How to do a great demo!

Whether it's a live event or a pre-recorded video, there are a few tricks one cannot avoid to make a great demo. Let's have a look at this!

1. Set the stage right

• be careful of your appearance: hands, body,... make sure you're looking good and at ease!

• before the demo you have to know what you want to show and to say :
  • check the pitching kits & key messages made available by the PR/marketing team : what are you going to say?
  • target your audience in order to be relevant and to properly match their expectations : who are you talking to?
  • script your demo : how are you going to say it?

• prepare a reactive FAQ: an FAQ may have already been prepared by the PR team so check for it; present your demo to friends and listen to their questions, and imagine the questions you'd ask yourself if you were in the audience!

• organize repetitions and ensure yourself hardware, software, devices,... are properly functional ahead of your live demo :)

2. Own the stage

• do not improvise :)

• speak slowly and clearly, and adopt a dynamic tone of voice to captivate your audience!

• ensure yourself everybody actually follows what you're saying, especially in a live demo

• there probably will be unexpectedness : comments, questions, a device that's not properly functional, wifi, etc: stay calm, the show must go on!

• don't get caught up in an interview by a journalist, or even by the audience