Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Kevin Merritt
Last week blist launched at DEMO 08. While we’ve had a little publicity before, it was truly our launch event. While still fresh in my mind, I thought it might be fun to take you behind the scenes.
I’ve known about DEMO for years and consider it a great launch event for Internet companies. The timing was a little aggressive for blist. All things being equal, we’d rather have launched in April than January, but DEMO is too good an event to pass up. Presenting at DEMO requires passing through a selection process. It also helps to have an introduction. Fortunately blist advisor Bill Bryant has advised companies who’ve presented at DEMO in the past. He introduced us to DEMO organizer, Chris Shipley. A few weeks later when I was in the bay area I gave Chris a DEMO of blist and shortly thereafter we were officially invited to present.
DEMO is a well oiled conference. By that I mean they’ve been doing it for 18 years and it shows. Between being selected and presenting on stage, they keep you very well informed. We received on average 3 emails per week from the DEMO organizers. These lengthy emails had logistics info, deadlines for scripts, rehearsals, etc. The DEMO event is a two-day conference on a Tuesday and Wednesday, but you’re required to show up on Sunday for rehearsal. On Monday there are meetings, setting up your booth and of course, lots of time to practice your 6-minute presentation.
I watched a lot of videos of past DEMO presenters in order to choose a presentation style that works for me. Four ideas emerged: 1) I didn’t want to try to be funny even though I’m a total ham and love to joke around; 2) Reducing the number of variables seemed like a smart idea, so I decided to present solo even though most companies have at least two presenters; 3) I wanted to spend the majority of the presentation conducting an actual, live demo of our application; 4) We couldn’t show every nook and cranny of our software so we’d do best by picking three main ideas we wanted to convey.
About a month before DEMO our engineering team switched from focusing on feature development to bug bashing. While the application is never as feature rich as you want, what you have needs to be stable. I’m super proud of the effort and results of the team leading up to DEMO.
About two weeks before DEMO I really started to think and agonize about the presentation. I felt behind schedule. Matt Johnson, our Online Marketing Director, and I worked first on a story board, then finally on the script. About a week before DEMO I began to commit a lot of time to hone the script and rehearse it. Our presentation ended up being about 25 seconds of introduction, 5 minutes of live demo and another 20 seconds of wrap up. By Saturday before DEMO I felt like I knew the routine really well.
On Sunday January 27, four of us from blist flew from Seattle to Palm Desert. In addtion to Matt and me, two engineers joined us. Bringing the engineers was in recognition that they had worked hard to get us here and they should get to partake in our launch party too. Bad weather in Palm Desert complicated our travels and we ended up diverting to Ontario and driving a mini-van out to the desert.
When we entered the conference auditorium, we were totally impressed. They had done such an awesome job. The emcee was himself rehearsing and for 20 minutes I kept hearing “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome DEMO executive producer, Chris Shipley.” The 10-person stage crew was practicing a little dance routine that was part of the opening act of the conference.
Our rehearsal was scheduled for 3:30, but when we arrived at 2:00 they asked if we could go early because so many other presenting companies were delayed by the weather. We agreed. They miked me up and I gave my 6-minute presentation with full audio blasted into a mostly vacant auditorium and with my mug projected on two 50-foot screens at either side of the stage. The rehearsal went well. One of our engineers, Paul, even commented “If Kevin can just do that on Tuesday, I’ll take it.” I took that as the troops vote of confidence in their leader. I felt slightly relieved.
I spent most of Monday rehearsing in my room. I was torn between not knowing for sure if I had the script down pat and being fatigued from running through it so many times. In mid afternoon I did a dry run for 4 or 5 folks in my room. Some changes were suggested. I vetoed them on the grounds that I knew this script pretty well and I didn’t want to introduce anything new that might botch me up.
The first company presentation was scheduled for about 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Our slot was 2:38 p.m., just after lunch. I would have been happy to go in slot 1. Like ripping a band-aid off, sometimes you just want to get it over with so you can focus on what comes after the presentation.
Tuesday morning came and so did the butterflies in my stomach. I attended the opening of the conference. It was a terrific show, well choreographed, professional and polished. After Chris Shipley’s keynote, I watched two or three company presentations, then out of anxiety decided I’d better go back to my room and rehearse some more.
Every presenting company had a booth in the pavilion, which is akin to a more traditional trade show floor, except every company’s booth is equally small and with stock signage. Presenting companies can’t bring their own signage or any giveaway promotional items. It’s truly a level playing field. I was to report to the “green room” at 2:10. I showed up at the sign in table at 2:00 and found the backstage area to be a fish tank of nervous CEOs. Some of them handled the anxiety by joking around. Others, like me, were quietly rehearsing one last time. At about 2:25 the green room door opened and a woman called for blist. Show Time! There was one company on stage and one in the green room ahead of me. The technicians wired me up with a microphone and shot some quick video footage. They said I looked great. At 2:34 another technician walked me right behind the stage. I literally stood on a masking tape X. To calm my nerves I whispered some small talk with the technician. He mentioned something funny and I laughed a deep, loud belly laugh and wondered if the presenters or the audience heard me.
The company before me finished and the bumper music played. From the opposite curtain Chris Shipley went out on stage to introduce blist. I hadn’t read or heard how she was going to introduce us. When I heard it live and for the first time, I smiled and felt honored to be introduced so positively. I felt like Chris grasped a core part of our message – that like Visio and PowerPoint before us – we want to democratize a function that today is too hard for mainstream users.
Chris finished her 30 second introduction and the technician gave me a gentle shove toward the stage. The only thing on my mind at that point was to not trip on the stairs and tumble out onto the stage. I walked up to steps to the podium where my laptop was waiting. I paused for a second or two, located the main camera and stared directly into in and began my introduction. The intro went great. The demo went great. The closing went great. I walked off the stage and felt an enormous sense of relief and satisfaction.
For the rest of the conference I was loose and thoroughly enjoyed meeting reporters and journalists, other entrepreneurs and investors at our booth. There was genuine camaraderie among the presenting companies. The press coverage and publicity from the event has been phenomenal. People are signing up for blist in droves and it’s great to receive their early feedback.
In case you missed our presentation, you can watch it here.
Of course, you can sign up for blist at http://www.blist.com as well.
DEMO greatly helped us launch blist and will provide us with fond memories for a long time to come. I highly recommend participating if the opportunity presents itself.
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Kevin Merritt is the Founder and CEO of blist. Check blist blog out as well.
