Usually I avoid interaction with the booth babes — the attractive girls who hang out around a particular booth during a convention — when I attend big shows like WonderCon for a variety of reasons.
These girls are constantly having to stay on guard against socially reclusive fanboys who fall in love easily, which means their defenses are up (as they probably should be). Also, most of them aren’t any more geeky than the average Jane — meaning their knowledge of what’s presented at the booth is limited and thus of little interest to someone looking for information (like say… a journalist). Not to mention that I am not Chris Gore, so there’s never any swooning.
But when a booth babe actually is a geek, it really tends to make a difference.
This was the experience I had when checking out the True Blood booth at this year’s WonderCon, which featured samples of Tru Blood, the beverage consumed by vampires in the hit HBO drama. They were being served by, you guessed it: Booth Babes, including Meghan who asked if I wanted to drink her blood, posed for a picture, and then thanked me for it.
Meghan is a geek and as such, my interaction with her was memorable in the sense that I twittered about it and was more aware of the True Blood comic published by IDW. But it wasn’t until randomly discovering her blog over twitter the following day that I ever gave much thought into the profession of booth babe.
If you are a geek girl who’d like to start working the convention booths, then check the post on Meghan’s blog Booth Babe Confessions for some suggestions on how to break in.
From Meghan’s blog:
Yes, the life of a booth babe is oh so glamorous. So how does one join this revolution of booth babes?
Find a modeling agency. Most companies go to agencies first. They get a quote on their models and then the agency sends them their best. Another way is to scour job boards for these events. I work for a couple of agencies. Personally, I’d rather cut the middle man out of the equation. Mainly because all agencies take a cut out of your check. And keep in mind, some agencies take awhile to pay (sometimes months) or even worse, don’t even pay you at all. This goes for companies as well. You might want to do your research on the company before you proceed.
