Sex and Comdex
Las Vegas is gearing up for next week's annual Comdex trade show and the influx of 220,00 technology professionals.
Among other things, Comdex means the
busiest week of the year for
Vegas's prostitutes and strippers. As one anonymous city PR official bluntly puts it, "The computer nerds like to see
live ladies pole dancing." . . . Meanwhile, female tech professionals make up approximately 20% of
Comdex attendees, and many are frustrated with the
undercurrent of geek machismo at
the convention and in the information technology field. This year's inaugural Comdex/Girl Geek Forum aims
to change that. Both stories from Wired News (November 2000).
As expected, Comdex conventioners
packed Las Vegas strip
clubs all week. About 80% of the convention's 220,000 visitors are men, and the annual event has become the busiest
week of the year for Vegas's adult entertainment industry. One strip club manager also notes that the Comdex
crowd is generally less interested in gambling than other Vegas visitors: "I guess because they're all in the
industry they know computer chips control the machines. They figure they can't beat them." From Salon.
