Congrats Shel on a bevy of DemoGod awards

February 9, 2006 By

Congrats to my co-author Shel Israel for helping three companies bring home DemoGod awards. What’s funny is that a week ago Shel was telling me he was preparing for his worst Demo Conference ever. Seems that one of his companies (that won a prestigious DemoGod) had technology that just wasn’t working out. They got their act together (it worked for the first time hours before Demo). I love that!

It reminds me of when I was on TechTV (a live TV show) and was showing NetMeeting to the world for the first time (way before I was a Microsoft employee). We couldn’t make the network work, which is pretty much a requirement for VoIP technology (NetMeeting was the Skype of 1995). It literally started working 50 seconds before airtime. I recently went back and watched the tape and I had a huge smile on my face. What a relief!

Anyway, congrats to all the companies who won DemoGod awards. Giving a good Demo is hard. I’m gonna try to do one tomorrow at MooseCamp (part of the Northern Voice conference).

Filed Under: Blog Tips, entrepreneurs
  • http://www.damnralph.com/ Ralph

    Oh man Netmeeting was such a productivity killer in my office … my co-workers would collaborate on paint drawings that depicted me in embarrassing situations.

    One of the idiots has it hung up on his wall to this day.

  • http://www.damnralph.com Ralph

    Oh man Netmeeting was such a productivity killer in my office … my co-workers would collaborate on paint drawings that depicted me in embarrassing situations.

    One of the idiots has it hung up on his wall to this day.

  • Christopher Coulter

    iodum – “the Web 2.0 personal call management system”. I really don’t even need to add much more than that; damning praise that. What exactly is Web 2.0 anyways? Someone hand me the Steve Gillmor to English Dictionary please. More like use iodum, need imodium. What’s with the return of tech-cutesy 1999-era names anyways?
    Panoratio Database Images – Wow, another one, with more promises “to bring supercomputer powers to laptop computers”…they have been around too, with customers and all, run out of money? Need more cash infusion? What’s with the Demo trend of non-start-ups? So Demo will become companies with “long-histories-that-you-never-heard-of-that-went-nowhere-and-are-out-of-cash-but-look-so-much-like-start-ups”? Impressive Management Bios, always a doomed tip-off, when the Bios are overshadowing the product, as to say “we are smart”, just “trust us”. Yeah, well see, there was this thing called the dot.com crash, you know. All those impressive Bio pages went the Wayback way. Plus the Flash website and pre-fab stock photography look, so very 1998.
    Kosmix – YetanotherGooglekillerblahblah. “better in many ways than Google.” Is that a Web 2.0 pick-up line? We are better then Google, wanta come back to my place for drinks?
    FrontPorch – “a seven-year-old security company” So why they at Demo? I thought Demo was for “start-ups”?? They run outta cash? You were out of the room, yet going on “telephone-games” hearsay word-of-mouth?
    SproutIt Systems – “Email management software system”, umm yeah, so? Lots of established low to middle-tier competitors, what’s so jazzing about this upstart? Blogs? Web 2.0? Oh you mean they do “form letter replies which can be customized”. And to think people were doing this in Wordperfect DOS days. Silly them.
    Network Streaming, Inc. – “Claims…affordable tech support…over the Internet.” Geee, never heard that line before. And “claims”, and “delivers” are two differing things. Yet another supposedly established-company posing as a start-up for raw venture cash?
    VSee Lab – Now you Vsee it, now you don’t. Pointy-head (and seemingly arrogant) academics playing video conferencing and ‘sharing systems’ to the masses games. With a pile of total spaghetti-theoretical-mumbo-jumbo code. Lab is right, seems just a raw framework. Much like the mumbling Microsoft R&D, takes years upon years for anything of value to be translated into a mainstream product.

    You know what’s sad, they say 1,500 applied and only 70 accepted, I guess sorta like McDonalds, billions and billions served, maybe 10,000 digested. Guess I got some work to do with the 1,430 left.

  • Christopher Coulter

    iodum – “the Web 2.0 personal call management system”. I really don’t even need to add much more than that; damning praise that. What exactly is Web 2.0 anyways? Someone hand me the Steve Gillmor to English Dictionary please. More like use iodum, need imodium. What’s with the return of tech-cutesy 1999-era names anyways?
    Panoratio Database Images – Wow, another one, with more promises “to bring supercomputer powers to laptop computers”…they have been around too, with customers and all, run out of money? Need more cash infusion? What’s with the Demo trend of non-start-ups? So Demo will become companies with “long-histories-that-you-never-heard-of-that-went-nowhere-and-are-out-of-cash-but-look-so-much-like-start-ups”? Impressive Management Bios, always a doomed tip-off, when the Bios are overshadowing the product, as to say “we are smart”, just “trust us”. Yeah, well see, there was this thing called the dot.com crash, you know. All those impressive Bio pages went the Wayback way. Plus the Flash website and pre-fab stock photography look, so very 1998.
    Kosmix – YetanotherGooglekillerblahblah. “better in many ways than Google.” Is that a Web 2.0 pick-up line? We are better then Google, wanta come back to my place for drinks?
    FrontPorch – “a seven-year-old security company” So why they at Demo? I thought Demo was for “start-ups”?? They run outta cash? You were out of the room, yet going on “telephone-games” hearsay word-of-mouth?
    SproutIt Systems – “Email management software system”, umm yeah, so? Lots of established low to middle-tier competitors, what’s so jazzing about this upstart? Blogs? Web 2.0? Oh you mean they do “form letter replies which can be customized”. And to think people were doing this in Wordperfect DOS days. Silly them.
    Network Streaming, Inc. – “Claims…affordable tech support…over the Internet.” Geee, never heard that line before. And “claims”, and “delivers” are two differing things. Yet another supposedly established-company posing as a start-up for raw venture cash?
    VSee Lab – Now you Vsee it, now you don’t. Pointy-head (and seemingly arrogant) academics playing video conferencing and ‘sharing systems’ to the masses games. With a pile of total spaghetti-theoretical-mumbo-jumbo code. Lab is right, seems just a raw framework. Much like the mumbling Microsoft R&D, takes years upon years for anything of value to be translated into a mainstream product.

    You know what’s sad, they say 1,500 applied and only 70 accepted, I guess sorta like McDonalds, billions and billions served, maybe 10,000 digested. Guess I got some work to do with the 1,430 left.

  • http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com/ Jack Krupansky

    It certainly would be interesting to rummage through the “long tail” of DEMO applicants. After all, who says that DEMO God is a measure of product/service quality?

    – Jack Krupansky

  • http://jackkonblog.blogspot.com Jack Krupansky

    It certainly would be interesting to rummage through the “long tail” of DEMO applicants. After all, who says that DEMO God is a measure of product/service quality?

    – Jack Krupansky

  • http://www.cybernetnews.com/ Ryan

    Reminds me when Longhorn crashed when it was demonstrated at one of the first showings of it.
    ———-
    -Ryan
    CyberNet Technology News
    http://www.cybernetnews.com

  • http://www.cybernetnews.com Ryan

    Reminds me when Longhorn crashed when it was demonstrated at one of the first showings of it.
    ———-
    -Ryan
    CyberNet Technology News
    http://www.cybernetnews.com

  • Mike Sanlon

    Were you on with Leo LaPorte? What do you think of Leo’s recent Mac bias?

  • Mike Sanlon

    Were you on with Leo LaPorte? What do you think of Leo’s recent Mac bias?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Mike: I used to help run Leo’s chat room. He’s always been biased. Heck, he used to push Linux.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Mike: I used to help run Leo’s chat room. He’s always been biased. Heck, he used to push Linux.