Booth Babes an Economic Indicator?

 Something strange happened at a smallish trade show in San Jose, California, this week. This is the type of show that really flies under the radar, but this time it wasn't just 98 percent lonely male geek. You can tell this particular technology is on the uptick, because the show featured only 96 percent lonely male geek ... plus the return of the booth babe.

It's either the technology getting hotter, or the economy cooling so much that more attractive women are returning to PR.

By booth babe, I mean a public relations or marketing professional, often in a skirt, standing at the front of a booth in a trade show, or cruising the carpet between booths.  They're usually holding cards or something about the product they're pitching, and they usually look incredibly bored or annoyed by all the propeller heads checking them out.

Now, this week's trade show (it was actually a perfect storm of four trade shows/conferences in two buildings) was approximately one-billionth the size of granddaddy shows like the Consumer Electronics Show, Comdex, or E3. But the booth babe factor was undeniable in San Jose.

The four trade shows or conferences in the San Jose Convention Center and an adjacent hotel were: Streaming Media West (the most glamorous of the four), KM World and Intranets, Enterprise Search West, and West Coast Green.

In the KM World section, Google had the biggest booth, and they made several smallish announcement regarding enterprise search and Google Apps. Streaming Media West was definitely the most glam show of the four, with the most foot traffic.
 
The streaming media crowd is definitely in its own world. In addition to the hushed discussions about the U.S. economic mess, I heard all kinds of discussions I understood little about, regarding video delivery, the sharing of servers, packets, partnershisps, etc.

The online video from this summer's Olympics, which some thought was not a success, was a popular theme. A blogger from Wired filed an excellent report on that angle, "Frustration Runs High at Streaming Media West."

Judging by the buzz at the show, and the length of the skirts, this is clearly a technology I need to pay more attention to.