The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting at DEMO

Leading up to the DEMO conference, I found myself religiously reading the Face-to-Face blog, which chronicled the life and times of Jim Young and Charles Ribaudo as they prepared to unveil their company Jambo Networks at DEMO. The Jambo blog was particularly fun because it described not only the steps the Jambo guys took to prepare for DEMO, but also described their anxiety, excitement and anticipation. It was fun to read and left me cheering Jambo on when it was their turn on stage.

The Jambo guys actually went through some pretty extensive steps to prepare for DEMO. They hired consultants who had experience with presenting at DEMO. They honed their product and demo to maximize the value of their time on stage through iteration. And, as with the best route to Carnegie Hall, they practiced, practiced, practiced. Having read about Jambo's preparation, I found myself asking other presenters what they did to prepare for their time on stage. Some took a very minimalist approach. One entrepreneur told me that he had only prepared his opening and closing lines and would leave the rest to evolve as he demoed his product. Pretty risky and few entrepreneurs with whom I spoke were willing to leave quite so much to chance. A number of presenters with whom I spoke had hired consultants to help them get the most out of their 6 minutes on stage. Others relied upon the counsel of their PR People, many of whom have been to DEMO with clients time and time again. In virtually every instance, the presenters practiced and stressed a lot.

I can't claim to be an expert on presenting at DEMO. I have never been on the stage myself. But I have watched a whole lot of demos in the course of meeting with companies and attending conferences. And, like all things, I have strong opinions about what works and what doesn't. So, for what it is worth, here are my thoughts on some dos and don'ts of presenting at DEMO. Hopefully it will be helpful to future DEMO presenters as one audience member's perspective.

THE DOs

1. It is all about the demo. DEMO is all about demonstrating your product. You will live and die by your product. But if you are like the entrepreneurs I meet week in and week out, above all else you believe in your product and its ability to shine. So let it shine. There are all sorts of gimmicks you can use to help people understand and appreciate the value of your product (skits, role playing, videos, etc.) but make sure that the gimmick is about the product not about the shtick. The best demos are those that make the product shine. And while a few laughs will keep the audience engaged, don't forget that if your product or service isn't the focal point of your presentation, you are doing it a disservice.

2. Leave room for spontaneity (or at least appear like you have). This is just another way of saying, don't read your presentation. Sounding mechanical is perhaps the downside of meticulous preparation. If you spend too much time laboring over every single word in every second of your presentation, you may suck the spontaneity right out of your demo. Demos that sound like they are being read are boring no matter how compelling the product being demonstrated. At one point during this year's DEMO I turned to the VC sitting next to me and said "did you hear a word that he just said?" He hadn't either. The robotic presentation style of the guy on stage wasn't able to pull either of us away from our computers (WiFi is the enemy of the presenter but energy and enthusiasm will win out over the RSS reader every time). You are better off knowing what you want to talk about than what you want to say. And if you do script the whole thing, make sure you have put in enough time practicing that if you miss a word, you don't miss a beat. There is nothing worse than repeating a sentence because you have slipped from your script.

3. Have fun. DEMO is fun. That's why people like it. You get to see cool new things presented in a compelling way on stage. If you are stressed out up there, we'll be stressed out in the audience. So have fun up there. After all, this is your opportunity to present a product about which you are passionate to folks who are really on your side. The DEMO audience loves and rewards a compelling, fun presentation. Case in point, Homestead's demonstration of QuickSites this year. Justin Kitch had an audience full of journalists and VCs on their feet cheering. He had fun and so did we (more on Justin's presentation below).

4. Have a backup plan. Another advantage to not being tied to a script is that when things go wrong you are not at a complete loss on stage. This year at DEMO, Peter Sisson, the CEO of Teleo, was attempting to demonstrate a portable VoIP system when the Internet connection went down. Needless to say, there isn't much Voice Over IP when you've got no IP. Peter did an admirable job of saying "what you should be seeing now is . . ." but the presentation wasn't without its pregnant pauses. Had he been tied entirely to a script, he might as well have hung his head and walked off the stage. That said, had he truly been prepared, he would have had some mockups to revert to in the event that the Internet went down. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Peter didn't get a do over and neither will you.

THE DON'Ts

1. Don't praise your own product. It always drives me crazy when an entrepreneur praises her own product in the course of a demonstration. The same definitely holds true of DEMO. It simply adds no value to say things like "It's pretty wild, isn't it?" about your own product or to say "that's really fantastic Christine" to your cofounder on stage. Yet, those phrases and others were intoned on the stage of DEMO this year. If I don't think your product is "wild" or "fantastic" from your demo, I'm certainly not going to think so because you say it. I was never particularly fond of Ed McMahon, the consummate yes man. Don't make the same mistake on stage. If your product is truly wild or fantastic, others will say it for you.

2. Don't use a tag line. There are not that many good tag lines out there. And there are many many fewer that don't sound ridiculous when intoned on stage. Here are a few spoken at DEMO this year. You make the call. "If it's not live, it's dead." "Best way to look, book and schedule travel." "Where everybody wins except the spammers" "Al Gore may have created the last Internet. We're building the next one." "We're white. We're bright. We're like ink on paper." They may look fine on a business card or on your website but they don't quite work when spoken. Then again, maybe I should try it -- "Thanks for reading VentureBlog: a random walk down Sand Hill Road." Maybe on a t-shirt but not in conversation.

3. Don't say what you're looking for out of your DEMO. A number of companies ended their presentations at DEMO this year with something to the effect of "and we're looking for investors" or "and we're looking for partners." Trust me, if there are VCs or partners in the audience who are interested in what you are doing, they'll come find you. And the best way to get them to come by is to present your technology in a compelling manner. It's all about the demo and if that goes well everything else will follow -- press, investors, partners. That's the power of DEMO. But stating the obvious only distracts from the compelling nature of any presentation.

4. Don't list your partners unless they are great (and probably even not then). This is just a little thing but it struck me on a couple of occasions during this year's DEMO. If you don't have amazing partners, don't list them. Being the anti-spam solution for Outer Fall River Cub Scout Troupe 34 is just not that compelling. In fact, I would contend that unless the value of your software or service is somehow enhanced by the partnerships you have cut, don't bother. Sure, having a partner like Yahoo! or Google or Disney or IBM may give you some credibility, but it won't make your demo any more compelling. If it isn't about how cool your product or service is, skip it.

5. Don't try to be funny if you aren't funny. I wrote this last year and I stand by it given the examples at DEMO this year. If you aren't a naturally funny person, don't try to do a funny demo. It will be a little bit like a tone deaf person trying to impress by singing their presentation. Which brings me to my final point.

6. Don't sing. Ok, I felt really good about this one until Justin's presentation. As Justin walked up to the microphone and was handed a guitar I thought to myself "note to self, never sing presentation at DEMO." As Justin got a standing ovation I thought to myself "note to self, almost never sing presentation at DEMO." If you have the good fortune of playing guitar, singing well, looking a little like John Mayer and writing a very clever and compelling song about your product then maybe it is worth the risk to sing your presentation. In all other circumstances, don't.

As for Justin's song about Homestead's new QuickSites, it really did deserve the ovation it received. Not because he sang it and not because it was very funny and clever but because in the midst of singing and being clever and funny, he managed to give a really compelling demo of Homestead's latest product. That's what impressed me. Here's a video of the presentation (unfortunately, you won't get the full effect of the song in conjunction with the video but you will certainly get a feel for it). For those of you who'd like to play along at home (maybe we can get Digital Monkey to create a version for use with their In the Chair software) here's the TAB for you:

Ugly Websites or The Day We Launched QuickSites (my title, not Justin's)
(to the tune of American Pie by Don McLean)

A long, long time ago,
G D Em7
I can still remember
Am C
how the Internet used to make me smile.
Em C D
And I knew if I had my chance
G D Em7
that I could make those websites dance
Am C
and maybe they'd be pretty and in style.
Em C D

But as the years went by I shivered
Em Am
At some of the websites we delivered.
Em Am
Blinking text, an-i-mated creatures.
C G-B Am
The backgrounds could cause seizures.
C G-B D

And I can't remember if I cried
G D Em
but eventually I re-a-lized,
Am D
That websites built by untrained eyes,
G D7 Em
Had made me lose my mind. That's why I'm singin' €¦
C D7 G

CHORUS:

So bye, bye to these ugly websites.
G C G D
Let a pro design it for you and then you customize.
G C G D
When our customers see this they will thank us and cry.
G C G D
Singing this will be the day of QuickSites.
Em A7
I can't wait until we launch our QuickSites.
Em D/G

Did you build your own website?
G Am
Or did you pay a sky-high price?
C Am
To have a pro design you one?
Em D
Well do you believe you can have it all?
G Em
A great site design at a price that's small
Am7 C
All without a ten meg software in-stall?
Em A7 D
Well I know you'll find what you're looking for
Em D
Cause there're tons of sites in our QuickSite store
Em D
Dentists, Lawyers, and gyms
C G-B A7
Real Estate, Yoga, museums
C D7
There are a dozen Korean BBQ's
G Em
And sites for selling children's shoes,
Am C
We'll have thousands more if you spread the news
G D Em
The day ugly websites died.
C D7 G C

[VAMP AND DEMO]

CHORUS:

CHORUS:

As much as I enjoyed the song, here's why I think Homestead's demo was the hands down DEMO God winner of 2005: 1) Justin left room for spontaneity, 2) he had fun, 3) he had a backup plan (I don't know this for sure but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt), 4) he didn't praise his own product, 5) he didn't use a tag line, 6) he didn't say what he was looking for, 7) he didn't list his partners, 8) he is naturally funny and therefore could get away with the shtick, and 9) I'm going to cut him a break for singing because he managed to pull it off. But above all else, no matter how much signing and joking there was in Homestead's presentation, 10) Justin's presentation was all about the product. In the end, that's what makes for a compelling demo.

Comments

[Charles Ribaudo]

David,

I am glad to hear you enjoyed reading our blog about how we prepared for DEMO. Great advice on the Dos and Don't of Presenting.

[John Takahonick]

I thought Sisson did a better job recovering than this article indicates. He won a demo-god award for it, so he must have done something right.

[Badri]

Quite interesting to know of the DEMO Conference. I had just posted in my blog about Tips to give powerful demos and can be read at http://blog.nrichsoft.in/2007/02/07/1699-tips-for-giving-powerful-demos/

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