What Makes a Great Demo?

Iotum
Alec Saunders
Howard Thaw
DEMOgod winner (DEMO 2006 in Phoenix)

venue: DEMO'06
running for 16 years

100's of company audition
60-70 companies actually get in

first ever canadian demo god winner (10 winners total)
25% vc's, 25% press, rest business development people

lots of cell phones for the demo
no slides allowed
only 6 minutes!

demo:
lots of things vying for your attention
telephone interrupts
iotum prioritizes your phonecalls

(takes call from wife)
average office worker is interrupted every three minutes

sets instant message status to busy
(next call from wife goes right to voice mail)

iotum also works through Outlook calendar
warren buffet calls in the middle of interview with walt mossberg
-- call to office phone goes to cell because he's out
-- interrupts interview because he's a VIP

setup
work, home, in between numbers
contacts: organize by category, group
avoiding interruptions: certain times
some calls are more important than others: ie. co-workers

conference calls (ie. while driving)
bridge number, PIN number problems
waiting for other people to get on
setup conference call through Outlook (iotum plugin?)
then the phone knows the bridge number, etc automatically

"power of relevance and communications"

-- end of demo --

architecture of a great demo
- hook (problem), positioning statement, prove (many), close

hook: state the problem (concise), engage the audience quickly
positioning statement: "my product does this for customer X", "it helps you..."
it's about the product: show as much as you can ... 0:30 to 5:15 in time (majority)
-- obv. show the product as much as you can
methodology: "awesome, awesome, doesn't suck"
-- good stuff with no drawbacks
-- can change the order to get a wow effect at the end
closing statement: memorable
-- "that really is the power of relevance in communications"

what can go wrong? pitfalls
trying to be too funny (terrorist sketch... yikes)
-- it can distract your audience from your message
-- don't overpower your presentation
it's not about you or your company, it's all about the product
-- car audio equipment: talked about the market too much before the wow factor
timing is critical: short period to position, pick up after a stumble,
-- practise should be less than the max time, spoke slower on stage; nerves
listen to your advisors (demo advisors)
-- crafting the hook is difficult (speed to cool: how quickly can you get to the cool stuff?)
-- a networked guy lead to demo experts

practice, practice, practice
-- 30 days, 3-5 times a day for iotum
-- even then, was still making mistakes and fine-tuning up to the day before

nothing could possibly go wrong, right?
-- beaver trapped by his own tree

for DEMO06: had to write a script
-- audio and video crew needed to know the cues
-- 90 minutes for a technical walkthrough before
-- one can't underestimate how difficult

wore shirts with big logos
-- felt: you were being judged the moment they arrived, not just the demo
-- met people at the booth afterwards: judges, press, vc's
-- hook people to talk to you after the demo

-- Questions --
Q: how much did it cost?
A: 20k to enter, 50k total from start to finish
-- unanticipated expenses: advisors, extra cell phones
-- monitors for your booth
-- bought monitors and returned them to save money :)
-- probably the best spent money for a startup
-- critical mass of important people in one place

Q: What would you do differently?
A: coordinate marketing releases after the demo
-- broader takeup of the product afterwards
-- wanted to give everyone access to a sample iotum account

Q: Where did you get the idea to go to the conference?
A: Some VC people they knew pushed it as a maximum exposure venue
VC won them over: convinced them it was worth the expensive price
Better exposure than typical conferences
-- it's hard to stand out there, especially over companies with huge budgets
-- competing on a level playing field
Press attention is important
DEMO: shroud of secrecy over the conference
-- only emerging technologies
-- stuff that's never been demo'd

Q: What's the qualification process?
A: Applications in October for Feb conference
-- auditions in November
-- you pay when you are accepted
-- audition the product, not necessarily the script
-- iotum: business plan and live meeting session
-- iotum built new things just for the demo (stuff they hadn't

judges looking for: cool technology, well executed demo, clear pitch

Q: how would DEMO experience help typical demos?
A: don't show slides
-- move demo up early
-- hook them early
-- make sure demo is kickass, positions (awesome, awesome, doesn't suck), prove

Q: going to email?
A: no, iotum is concentrating on cell
-- email is a different problem