Scott Rocketship

Help Me Solve DeMo’s Presenter Problem

If you’re not familiar with DeMo, read about it here, first.

I’ve been running DeMo for several months now with varying levels of success. With a full house and a slate of energetic presenters, it goes great. There’s one little problem: I’m having a hell of a time getting people to present. I don’t know why. I need your help.

I’m looking for whatever insights and opinions you can offer to see if this event is worth saving. I want to reach a point where people just ping me on Twitter, chat or text and say “Hey, I’ll take a slot, see you Tuesday.” That’s not even close to happening. Last month involved a lot of cajoling, arm-twisting, and even a little begging.

In a recent Juice article that talks about DeMo, I offer up advice for people starting a new project and seeking feedback to first give themselves a thorough critique and dressing down, thinking through possible problems. I’ll try and eat my own dogfood here with possible problems I’ve been able to think of:

1. People don’t get it. I’m on variation five or six of my elevator pitch by now. I must have really screwed the pooch early on in explaining this to people. Maybe the name is bad? No idea at this point. Here’s the bare skeleton of my pitch: Present a thing. Tell us what about the thing you want feedback on. We’ll give feedback on the thing. It is very easy. It is very helpful.
2. The time still doesn’t work. Possible, but seems unlikely at this point. Getting butts in seats hasn’t been too hard, getting presenters has been.
3. People are afraid to share. Their thing “isn’t quite ready” or they think they have to keep it secret until it’s 99% done. Getting people out of this mindset is the point of DeMo. I may need help solving this if people think it’s a problem still.
4. People think I’m an asshole and will be a jerk about their stuff. I’m not, and I won’t be.
5. People don’t care. They feel they get an adequate amount of feedback from the network and team they already have. I worry this might be the real problem. I hope to gosh it’s not. Personally, I would leap at the opportunity to have some of Des Moines’ best and brightest giving me feedback, for free, on a regular basis in a low-pressure environment. I struggle each month not to fill up an hour with my own stuff I want feedback on. Educating a potential audience on the value of feedback before I even get them in the door might be more than I’m ready to handle for something like this.
6. It’s too often OR people don’t have anything to show off. “I don’t have anything to DeMo” is something I hear a lot. It’s totally not true (have you done anything in the last month? yeah? gotten all the feedback you need on it?) but it’s a struggle to get folks to realize that. I need help.
7. The focus is too broad. Developers want to talk to developers, designers want to talk to designers, artists want to talk to artists. Maybe? Hard to say. Recurring events targeted at a more specific subset seem to have more success, and have been more successful for me in the past. Perhaps I am too idealistic about creating a big feedback melting pot.
8. Something else I’m not seeing…

What’s keeping you from presenting at DeMo? I really need to hear from you. If it’s all still crickets come Monday, I will probably call off the event, and may decide to pass the torch or just put a kibosh on the whole thing. I hate to do it but booking for DeMo is unfortunately starting to eat up way too much of my attention.

Ping me on Twitter at @scottrocketship or write me at scott@scottkubie.com. Thanks.

Chuck Grassley PIPA/SOPA Form Letter Response

Sent in comments a couple weeks back urging Iowa’s senators to publicly voice opposition to SOPA and PIPA. Got a form email back from Grassley today. Not too exciting; posting for posterity. You can read a lot more interesting malarky from Grassley, a co-sponsor of PIPA, in this collection of press releases. He honest-to-goodness rolled out some FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about tainted toothpaste. What a laugh.

My comments in italics.

———-

Thank you for taking the time to contact me.  As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you.

Thank you for taking the time to have an intern send me a form letter.

In your correspondence you expressed concerns with H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  H.R. 3261 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Lamar Smith on October 26, 2011 and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.  A hearing was held on SOPA on November 16, 2011, and the expectations are for it to be considered and marked up this winter in committee.

Yeah, got it, thanks.

In your correspondence, you also expressed concerns with S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP Act).   This legislation aims to crack down on rogue internet websites that are dedicated to the sale of infringing or counterfeit goods.  It will provide law enforcement with additional tools to stop websites that engage in the online distribution and sale of pirated content and counterfeit goods.

I bet he feels like a bad-ass every time he gets to say “crack down on rogue internet websites”.

Protecting intellectual property rights is crucial to promoting innovation, creating jobs, and advancing economic growth.  The Senate Judiciary Committee passed S. 968 by voice vote on May 26, 2011. S. 968 now needs to be considered on the Senate floor. It is expected that further changes will be made to this legislation. Rest assured, I will keep your views in mind as we proceed on this bill.

Protecting the free flow of information and not bothering America’s innovators and job creators with bullshit requests from the Attorney General is even more important to economic growth. 

I have a strong doubt you have even read my views, let alone will be keeping them in mind, but thanks for the thought.

Again, I appreciate your input.  Please keep in touch!

I’d like to, but you’re not really talking to me! Perhaps I’ll grab your your ear the next time you pop in somewhere like Thinc Iowa for a photo op, a conference full of innovators and job creators that, on average, are strongly against SOPA and PIPA. I did see you there, didn’t I?

Sincerely,

Chuck

***Please note that this account is not monitored for incoming mail.  If you would like to reach me via email please visit my website at http://grassley.senate.gov/ and click on “Contact”.  Thank you.***

*sigh*

The Next DeMo Des Moines is on January 17th

DeMo returns to Startup City Des Moines on Tuesday, January 17 at 4 p.m. It’s in the Bank of America Building on the 5th floor, downtown. You can enter from the street or the skywalk.

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WHAT THE FIRETRUCK IS IT?

DeMo is a monthly check-up for Des Moines’ designers, developers, makers, builders, hackers and planners. Whatever you do, you can show it off at DeMo. It’s a sort of focus group meets design review.

CREATIVITY + TECHNOLOGY

Presenters DeMo app concepts, event plans, plug-ins and widgets, hobby projects, websites, whatever…if it’s got a little bit of creativity and technology jammed together, we’ll want to hear about it.

EVERYONE PARTICIPATES

Everyone at DeMo is a participant. If you’re not presenting, you’ll be expected to pay attention, take notes, ask tough questions, give feedback, and offer help. Lots of people come just to learn. We had roughly 25 people at the last DeMo and of those, five presented.

DEMO WHATEVER YOU’VE GOT, DONE OR NOT

DeMo is low-key but high-energy. No pixel-perfect pitch decks; bring storyboards, screenshots, sketches and the like. It can be raw and rough or perfectly polished. Share with the group and see what happens. Maybe you’ll get some good honest feedback. Maybe you’ll meet a kindred spirit that wants to get involved. Heck, you might learn something just from trying to explain it in front of an audience.

HOW TO PRESENT

The five presentation slots are first-ask, first-serve. To reserve a slot, write scott@scottrocketship.com with your name, a link for you or the project (if you have one), and a topic. Be specific; “Pongr’s New Account Creation Workflow” is better than “Pongr”.

BUY THE BEER!

Want a guaranteed DeMo slot for you or a friend and guaranteed adoration? Be a sponsor — aka, buy the beer! Hugs, friendship, mucho social media love, and I’ll read anything on Earth you want me to read in front of the group (within reason, anyway). $50. scott@scottrocketship.com