[photopress:IT_demo_conference.jpg,full,alignright]The Demo conference is an odd creature — sort of trial by fire as used on witches — which has the useful purpose of letting potential producers see what is available.
The American, the original, version of Demo helped launch the first Palm Pilot and the TiVo digital video recorder amongst other, equally important but less populist, technologies.
Demo China, now in its second year, is trying hard to follow in the footsteps of the original Demo in the United States.
This Damo has had candidates pitching a video sharing site, an online real estate service, and a 3D online world modeled after the real world among a dozen or so others. OK, so they are not totally original but taking an idea and improving on it was ever a part of technology. Anyone who thinks that Microsoft invented Windows or the spreadsheet or PowerPoint or, indeed, the original MS-Dos is some way away from reality.
In the tradition created by the original Demo, each company had six minutes to make their presentation. After which the stage lights would blink and shut off to signal the end. (In vaudeville days the comic was pulled off the stage with a hook. Perhaps this would have been considered too harsh.)
A panel of evaluators, most of them venture capitalists, then offered feedback and asked questions. Tough questions trying to find the problems and possibilities.
Source: SF Gate
