use Perl

Booth Babes

posted by pudge on 2000.07.07 20:23   

On the Perl advocacy mailing list, there's been somewhat of a furor over the use of "booth babes" at conferences and trade shows. There's been suggestion that this is something the Perl community should address (seeing as how the Perl Mongers had a booth babe at yapc). Is this something we should address? Is it worth discussion at all? Do booth babes do any harm, are they simply an annoyance, or do we need more of them?

• Booth Babes (Score:1)

  by alfredo (569)

  That is so auto show. I think we should smear the floor with Vaseline, get rip roaring drunk, then bring in the camels.

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  --- your turn
• How? (Score:1)

  by alleria (201)

  Granted that the Perl community is sizable, but even if it's decided that this is a a problem, and that it needs to be addressed, how do we do so?
  
  Unless the convention / trade show is perl-centric, how much influence would the community have?
• Getting Perl out in the open (Score:1)

  by Patrick (528)

  Perhaps the most irritating thing about consumer-oriented events/shows/conventions (rather than communiyt events like YAPC or Usenix) is the way that if you have any technical enquiries, you have to inveigle your way past the booth dudes/babes who have been hired for the event and hand out fliers and repeat a set of stock phrases, then negotiate with a director of (insert phrase here) and eventually if you are persistent you get to meet the technical team who are led out from behind display boards, pale a
• Not worth it (Score:1)

  by clintp (2)

  If I think it's not worth discussion, but I post a note to say that it's not worth discussing then am I discussing it?

  Uh...
• Re:Getting Perl out in the open (Score:2)

  by jns (40)

  They can wear foam-rubber camel outfits for all I care

  we're already lining some up for yapc::Europe

  /J\
• Re:Getting Perl out in the open (Score:1)

  by hfb (74)

  It's simple. The market, being 99% male, goes
  to the conference holders and states 'hey, we find
  booth babes offensive and would like it very much if they were not a feature at X conference.'
  
  It's merely a symptom of a larger problem.
  
  Small steps.
  
  e.
• Marketing in action (Score:1)

  by kirbyk (217)

  The phenomena of booth babes isn't that surprising. For a company, a trade show is mostly a marketing thing - one with a very particular audience that is, if you choose your shows well, predisposed towards being interested in your products. The goal of a trade show is to get people who would be interested in what you have to sell to notice you.
  
  There's little doubt that the technical community is largely male, and a fair percentage of them are lacking in the ability to attract 'hot babes'. So, it does g

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  -- Kirby
• Re:Marketing in action (Score:1)

  by alfredo (569)

  I agree, I am a vet of many New York Bicycle shows. The babes are fun, but it is the product that is important. Getting people into your booth, talking to your reps is the name of the game. Give aways are great, but you better have a lot, and they better not be something annoying. It is a write off, so buy a lot. If it takes something tacky like a Booth Babe to attract the suits, do it. Also, have someone to work the floor. That person should be out striking up conversations, looking for alliances and i

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  --- your turn
• Re:Marketing in action (Score:1)

  by Andrew Langmead (430)

  I think that marketing departments are relying too heavily on their old playbooks, and the game has changed. There seems to be more women hacking perl than there has been in past, (many from design backgrounds) and they are more likely to be insulted than impressed by them. (After all, it is the stereotype they've had to fight to get where they are.)

  For technical event, booth babes may not have been the right move anyway. Technical people seem to be much more interested in the hows and whys than other peo
• The booth babes weren't the biggest insult (Score:1)

  by Andrew Langmead (430)

  What I found more offensive than any booth babe was when I was handed a flyer about a party a company was having and was told that they were trying to round up some of the women who lived in the area too.

  I mean, who would be swayed to going to a party when they hosts seem deparate enough to start inviting strangers off the street? And what does that say about what the company must think of its potential customers?