Baskow & Associates, a local special-events and talent agency, has ridden the Comdex gravy train for 10 years. Owner Jaki Baskow has set up meetings and mounted booth shows for such giants as Lucent Technologies, Digital Equipment, and Texas Instruments. And she typically supplies up to 90 models — known in trade-show vernacular as ''booth bunnies" — to Comdex exhibitors, who pay up to $ 350 a day for top models.

But there was an otherworldly feel to this particular confab, because nearly all those in attendance were women. In a role reversal with a multitude of tech trade shows, men made their presence felt primarily as booth bunnies—the perky promoters on the show floor whose job it is to pull in attendees for a sales pitch.

Several hundred of the world's leading authorities on gold are jamming the corridors of the Copley Place Marriott this week and you could cut the gloom with a knife. Keynote speaker David Williamson of Shearson Lehman likened the industry's mood to that of Great Britain during World War II and quoted Winston Churchill to illustrate his case. Booth bunnies, flashy video displays and tacky giveaways ("Register Here To Win a Free Ounce of Gold") notwithstanding, this is indeed gold's darkest hour.