Anyone who's ever been to a tech conference will be familiar with "booth babes." The concourse at these events tends to be filled with attractive women generally wearing tight fitting T-shirts or other revealing attire, in an attempt to draw the majority male attendees over to their company's booth with the offer of a free beer or some other paraphernalia like a USB dongle.
This year, the RSA Conference is putting a stop to the sexist practice. Conference organizers aren't explicitly mentioning "booth babes," but they're pretty clear about the kind of sales practices they want at April's conference, which attracts top cryptographers from around the globe.
Security expert Bill Brenner published the new rules, which were sent out to all exhibitors, on his blog post. The rules unequivocally state that "all Expo staff are expected to dress in business and/or business casual attire." It also provides a list of banned clothing, which includes:
* Tops displaying excessive cleavage
* Tank tops, halter tops, camisole tops or tube tops
* Miniskirts or mini-dresses
* Shorts
* Lycra (or other second-skin) bodysuits
* Objectionable or offensive costumes
Making sure not to appear sexist, Brenner says the ban applies to both men and women, but it's pretty clear what type of salesperson he's talking about when he says: "attire of an overly-revealing or suggestive nature is not permitted." Anyone breaking the rules will be asked to change their clothes or risk getting kicked out of the San Francisco venue.
Zenobia Godschalk, a communications practitioner in the security industry and vocally critical of so-called "booth babes" at conferences like RSA and Black Hat told Brenner that she was delighted with the announcement.
"We are thrilled to report that RSA has actually changed their language in their vendor agreements this year, specifically around appropriate professional attire that can allow all attendees to feel comfortable," she said.
Linda Gray, event manager, RSA Conferences told Network World that they hadn't received any complaints about the new rules saying: "We thought this was an important step towards making all security professionals feel comfortable and equally respected during the show."
It's a smart move from RSA in what has been a bad week for sexism in Silicon Valley after a number of high profile sexual discrimination cases were brought against top firms.
In addition, a new study revealed that the gender gap in tech is widening. Cynics might suggest that the publicity around the new rules has greatly helped promote the conference.
RSA USA Conference 2015 will be held in the Moscone Center in San Francisco from April 20 to 24. It is the world's largest information security event and attracts cryptographers from around the globe. This year's event will feature a keynote address from actor Alec Baldwin, where he will discuss the intersection between Hollywood and privacy. For anyone wondering, RSA stands for Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman - the inventors of one of the first practicable public key encryption technology.
Photo: Sergey Galyonkin | Flickr
