Yesterday was a busy day at DEMO. It was the final day of setup — there was a mandatory exhibitors meeting to attend, rehearsals, booth setup, and a mixer event in the evening. I did a couple of press interviews as well.
At the moment, we’re feeling pretty good about the demo. It’s gotten very tight. We’re consistently coming in at about 5:30, which leaves us 30 seconds to recover from errors if needed. Cellular and internet gods willing, we won’t.
A lot of folks have forwarded me Guy Kawasaki’s piece on How to Be a DEMO God. There’s a lot of good advice in that piece, but I have to admit that when I read it my first thought was "oh no". And then, when Cara Garretson posted a link to Guy’s piece on the DEMO Letter blog, I thought "what are they telling me?". Why the panic? We have two people on stage doing the demo. We’re NOT bringing servers and we’re not faking out the network access. We’re flying live. I suspect that’s what you’ll see from a lot of other presenters, based on what I’ve seen so far. What you’re going to see with us is actual product.
Most of all, though, I think that’s what should be happening. If the product is the star of the show, then why bring a simulation?
The show begins today, with breakfast in about 15 minutes. And tomorrow, at 9:58 in the morning, we’ll show the world what we’ve been working on. Until then, unless you’re at the show and can stop by the demonstrators pavilion for an early peek, you’re going to have to be content with Susan Gittlen’s short piece at the end of this Network World article.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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