Oh, you mean that kind of model
LOOKING GOOD NOT ENOUGH AS PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE PAYS
Those wandering the aisles of the Offshore Technology Conference might notice female staff at various booths who look just a little too perfect — their hair elegantly waved, their heels precariously high.
Well, they are too perfect. Rather than energy company employees, they’re models hired to add a dash of glamour to what might otherwise be a dowdy crowd, luring in the (mostly male) attendees of the oil industry’s biggest sales event.
Sometimes known as “booth babes,” models are a longstanding presence at trade shows, and they’ve become more controversial in recent years amid charges that using women as eye candy is demeaning. At OTC, however, the models aren’t just valued for their looks. The Neal Hamil Agency has represented models at OTC
for two decades, and co-owner Jeff Shell said the requirements have changed over time, and the models need to know and understand the technology the companies are hawking.
In the past, Shell said, energy firms just wanted knockouts to serve refreshments, coffee and juice, and make their booth look good. “But,” he added, “in the last couple of years, they want models with engineering experience. They’re asking for the models’ résumés now.”
The hiring process now includes phone interviews, not just casting calls; models are given company materials to study up on before OTC week starts.
It’s not clear what’s driving the change, but it’s been a welcome one for Irena Shyshkina, a nearly 6-foot-tall platinum blond, Russia-born model who has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in finance. She’s worked eight OTCs, nearly all with foreign companies, which appreciate having a local representative to make sure they’re communicating correctly.
This year, Shyshkina landed with a Russian company called Chelpipe, for which she can both serve as a translator and explain the intricacies of pipeline systems.
“In the modeling industry, everybody is saying that the girls just go and look pretty,” said Shyshkina, 35. “But surprisingly, everybody’s in school, getting different degrees, and a lot of them have an engineering background.”
Shyshkina herself has a side job in health care finance and said she keeps modeling because she enjoys keeping one foot in the fashion industry. But she’s interested in getting into marketing and thought that serving as a fullfledged member of the sales team at an OTC booth might help.
Of course, like everything at OTC, this year was depressed for booth models. Shell said only about 30 were hired this year, down from 50 or more at the height of the oil boom. But he was expecting it.
“Oil and gas isn’t the only industry that’s suffering right now,” he said, mentioning brick-andmortar retail as another line of business that’s contracted for the agency. “The world is shifting and changing.”