Event promoter apologizes for tasteless comment about women

“Women: Need another beer? Let one of our friendly (female) event staff get that for you.”

That line is gone now, but it was up long enough to generate some severe outrage on Tuesday. Images of the offending line have been widely archived. The reaction in the tech world echoes the uproar over Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, with at least one group calling Tuesday for the event’s sponsors to pull out. The Next Web reported the effort was working, with at least two companies pulling out of the event.

The company behind the hack-a-thon, Sqoot, offered a Google Document apology in the wake of the outcry. It states: “While we thought this was a fun, harmless comment poking fun at the fact that hack-a-thons are typically male-dominated, others were offended. That was not our intention and thus we changed it.”