This week, the 72 companies selected to launch products at DEMOfall 08 are conferencing with our expert audio/visual team. This is the first review of their six-minute demonstration scripts, designed to suss out any outrageous and ineffective presentation ideas, identify unusual staging requirements, and generally help the presenters get comfortable with the DEMO stage routine.
The single most frequently-asked question, during these one-on-one calls, is this: How do I get a DEMOgod award?
The DEMO conference has been giving DEMOgod awards almost from the very start. The award honors those companies that do an outstanding job presenting their companies on stage, to be sure. But, there’s more to the award than that six-minute performance.
So, of the 72 companies, how will we select the eight or nine DEMOgods? It’s not an easy task.
We do look to the on-stage demonstration.Is it crisp and on time? Dare to go on longer than the six minute timer and you’ll not find yourself on the winner’s podium during the closing celebration. Beyond timing, we’re also looking for presenters who connect with the audience and leave them wanting more. That, after all, is the point of the six-minute demo – incite audience members to spend 60 minutes with you during the showcase hours. If you can take a complex product and make its value clear to an audience of 700, and do so with enthusiasm, passion for the product, and maybe a bit of humor and humility, then you’re on track to a DEMOgod trophy.
An entire conference can’t be condensed into six minutes on stage, however. So we pay close attention to companies before and during the conference. There are a lot of moving parts to the DEMO show, 72 companies who all need our careful attention. Miss a call, a rehearsal, a deadline, or a meeting, and you compromise not just your own DEMO experience, but potentially that of the other 71 companies. So we pay attention to how well a company’s people follow direction.
Turns out, we have an expert staff supporting our demonstrating companies, the most “inexperienced” of whom has worked no fewer than five DEMO conferences. These people know what they are doing and they are here for one purpose: to make each company look great and each product launch a tremendous success. You can imagine that it can get a little irritating when an admittedly Nervous Nelly decides to cop an attitude. Not that you’d ever know it. Our team treats each and every participant with the upmost professionalism, even if that treatment is not reciprocated. But suffice to say that bad behavior is noted, and bad actors aren’t DEMOgods.
No doubt, the six minutes on stage are the most enduring. The video of each presentation lives on at the DEMO.com site, watched by hundreds of thousands in the days, weeks and months following the conference. The real business of the event, though, takes place in the pavilion. It amazes me that companies will leave their station unstaffed or even pack up early before the conference is officially closed. I’ve watched in disbelief as a reporter from a national daily stood before an empty station, wanting to speak with a company that choose to hit the road early. At least that company didn’t have to worry about picking up a DEMOgod award; we don’t give them to companies that diss attendees by ducking out of the pavilion.
DEMO is unlike any other conference in that it is a community. Each conference hosts a “class” of companies that share their launch experience. As in any class, good citizenship counts. And it’s not unheard of to honor the helpful, came-to-the-rescue classmate who steps up to support his fellow demonstrators.
So, if you want to be a DEMOgod, you need to deliver a killer demonstration. Follow the rules. Comport yourself in the spirit of the DEMO conference. And – this is the tricky part – relax and have a little fun.
