Comment by usmeteora | Hacker News Reader

Comment by usmeteora | Hacker News Reader

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this is true. I'm actually non judgmental of dancers and even strippers. I mean, for the same reasons you just said.

but should this be an advertising mechanism at a tech conference? if you need a dancer to advertise your startup, then you probably have a shitty startup because your product doesnt speak for itself.

So no I'm not against dancers in general, or even strippers, but there is a time and place for everything, is a tech conference the time or place for dancers? I would say probably not.

When I say "demeaning to women in tech" I mean WHILE AT A TECH CONFERENCE, for women to be default assumed to be in an auxiliary role because most women at tech conferences are hired to be in auxiliary roles, is demeaning.

I'm not making a statement about appropriate sexual behavior. I am a liberal feminist and I believe women should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, and sympathise with women who don't get the opportunity to educate themselves, and also support women who willingly choose other paths. The female body is a wonderful thing and can be enjoyed by whomever she feels comfortable sharing it with. In South Korea, prostitution is a respected career and feminists in south korea even lit themselves on fire in protest of trying to outlaw it because they believed it was encroaching upon their freedoms. Awesome for them. One of the girls on my old sports team just got featured in VICE magazine for, after graduating as valedictorian from my highschool and then at Princeton, went underground for multiple years studying female rights as a call girl in multiple countries in multiple socioeconomic stratas and wrote a huge article on womens rights even in the realm of prostitution.

Believe me, I am not here to crap all over women dancers. It is women in entertainment, and female rappers who are trailblazing the idea that their bodies are wonderful and they can do what they want with them and say what they want and that its ok.

I absolutely agree with you, but I still dont see what that has to do with a tech conference...

tech conferences are somewhat professional and its even valid to argue diverse enough that some ethnicities might even have males that are offended by female dancers at a tech conference.

>but should this be an advertising mechanism at a tech conference? if you need a dancer to advertise your startup, then you probably have a shitty startup because your product doesnt speak for itself.

That's not true. A big tradeshow has tons of companies. Attendees are busy, especially at the shows where floor hours are very limited. At least for B2B products, where a single deal can be a lot of income, it's incredibly effective to have attractive people working onsite. Due to the demographics of the shows I've been to, this means hiring women. (If the attendees skewed another way, I'd hire attractive men.)

But don't hire "dancers" -- I agree on that. They are intimidating. Guys will gawk but not come in; you won't gain customers. I've seen companies make this mistake. The goal should be conversion. So have friendly, good looking people, to make introductions, get leads.

If this is wrong, then it needs to be banned at the tradeshow level since the incentives are in the wrong direction. Maybe that's unethical, but a lot of "growth hacking" is, too.

>some ethnicities might even have males that are offended by female dancers

What's ethnicity got to do with it?

Yes, your point that the men assuming women weren't engineers was incredibly sexist (although as I often joke with one of my friends when she talks about some game designer she infatuated with, by asking if she runs the game companies social media account). I do also think that it's less about Men & Women creating a sexist atmosphere, but rather, the old addage that sex sells (assuming the conference room floor was a tradeshow with vendors selling services).

For our tradeshows, most of the people who work our booths are either Account Managers, or the actual Marketing team that runs tradeshows.

I was lucky enough to be invited to our biggest tradeshow and work the showroom. Funny enough, I suppose, was because I was an engineer. As someone who is an extreme introvert around strangers, it was definitely an interesting time.

*

In this case, it was an afterparty.

For manning a tradeshow (mansplaining trigger warning) companies hire out to 3rd parties, who then staff the booths. Those companies usually are measured on how much traffic they generate.

I would strike up conversations with the women who worked at various PAXPrime booths about the games, and more often than not, they were just contractors.

Occasionally, as a rare treat, it would be one of the developers--like the lady who co-developed BroForce.

I've never been to a Pharma convention, but I imagine those Drug reps hire attractive people specifically to generate more traffic.

ok well an afterparty is an afterpary.

and she wasnt at a Pharma Convention, she was at Google I/O. Her stuff is everywhere, and has nothing to do with Pharmaceuticals.

Ah sorry--the pharma comment was complete non-sequitur.

I recall that despite the medical field being roughly equal in representation of men & women, many of their conferences cater to men.

Also fun fact, I survived being poisoned in Meteora.

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