In part 2 of this series, I described a scenario with Google Docs focusing on collaboration. Recall that there were two demoers!

Collaboration

If you’re showing collaboration, you need two demoers! Don’t try to fake it; that’s confusing and counterproductive. If possible, set up the scenarios so that you don’t have to switch between screens, such as the scenario I gave — where the other demoer is doing most of the work and it’s showing up on my screen, the screen that’s projected.

If you do need to go back and forth between computers, make a production of it! If you only do it once during the demo, unplug the external monitor cable from one machine and plug it into the other. If you have a monitor switcher, be very visible in switching it. In addition, make sure the two machines are set up on different color schemes (or one’s a PC and the other’s a Mac, say).

In other words, leave no doubt in the audience’s mind which machine they’re looking at.

If for some reason you don’t have the second demoer, at least have two machines side by side. You can’t type on both at once, but you can go back and forth between them and gain many of the benefits of two presenters. Again, make clear which machine is which.

One possibility here — and this is theoretical; I’ve never tried it — is to ask one of the viewers to use the other machine if you’re doing something simple. For example, “Now why don’t you change the sales figures in the cell I’ve highlighted in red, and you’ll see the numbers change on my screen in a second or two.”

Communication and Networking

If you’re showing a client/server app or any networked system that requires two computers, use two computers!

Laptops are inexpensive, and some are quite lightweight. Don’t confuse the customers and other viewers, or leave any room for doubt that your software does what you claim it does.

Even better, at one point in a late stage of the demo, ostentatiously remove the network cable. (Yes, use a cable, not wireless, both for robustness and so that you can hold it up to point out what’s happening.) Demonstrate how your software recovers gracefully from a network interruption.

Incidentally, if you don’t do this and I’m watching the demo, I will do it for you. I will literally pull your network cable, or at least start to do so while watching your face for a reaction. Amazing what I can glean by doing this!

Server Load

Don’t ever run Exchange, SQL Server, and such on your client demo machine. These programs, as outstanding as they are, take a lot of cycles, and your software can appear slow. You should never have to make excuses during a demo… and I won’t believe performance excuses anyway. Put your server stuff on another computer, even if that requires bringing three laptops! They’re still not that heavy, compared to the 17-pound wonders I used to have to carry in the mid-90s for demos.

And yes, I carried two of them when I was demoing client/software server, such as Internet Explorer plus IIS back in the early days when Microsoft was trying to make a dent in Netscape’s market. I still have nightmares about one late-night transfer in the Minneapolis airport, with nearly a mile between the gates, no moving sidewalks, and sweating in my (only) suit.