blueskin_ is wrong. As a middle name, I named my 1-year-old after Countess Ada of Lovelace in order to encourage her to view computer science as a positive, wel

blueskin_ is wrong. As a middle name, I named my 1-year-old after Countess Ada of Lovelace in order to encourage her to view computer science as a positive, welcoming field. Try explaining to a 15-year-old or 21-year-old woman why the presence of booth babes shouldn't impact their choice of a career. In an industry with an overwhelmingly male population, with a (deserved) reputation for cultural quirks that tend to follow those of adolescent males, and few widely acknowledged and celebrated female successes, the contextual message of booth babes is pretty clear. And that message, based on the evidence, is: your gender is not welcomed here. I know you believe that your private pleasures have no public impact -- you enjoy booth babes, so what's the problem? I'd say the problem is that my goals are different from yours. I don't think a professional event should appeal to the sexuality of either gender, and should support the professional development of both. I don't think your private, personal enjoyments have all that much relevance to the success of the industry as a whole. I don't think waving off the high turn-off value of this marketing mechanism is warranted on the facts. And I don't think, in an industry that prides itself on being rational, scientific, and logical, that booth babes reflect well on the marketing choices or expenditures of our industry's leaders. With our different goals, we will come to different conclusions. And, as a value judgment for what our industry is and what it ought to be, I think your goals are wrong.