Demo Disaster Recovery

In the last little while, I've started getting more opportunities to speak. As a result,  I've experienced for the first time the much talked about and dreaded "demo meltdown". Two days in a row no less! Fortunately, the presentations went extremely well despite the technical issues.

Issues ranged from Active Directory authentication problems, slow (to non responsive) VPC sessions, Internet dependent demos in rooms with no Internet or dial up access, code that just stops compiling or rendering on
your system (even though it worked the day before!), missing projectors and cabling, ect. Pretty amazing.

Which leads to the question - why do demos fail? It's easy to blame the computer or the technology. But having pondered it a bit, I think there is definitely a human element to the problem.

Here are a few demo disaster recovery strategies I've figured out:

• Prepare weeks in advance, test the demos on a daily basis and make sure you don't make any significant changes to your presentation computer (ie install/uninstall software, ect)
• Create canned demos using screenshots and/or interactive Macromedia presentations
• Store your presentation and code on an external USB Key in case your laptop decides to go south minutes before you present.
• Prepare several backup demos in case one fails. Then you can fall down the stairs and still end up landing on your feet
• Don't rely on slides or demos. Be prepared to stand in front of a crowd and speak. Don Box advocated this approach on his Channel9 video on technical presentations.

Obviously, the key concepts around these strategies is pre-planning and organization. If anyone has other ideas or thoughts, be sure to post them.