LOUDER

DeMo Des Moines — February Edition

DeMo Des Moines returns to Startup City Des Moines on Tuesday, February 21 at 4pm.

Not clear on what DeMo is? Check out the recap from January’s event.

You don’t have to register to attend or present, but a heads-up is always appreciated. Hope to see you there.

DeMo Des Moines January 2012 Recap

I’m often asked if DeMo is just for “tech stuff”. It’s definitely not, and the conversation we had at January’s DeMo session proved that out. Four presenters shared a diverse group of projects and ideas including web startups and brick-and-mortar initiatives.

I used this slide deck to start things out. While it doesn’t contain info about the presentations (those are generally improvised on-site by the presenters), poking through it may give you a better feel for the event.

Below are my notes on the January 2012 #DeMoDSM presentations.

Presentation One: Locusic Social Sharing

Jake Kerber from Locusic presented at DeMo for the second time. Locusic hadn’t even launched yet when Jake first presented. Locusic has generated a lot of buzz since then, and Jake is looking to add to that buzz with social media integration features. Discussion ranged from the literal (you could add a Like button right there) to the conceptual (could you encourage users to share “stories” generated by their behavior on the system).

Jake said he’s looking for a few hours of help from a developer experienced with social integration for web services and is open to discussing trade or pay.

Presentation Two: iDealer.co White Label Dealership App

Yas Kuraishi from iapps24 (also the sponsor of January’s DeMo) went through a sales deck for iDealer, a white-label app available to be branded and customized for deployment as a B2C app from auto dealerships for their customers to use. Yas sought ideas on how to best market the iDealer service to dealerships and how to structure the feature/benefit pitch.

Presentation Three: Bike Shop / Coffee Shop Concept

Nicholas Casber and Scott Bents talked through an idea for a combination bike shop and coffee shop they’d like to see launched in downtown Des Moines. They’re excited by a successful cafe with a similar model in nearby Minneapolis and thought it would be a great fit for Des Moines’ developing downtown. The group talked through possible various models, such as partnering with existing organizations and businesses, as well as potentially launching a traditional business such as a bar or restaurant with a strong focus on being cyclist-friendly, showers and all. Nicholas and Scott seemed most interested in simply connecting the right people to start making this happen, and are looking to have conversations with others excited about the idea. Ping me if you’re interested and I’ll put you in touch.

Presentation Four: “Iowa Stimulus Club”

Local ad man and buy local advocate Michael Libbie talked through an idea for the “Iowa Stimulus Club”, an organization designed to connect a network of local-shopping supporters with truly local businesses. Discussion included the plusses, minuses, and appropriate ways of integrating a charitable component as well as what kind of benefits and access consumers are interested in with local businesses.

What’s next?

You might not guess it from the above, but it’s still a bit of a struggle getting presenters to volunteer for DeMo. I plan on holding a session in February, but may play with the format a bit to see if I can make anything happen. I don’t expect to change the time or date for February (4pm on third Tuesday).

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.

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

The Six-Hour Saga of #MikeDraperforMayor

I launched an impromptu online art project of sorts in my hometown of Des Moines on election day, 2011. It was kind of one of those “you had to be there” things, but I’ve done my best to document the experience.

Relive the Saga of #MikeDraperforMayor on Storify

Put $1,000 in the bank if you’re going to B-cycle

Ever see those huge lengthy terms and conditions on a website and wonder who reads that shit?

I read that shit.

I was primarily looking to see if I was going to end up getting a bunch of shitty mailers from bike companies if I signed up for Des Moines’ B-cycle (hint: I might) but found some other interesting tidbits as well.

I know little to nothing about this company - they might be great guys who go out of their way to make people feel special and awesome and save the planet. Maybe they kill kittens every night. No idea. What I do know is what’s in their terms and conditions and FAQ, and I found some parts of it fairly interesting. Thought you might as well.

We may use your information to communicate with you, to update you regarding features of the Website, to personalize the Website for you, to contact you for market research or to provide you with marketing information, newsletters, or other information we think would be of interest to you.

This is fairly boilerplate, except I don’t like it paired with this next part:

Except as prohibited by law, B-cycle may share your personal information: (i) with the operators of our Websites and bicycle rental programs; (ii) third parties for advertising or marketing purposes

Gross.

I know they have to protect themselves, but $1k seems steep:

If the Bike is not returned within 72 hours, it will be considered stolen and Rider will be charged $1000. Applicable local and state sales tax of 6% is included in rental charges.

Or maybe it’s the lack of friendly language. How about “If the Bike is not returned within 72 hours, B-Cycle will make every attempt to contact you and see if you’re okay.”

2.7 Bike may be used and/or operated only in the City of Des Moines and environs. Rider agrees to only use, operate and/or ride the Bike in the City of Des Moines and environs. Rider will not, under any circumstances, remove the Bike from the City of Des Moines and environs.

Hope you weren’t planning on hitting the Valley Junction Farmer’s Market on your B-Cycle.

Rider agrees that he/she is responsible and liable for any misuse, consequences, claims, demands, causes of action, losses, liabilities, damages, injuries, costs and expenses, penalties, attorney’s fees, judgments, suits or disbursements of any kind or nature whatsoever related to a stolen or lost Bike and/or Des Moines B-cycle Membership Card.

Bikes may be equipped with wire locks; however, DMBC will not be responsible for any lost, stolen, destroyed and/or damaged Bike under any circumstances, regardless of whether Bike locks are used, broken or not properly functioning. Rider agrees to pay for any damage, including replacement parts, to and/or destruction or loss of the Bike (Rider agrees to pay for any loss even though damage was caused by someone else). All repairs needed as a result of any such loss, destruction or damage will be performed at the normal labor rates. In the event the Bike is lost, destroyed or damaged beyond repair, regardless of fault or cause, Rider agrees to pay DMBC the full replacement value of the equipment.

Asses. Fucking. Covered.

Gang of thieves goes around stealing B-Cycle bikes? Tough shit. Run over by a drunk and your bike is destroyed? Tough shit. B-Cycle henchman come to your home and work over the bike you rented? Tough shit.

The lock we provided was a broken piece of shit and the bike got stolen? Tough shit.

This is also bullshit:

 

What if I want to cancel my membership?

Membership fees are non-refundable. However, if you wish to suspend your account to prevent any new usage fees, call Customer Service at 515-333-5590.

If you can sign-up online, you should be able to cancel online.

I’m usually forgiving of scary, verbose user agreements if they have a friendly FAQ elsewhere explaining in plain English. Nope:

 

 Am I financially responsible for damage to a bike while I have it checked out?

 During the time you have a bike, you are responsible for the bike, as detailed in the User Agreement.

B-cycle seems cool. I’m glad it’s coming to Des Moines. Just wanted to look over things that others tend to ignore. For a company that’s already operational in other municipalities, I would have thought they’d have a little more polish on the policies and communications.