Canting my head east and listening intently to sounds coming across the San Gregorio Mountains to my east, I can imagine the faint sounds of stages being assembled and trusses going up for Demo 2010, which kicks off Monday in Palm Desert at the JW Marriott Resort.
My favorite day at Demo has always been the day right before the show opens. It’s when you get to see entrepreneurs polishing their presentations and working out the last kinks in their on-stage demonstrations.
I’ve always identified with on-stage presenters. All have worked very hard to get to the point where they’re ready to mount the stage and show their stuff. Yet, there’s always the potential of something unplanned happening.
While there are some signs the economy is getting stronger, its specter looms over each of the several score demonstrators and alpha stage execs, pitching their ideas at Demo 2010.
Over the years I’ve seen demonstrators sweat out their presentations. Some have mistakenly tried to use humorous sketches to launch their companies, and others have sometimes honestly believed they were so unique had “no competition.” But the real success stories I’ve seen are those companies that used their onstage time to define their product, it’s market and how they hope to fit in.
If there’s one things I’d love to see at Demo it’s this: companies who can get beyond the “gee whiz, We’re cool” phase and us the opening moments of their pitches to quantify their technology and opportunity.
Nothing gets a Demo audience’s attention quite like an entrepreneur who addresses every one as if they were a risk capital provider with an obvious case of ADD. Every moment of an onstage presentation is precious. The demonstrators I remember most vividly are those that quickly explained their product, its place and relationship to the market and provided the “color” they needed to turn their story into a business proposition. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen of this was a small Dana Point, CA startup called Digital Transit. The entrepreneurs behind this company understood that cell phone companies would need to update handset operating system software and that any updating software needed to work reliably and in the background. This small company remains a foot note to my experience producing Demo events, but its presentation was so good, that after only 90 seconds, I understood the size, scope and opportunities for the technology. I wasn’t alone in this understanding. The company was acquired at Demo and was later a key part of the reason HP bought the acquiring company.
The dark flip side of this story is a pitch that included an on-stage explosion that caught me and our audience by surprise. I don’t remember the product or its market but I remember the date of the on-stage explosion, September 10, 2001.
If there’s one piece of advice I can suggest to any company at Demo2010 it’s this: teat every product demonstration – whether it’s on stage or in the Demonstrator’s Pavilion as a chance to get financing. Show the audience for such demonstrations that you understand your market and that you can drive it into a profitable niche.
Finally, although most demonstrators focus their attention on on-stage presentations much of the magic that happens at Demo occurs, I believe, in the Demonstrators Pavilion. And if there’s one thing I learned in my years as a Demo event producer it’s that anyone who demonstrates a product in the Pavilion should be able to provide the same solid market information and value proposition pitch that was shown on stage.
I’m excited about Demo 2010 and its cast of entrepreneurs. I’ll be on-site in the morning and will begin posting on Demo 2010 companies bright and early Monday morning. Jim Forbes, March, 20. 2010.
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