A colleague forwarded me this link to a recent video-recorded demo – it is about 10 minutes in length – and has some wonderful examples of good practices and classic demo challenges:
[You might watch it first before reading my observations…]
Observations – What I Liked:
– Very engaging style and personable.
– Cool to see him writing code in front of the audience.
– Very cool to engage the audience (on both the “call the number” and “it is calling you…” segments).
– Clever set-up (“Turn your ringers on…”).
– Great interaction with audience.
– He is clearly enthusiastic and in love with his technology.
Observations – What Could Have Been Better:
– VERY interesting to hear audience question, “Why do you need it?”…! This is a fine demo for Early Adopters (most likely much of the audience in the video), but would be a failure for everyone else. In the demo portion, the presenter never explained what applications his app could be used for!
– Should have increased his session time-out time so that he didn’t have to log in again…
– Should have used a 518 number at first (rather than finding that there were no 212 or 646 numbers available…).
– Should have tested his AT&T connection and/or used another phone that did work.
– He noted that a pile of apps are available (~85) but didn’t cite what any of them do…
The moderator, at the end, asked for an example of a use-scenario for the application – and the presenter finally offered one brief example (voting by phone).
In summary, a wonderful demo for technical early adopters but, potentially, a failure for most others. Comments?
