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
alfredo on 2000-07-09T04:11:21
That is so auto show. I think we should smear the floor with Vaseline, get rip roaring drunk, then bring in the camels.
How?
alleria on 2000-07-09T06:57:02
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
Patrick on 2000-07-09T09:17:55
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 and blinking at the sudden exposure to light.
Effective Perl advocacy might involve either:
(a) raising the profile of Perl and Perl users within organisations so they are freed from this sequestered existence and actually get a public profile.
(b) encouraging the front-line staff to mention Perl or Open Source and have this information included in fliers etc.
My impression is that the Linux community have managed this to some extent - when I called my current web host (Webfusion - in the UK) the 'front desk' staff on the phone (who I suppose are the telephonic equivalent of booth dudes/babes) were able (and happy) to tell me they used Red Hat Linux and that they offered full cgi access, PHP, Perl etc etc. because they'd obviously been well-briefed.
Doc Searls even wrote an article in Linux Journal a few months back on how to 'explain' Linux in 'executive summary' language.
The booth persons argument seems to me to distract from the more important issue of 'Perl invisibility'. They can wear foam-rubber camel outfits for all I care (now there's a thought), but what counts is getting authoritative information about Perl and Open Source across to the public.
Not worth it
clintp on 2000-07-09T19:42:21
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
jns on 2000-07-10T11:37:02
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
hfb on 2000-07-10T17:54:06
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
kirbyk on 2000-07-10T18:04:22
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 get a booth noticed, and probably more people enjoy it than not. I'm sure that it appeals to younger and less mature folks more - which is why booth babes are a much bigger deal at video game shows than technical conferences.
I personally don't want to rely on booth babes for my company's trade shows - I'd rather spend the money on neat giveaways, and there's no doubt that it's the same 'get people into your booth' budget. But people do it because it works. And there's not much backlash against them yet. If people seriously started avoiding booths with pointless hot babes, they'd start to go away.
It's just the nature of trade shows, though, to put up a lot of flash to attract attention, whether it be babes or fast-talking pitch men or free stuff or contests or whatever. My gut instinct is that free stuff works best, actually, which is something none of us wants to see go away. So, start telling babe-endowed booths that you'd rather have a free T-shirt!
Re:Marketing in action
alfredo on 2000-07-10T23:19:17
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 ideas. Maybe there is a vendor there that could use your product, or has something you can use. So it isn't just the wandering geek who you should be selling to, it is your peers in the business.
Look for any booth with Irish nationals. They are the ones you want to meet with after the show closes for the night. The second day should be worked with a fierce hangover.
It is the last day to make the deals with other vendors. They are ready to make the big deal by then.
Re:Marketing in action
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 people. Having someone who can't answer their question tends to annoy them. In just about every meeting that I have ever had with an outside vender in which sales, marketing, or other departments have been present, its the members of the technology staff that seem to ask the questions that make the vendor squirm. The vendor and the PowerPoint presentation are just annoyances in the way of the information.
But then, maybe I'm wrong. There are people who study this stuff, and I'd assume they've done their homework. They may have stats that say that booth babes are just as effective in a booth at a technical conference as in a porn convention. And maybe the percentage of men attracted to a booth by and attractive spokesperson is higher than the percentage of women turned off by it. (On the other hand, maybe the fact that I assume that marketing departments decide campaigns based on facts is too engineer-ish.)
The booth babes weren't the biggest insult
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?
