

How to Be a Demo God (2006) - statenjason
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/how_to_be_a_dem.html

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jakevoytko
Relentlessly practicing your demo gives you some of these for free.

 _Bring two of everything_. If something is destined to break, you increase
your odds that it happens during a dry run, and _not_ during the demo. Bonus
points: you already know how your demo behaves when it fails. Avoid the
stuttering "oh, it should have done X. This isn't working." Since you already
have two of everything, keep practicing and overnight the new replacement.

 _Reduce the factors you can't control_. Since you already found a way to
practice with the projector you will use, you already know how it works, and
you know how your Demo looks on-screen. Take that time to make adjustments.

 _Get organized in advance_. When doing something over and over again, your
natural optimization instincts will kick in. What started as three shells,
four open browser windows, and a slideshow will turn into a browser window,
and a backup script for running locally.

Also, be familiar with your format, and break these rules as needed. For
instance, some demos require assistants who aren't directly running the demo,
but act as third parties or perform safety checks (think robotics demos).

