Cornstalks Demo Night photos & takeaways - recaps coming next week

Ben Sinclair presents Uppward at Cornstalks Demo Night. Photo by Danny Schreiber.

Last night’s Cornstalks Demo Night was a success. Why? Because CornFinger‘s Cody Butler tweeted: “One of my goals for 2011 is to have something of value and scalability to present at #prairiedemo nite.”

As I mentioned in our Demo Night announcement post last week, we’re fairly certain that this is the first demo event Omaha has seen in recent years. These events, which are common in more established tech hubs, serve as a platform for startups to launch a new product, show off an iteration of a product or release the latest version or feature. Last night, those who attended and watched the live stream saw startups in each of those categories. In addition, and maybe more importantly, those who attended were able to discuss the demos with others and, if they had the chance, discuss the demo with its presenter.

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Butler’s tweet quoted above illustrates one of the important outcomes of the event. The primary focus of a demo is on the product and the attendees reaction to it – Is the product interesting? Does it solve a problem? Is it easy to use? The secondary focus is on the attendees, themselves. Do they experience an “Oh, I could do that” moment? In Butler’s case, yes. This is a very important outcome and if executed, a measure of success for events such as these.

Now, we’ll need to wait another 364 days for the next Demo Night or hope that Tom Chapman of the Omaha Chamber finds time to organize another one soon (or, of course, another company or organization will step up and hold one). With that in mind, I want to publicly thank Chapman for wrangling up 10 startups, a suitable event space and spreading the word to bring out more than 50 individuals to watch the demos.

Looking ahead to Pitch Night II, here are three good things that happened at Pitch Night I and three items that need improvement:

Good Things

Actual working products – Echoing my thoughts above, I’ve heard some of the ideas presented tonight at their earliest stage. It’s awesome to see the execution has taken place.
“Woah, that was made in Omaha?” moments – I heard this more than once and the answer is “Yes, there are cool startups launching or operating in Omaha.”
“Hey, I think I could help you with that” moments – I also heard this more than once and it will be interesting to see if these conversations lead to any business developments.

Need Improvement

Only live products, no slides (intro slides are tolerable) – Andy Peters put it succinctly on Twitter: “@AndyPeters: Next demo night requirement: NO POWERPOINTS! ONLY SOME WORKING SOFTWARE OF SOME TYPE. It’s not presentation night. #prairiedemo“
Eight-minute hard cutoff – With this being the first demo night, I think Chapman gave a cushion of 2-3 minutes to presenters. Going forward a hard cutoff is needed to keep the pace up and give all startups an equal platform.
Feedback forum – The format followed tonight with 10 startup presenting didn’t have room for a Q&A or a judges panel feedback (although judges were not present tonight), but there needs to be some place to write down feedback for startups. Whether that’s a simple sheet of paper to turn in after the presentation or an online form that presenters receive the results after their demo, there needs to be an easy opportunity for attendees to share their feedback with presenters (not counting one-on-one interactions).

Below are a few more photos I took during the event. (Note: I missed taking photos of the networking receptions before and after the demos took place.) Also, check out the Twitter chatter from the night by searching for the hashtag #prairiedemo.

To learn more about the Demo Night, see our post: “Cornstalks ‘Demo Night’ happening next Thursday, March 31.” Stay tuned next week for videos and recaps of the demos.