Skin Is Not In

As summer approaches and temperatures rise in Los Angeles, some people will certainly become a bit more scantily clad — just not inside the Los Angeles Convention Center during E³/Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Show owner and organizer Entertainment Software Assn. for the first time has introduced a loaded weapon against the use of near-nude "booth babes" to attract attention in booths at its May 10–12 show — a $5,000 penalty for each infringement.

Mary Dolaher, ESA's vice president of tradeshows and events, said the new fine merely puts teeth into a policy that has been in effect at the show for quite a while.

"The E³ dress code policy is the same as it has been for the past several years, and is similar to the policies of the vast majority of other major tradeshows," she said.

The longtime policy states that any materials, including live models, that are sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative — including (but not limited to) nudity, partial nudity and bathing suit bottoms — are prohibited on the showfloor, in all common areas and at any show access point.

However, the policy has been virtually ignored by exhibitors at the annual video game tradeshow, which is currently No. 29 on the Tradeshow Week 200 and attracted 70,000 attendees last year. For several years, scantily clad models have dotted the showfloor, along with some under-18, non-industry attendees who slipped in, in order to get an eyeful of non-digitized women (and of the games too, of course), at the 18-and-over show. Routinely, models have posed with willing attendees for photographs.

The 2006 show manual's amendment could help evolve the show into what organizers want it to be — more about business and less about babes.

If an exhibitor violates the show's policy, ESA will give them one verbal warning. If a violation recurs, the association will impose the penalty — payable on-site immediately — and require models to comply with the dress code before returning to the showfloor.

Dolaher noted, "What's new in 2006 is an update and clarification of the enforcement policies. As we do from time to time, we have taken steps to ensure that exhibitors are familiar with the policy and how it will be enforced."

Although the manual was distributed to exhibitors in July, the new penalty only became a hot topic for dozens of online media outlets and E³ enthusiasts last month.

Game aficionados' reactions have varied from "How can they take this away from us?" on www.Geek.com, to "I'd rather get a hands-on preview with the game, not take a picture with some random girl that has 'Hulk' on her chest," on www.Gamecloud.com.

Posted on Kevin Jinde's Web site www.E3girls.com is the phrase, "It's not about the games." But as long as clothed models are allowed into the show, Jinde is OK with things.

"I think the whole premise of the booth model is a beautiful woman helping to showcase the booth and its products," he said. "If those models aren't wearing extremely revealing clothes, it doesn't take away from the attractiveness or beauty of the model."

A popular E³ model named Dyanamaria Leifsson is a perfect example, Jinde said. "Last year (she) was fully clothed in a uniform promoting the upcoming game Huxly. The year before she was posing as a Nyko girl where once again the clothing was nothing different than anyone would wear on a summer day. Was there any less impact with her not being scantily clad? I wouldn't say so."

Jinde believes models like Leifsson will continue to crowd E³. The ESA will "probably just cut out the few booths that might have gone too far," he predicted.

GameDaily Biz Editor in Chief James Brightman agreed.

"You don't really need scantily clad women there," he said. "There's really no point to it."

But scantily clad, beer-bellied men poking fun at female booth babes? That's a different story.

E³ exhibiting firm Agetec last year introduced the Anti Booth Babes: 10 scruffy men posing as women wearing long-haired wigs, women's underwear over their shorts and T-shirts reading, "Real people. Real games."

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm hasn't decided if it will bring back the "gals" in May, said spokeswoman Tracie Snikker. However, she added, "It went over really well last year."

The E³ policy enforcement mirrors regulations set at last November's SEMA Show — another TSW 200 show (No. 4).

Several of the Las Vegas show's 2,000-plus exhibitors pushed the limits in 2004, said Peter MacGillivray, the association's vice president of marketing and communications. So, the association tightened up language in its exhibitor manual.

The plan "unfolded nicely," he said, adding, "Our hope going into the show was that once we brought it to our exhibitors' attention, they would respond to it and they would self-police. The overwhelming majority of exhibitors took this as an opportunity to re-evaluate what they were doing at the show and react to it."

Of course, he added, "We've also gotten some feedback that the show has become too conservative and too uptight."

The manual for this year's SEMA Show states, "Exhibit personnel must wear appropriate apparel at all times. The appropriate apparel requirement prohibits, among other items, bathing suits, thongs, lingerie, excessively short skirts, painted bodies and transparent apparel."

MacGillivray said models' attire at tradeshows "seems to be more and more of a topic right now."

He added, "I think it's cyclical. Over the 40 years that SEMA's been operating, it comes and goes every so often. I'm sure that four or five years from now, we'll be going through the same situation."

E³ 2005 spanned 547,000 net square feet with more than 400 exhibitors. Dolaher declined to disclose E³ 2006 projections.

After five years of co-managing the show with VNU Expositions, ESA will solely manage this year's E³ with three former VNU employees (who were E³ managers) now on its payroll.

The 11-year-old offspring of Intl. CES is the LACC's largest event, scheduled at the venue through 2012.