Re: [93attendees] I was wondering...

I don’t think the root of the problem was the way that they were dressed as much as it was that their looks and attire seemed to be the reason that they were there. They didn’t participate in explaining the company’s technology.

The purpose of Bits and Bytes, I think, is to provide for vendors to show what they are doing with IETF technology, e.g. practical demos of how the technology we develop is being applied and tests of proposed protocols.
Booth staff usually are there to explain the demos and that is the way it should be. It certainly isn’t unusual for booth staff to be wearing company provided items (e.g. shirts) to help identify them.

I’m uncomfortable with implementing a dress code as a way to deal with this. Some of our attendees wear shorts. I’d hate to see staff running around with rulers to decide that shorts or skirts are too short, etc.

I’d prefer a policy that emphasizes that Bits and Bytes booths are for technical displays and discussions and that booth staff are expected to be technical and able to discuss the displays.

Pat

From: 93attendees [mailto:93attendees-bounces@ietf.org] On Behalf Of Andy Bierman
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 5:13 AM
To: Stephane Bortzmeyer
Cc: Howard, Lee; 93attendees@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [93attendees] I was wondering...

On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 4:02 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer+ietf@nic.fr<mailto:bortzmeyer+ietf@nic.fr>> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 06:07:44AM -0400,
 Howard, Lee <lee.howard@twcable.com<mailto:lee.howard@twcable.com>> wrote
 a message of 57 lines which said:

> However, I would also not want a policy prohibiting engineers from
> wearing whatever we want. If you want to sponsor Bits-n-Bites and
> your lead developer likes wearing heels, I have no problem with
> that. If I want to wear a close-fitting dress to the next
> Bits-n-Bites, I hope that would be allowed.

In the specific case of the two "booth babes", they both wore exactly
the same dress. It has a name: this was an uniform. Like you, I
strongly value the freedom for men and women to dress as they want
(and I certainly would hate a policy "IETF attendants have to be
dressed professionnally"), but, here, they were on duty, and not
exercising any freedom to dress.

Although I agree this incident was inappropriate for an IETF,
I wonder how much is the IETF's own fault.  If the bits&bytes
is advertised to vendors as a trade show, and they are charged money
(more than a trade show), then the IETF should not be shocked
if a vendor thinks their normal trade show procedures are
appropriate for this venue.  The IETF should made sure the
contract with the vendor is clear wrt/ the dress code.

I guess you are assuming their attire was mandated by the employer.
What if it was their choice? Certainly complicates the issue.

Andy

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