where the target audience is C-levels, and shows where it's the technology people who are going to build your products into their products. I've seen more of the latter, but that's the kind of show I'm more likely to go to.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
(And I won't ask about fezzes.)
Ok, earlier today there probably were more men wearing dresses and high heels around here than women wearing Dr Who t-shirts. But that's because the gay pride parade was today and "here" is the San Francisco Bay Area. Normally, I'd guess there are more women wearing Dr Who shirts.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Trolls are smelly cave dwellers. Most engineers have enough sense to wash ourselves, and if the marketers want us to do multiple shifts they'll provide multiple sets of whatever company-logo shirt they want us to wear this show, or tell us to wear basic blue shirts. (And the last time I was "unshaved" was decades ago; since then I've had a beard.)
How do you make your engineer or developer seem credible? Have booth staff who make sure that everybody at the booth knows everybody else, so if a visitor wants to talk to a sales person they get the right sales person and if they want an engineer they get the right engineer (either directly or brought over by the sales person.) And, y'know, make sure that the product you're trying to sell is appropriate for the convention you're trying to sell it at.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I last went to one of those 20 years ago. It had stopped being an actual interoperability demo a few years earlier, but there were still some techies there as well as marketers in suits. It was the smaller Atlanta version of the show, and I was in town for a class. I ended up having dinner with the folks from a small East Coast software company that I knew a few of from Usenet, and they appreciated being able to refer to something that had happened at Pennsic without having to explain what Pennsic was (I hadn't actually been to it, but SCA was part of common techie culture.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
There are some variants on Morris dancing that are traditionally done in blackface. It's not African blackface, it's English coal-miner blackface.
On the other hand, I also play old-timey American music. There's a really good group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops who talk about the African-American roots of much of that style of music (obviously banjos, but other aspects as well), and they've said that they're probably the first generation of African-Americans who could play that style of music without their parents smacking them for doing something related to the old minstrel shows. Stephen Foster wrote some really good tunes, but you just have to play many of them as instrumentals and not try to fix the lyrics...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No matter what you do people will complain.
Why can't they just introduce booth-studs.
Something for both tastes. Equal and fair.
Problem solved.
Now booth studs and bades,amove your asses so i can see the product!