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.

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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.