Convention Designed for Tag-Along Husbands, Too

“Wives’ days” traditionally are filled with such lightweight entertainment as fashion shows and shopping sprees when women tag along to professional conferences with their husbands.

What happens when the conference itself is for businesswomen and the accompanying spouses are husbands who must be entertained? How does a conference planner fill the hours of the visiting males’ days while their wives attend professional meetings?

Do the men get their own fashion show?

“We thought about it,” said Hannah Booth, who planned an annual conference of women accountants where 500 women held a four-day meeting last month at the Sheraton Universal. About 50 spouses attended.

No Frivolity

Booth’s committee decided there would be no frivolous programs to entertain the men who accompany their wives to the convention.

And the few activities planned to entertain the spouses were more educational than fashion shows, she said.

The conference was a joint meeting of the American Woman’s Society of Certified Public Accounts and the American Society of Women Accountants. CPA Booth explained the sister organizations were formed because “50 years ago when we first organized there were not enough women CPAs to form a group in most cities so a society of women accountants was also created.”

She said that months ago the ASWCPA-ASWA conference committee in its early planning “thought about entertaining our husbands with a fashion show, but we rejected the idea because we were afraid it would be a put-down.

“As professional women we feel slighted whenever we are excluded from our husbands’ professional meetings and we decided their feelings would be similar.”

So, in accord with that line of reasoning, all the accompanying spouses were invited to attend the conference seminars with their wives. Booth said that since most of the husbands are accountants themselves or attorneys or other professionals, the meetings were relevant to many of the husbands’ careers.

The subjects ranged from getting bank financing for a small business to health and nutrition for professionals.

A few preconvention events, however, were aimed at entertaining both the delegates and their spouses, and included such predictable sightseeing tours as Olvera Street and the San Juan Capistrano Mission.

A golf tournament was originally scheduled for the men the day the conference opened, but golf was canceled through lack of interest. Not enough spouses signed up.

“We think that most professional women belonging to groups who hold conventions are married to the kind of men who have so many professional responsibilities that it is difficult for them to take the time to accompany their wives to conventions,” a Gray Line tour spokesman said. “It seems to be a lot easier for most women to accompany their husbands to conventions than the other way around.”

Two local spouses who attended lectures and meetings with their wives at earlier conferences attended several meetings during the convention.

Malibu attorney Warren Brakensiek, whose wife, Nancy, is president of a local affiliate, also had hoped to participate in the golf tourney but said he skipped the tourist trips.

In San Marino, Robert Ebert, an IBM manager whose wife, Nella, is a CPA, said he attends sessions related to computers.

The Best Site

“The rest of the time I just prowl in whatever town we happen to be,” he said. The best conference, he said, was in Washington, which has extensive museums to visit.

Although the women CPAs and accountants rejected the thought of entertaining their spouses with a fashion show, they like the idea for themselves. The committee scheduled a one-hour session for the delegates on something called Investment Dressing.

“Suits and skirts and blouses were shown in a program to demonstrate how business wardrobes can be planned for women,” said Booth.