@InternetSabrina
TEENAGER OLD LADY HYBRID. PROFESSIONAL MOUTH BREATHER IN SF.
DANCIN' ON THE GRAVE OF ALL THINGS ORIGINAL.
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What you end up with is the situation where you, as a conference goer, walk up to a booth and, because you’re no stranger to how this works, ignore any attractive woman and talk directly to a male at the booth. You assume immediately that any attractive female is there simply for their physical appearance, not for the value that their knowledge brings. This is wrong on every level, and it’s an insidious form of objectifying women – it happens gradually, over time, and the more booth babes you see, the more ingrained it becomes.
…
Operation: Eliminate Booth Babes
The goal: To discourage companies which hire booth babes from continuing that practice, by using a combination of peer pressure and negative reinforcement.
The Tactics: Actually, this part is pretty simple. When the first person at a booth approaches you, treat him or her exactly the same way you would a sales or implementation engineer. Ask questions regarding the technology. Ask about planned life cycles of the software, on use counts, and other things. Treat them exactly as you would an equal.
If this person is a booth babe (or a clueless marketing droid), they will inevitably hand you off to the lead technical (or sales) person at the booth. Here comes the important part: Demand to know why they wasted your time with manning the booth with clueless people. Don’t discuss sales or tech with this person (which is what they will desperately want to do at this point). Ask why their company wastes everyone’s time and their investors’ money using people who provide no value. Tell them that you will not be doing business with them, regardless of their technology, because you believe that any company that needs to hide behind tricks, gimmicks, and sex appeal, can not offer you any value. Point out that a great number of their competitors don’t need to use flimflam to sell their wares. Then walk away.
I hope I remember to signal-boost this when con season fires up again. I plan on doing exactly this thing from here on out.
^^^Moar of this…
(Source: teamvalkyrieftw)
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Some observational differences between SF=tech and LA=video/TV/film.
Jargon/knowledge surrounding creative-medium IP and accompanying contracts:
- - LA’s ‘life rights’ contracts vs. SF’s 83b’s for stock options. Both stark reminders that nope, you’re still not a Laywer and contracts are hard.
- - SF Startuppers can get away with shorter commitments like 3-4 year stock vesting periods, versus LA’s taking 20-30% of IP for life. (Thats.crazy.!!!)
What takes center stage:
- - SF focuses on productization or iterations of its principal product that ultimately works it way through distribution methods (the addition of iOS & Android apps are classic examples of this) in order to widen audience reach.
- - LA seems partial to creating brands off of their original venture to appeal to different audiences or even creating new (sub)brands that exist at different points in the brand’s/talent’s life cycle, to court the orignal audience pool through their life cycle and/or pull in new demographics. Examples are movie sequels and/or remakes, or turning Disney stars into toys for young kids. Call back to the Mylie Cyrus Hanna Montana doll, meanwhile the real Mylie grinded against a stripper pole during her live stage act. Same starlet [initial product], different audience demographic. (We hope?)
- - SF primarily boasts tech-centric products and platforms to better communicate (often prexisting) ideas (Example: Uber, Hipmunk). “It’s like ____ 2.0”.
- - LA has personalities or ‘stars’ that offer up their original content that is presented through a brand as the primary focus, which in turn gets communicated through tech. In LA, the focus is on the idea/message/person, not the medium through which it travels or how efficiently that medium operates.
On a superficial level:
- - There’s a joy in witnessing SF nerds cream over the beauty of UI/UX design, while LA-ites set a premium on the boner factor of a pretty face or pair of boobs…because sex.
Shout out to @JenFriel for sharing her world with me while I visit LA!
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