DemoCamp Ottawa #6
I just attended DemoCampOttawa #6 where there was a mix of local start-ups and established businesses. As always, Ian Graham and Peter Childs did a great job preparing and running the event, but I still disagree with allowing established companies to use DemoCamp as a pure sales and marketing platform.
So… here were the start-ups:
Misha Nossik, Michael Richardson and Tyler Tidman of Xtend Digital Services demo’d a great product that allows users to access networks remotely without VPN or other software. Their product SIMtone is a glance into the future as users make the shift from relying on their laptops or other proprietary machines to access information. If they can get past presentation glitches, and the app delivers, XDS will have a large impact on enterprise computing.
Justin Clark of CitySales demo’d his online coupon site with some cool features for finding great deals in Ottawa. He’s still rolling out some new features and working on building both retailers and users. I’ve spoken to Justin and despite a lot of competition and a pretty small market (while in Canada), I think he might pull it off.
[LOGO FORTHCOMING?]
John Hansen and Charles Wiebe from Tracker Realm presented Jetfire – a workflow system that can make things by anyone for anyone. Based on the discussions, it may or may not be something very valuable for developers. I can tell you that it doesn’t make a very impressive DVD library.
My recommendation for future Democamps: Drop the marketing pitches and focus on the startups that need exposure and can use the feedback.
By Scott Annan
Rich Loen on September 25th, 2007
Actually, I think it’s really valuable to have demos from different stages of companies. Hopefully, we’ll all grow our companies, and need to face new challenges – it’s interesting to see what challenges these companies are facing, and how they are handling them.
The presenter you didn’t mention, Moda Solutions is really still a startup. Yes, they have funding and a few customers, but they face an extremely difficult challenge now – changing the way people do e-commerce online. Selling their solution to every e-commerce site! Dealing with fraud. It was interesting to me to see what they are up to, and how they represent themselves. It’s great to see what sort of companies are getting funding, and what they are doing with it.
I think it’s OK to have a mix of companies at democamp, so we can all learn of the challenges faced by Ottawa startups – though I agree that the majority of demos should be from “real” startups.
Ian Graham on September 25th, 2007
How does one define what is an established company and what is a start-up?
My take is that democamp is a forum for participation, sharing and exchanging ideas, where the start-up community can do a show and tell on their product. Judging by the interaction after Modas presentation their seemed to be, in my opinion, genuine interest in the demo. My take is that you have a company that wanted to participate and that is what democamp is about participation, sharing and ideas.
I am open to ideas on how we define a start-up for future events.
scottannan on September 25th, 2007
If MODA had DEMO’d a piece of software and solicited an exchange of ideas, then I agree.
But… the PRESENTATION (it was in IE but it was off the desktop with buttons that led to the next page – it might as well have been powerpoint) was the same one they do to pitch clients. The presenter said she “just wanted to show people the product to make them aware” – which is different than trying to get feedback or offering lessons learned to other members.
This was a marketing pitch.
Scott Lake on September 26th, 2007
My impression was that the Moda presentation was a marketing pitch and for that reason, it wasn’t as interesting to me. I do however also think that there is a room in this community for companies that are further ahead than the average startup.
Regarding Matt’s comments on Craig’s video, although they were pure marketing, I did see tons of utility Craig showing them. As a marketing tool, viral videos should be part of the arsenal of any cash strapped startup and I appreciate Craig for introducing the concept to democamp.
Matt Roberts on September 26th, 2007
Scott Lake , (too many scotts!)
The thrust of Scott Annan argument was that we were given a commercial for MODA and that they are ‘established.’ I don’t agree, but in any event we did watch a commercial for Devshop.
There was no discussion about viral marketing by Craig, and DemoCamp isn’t for Youtube commercials its for demos’s of software at different levels of development. A demo of DevShop has its place, but imho not a commercial no matter how fun in spirit.
Scott Lake on September 26th, 2007
Matt, I don’t think the spirit of democamp is so rigid that we can’t allow active community members to deviate from the norm once in a while.
Craig’s video’s were meant as a short, fun interlude and I didn’t consider them to be part of the official scheduled demos for the night.
That being said, it actually would have been better if Craig had shown the devshop commercials and explained the process of how they were made and the reaction he has gotten from them.
I think its obvious to everyone that the primary purpose of democamp is for demoing software but that doesn’t mean its the only purpose.
Matt Roberts on September 26th, 2007
I disagree.
In the first place. I wouldn’t have said anything except for Scott A suggesting he didn’t like MODA as they were only doing a sales and marketing pitch. But thats exactly what the Video was. Fun, yes. Entertaining, sure. But still and Ad for Devshop to a room predominantly filled with developers.
Can DemoCamp be more versatile – sure. If Craig wants to show the commercial and explain “the process of how they were made and the reaction he has gotten from them.” Thats deviating into a Sales and Marketing discussion then we’re in CaseCamp territory:
http://casecamp.org/home/show/CaseCampOttawa2
Thats not what DemoCamp is really about.
Scott Lake on September 27th, 2007
Hi Matt. There is no question that CaseCamp is the appropriate venue for Craig’s videos. The unfortunate thing is that CaseCamps don’t happen nearly as often as democamps.
In the time between CaseCamps, I don’t think its a bad thing for the odd presentation to deviate away from strictly software demos.
I guess we’ll just have to disagree on this one.
Craig Fitzpatrick on September 27th, 2007
Holy moly. I had no idea that showing my 90 second video would spark such controversy!
IMHO, the reaction by the audience says it all. They laughed (out loud, repeatedly). They enjoyed it. Several people commented to me personally after the event how much they liked it.
Sure, it was admittedly marketing. But it was fun, something a little different and interesting to pretty much the whole group (developers).
Would I suggest that this become a repeated part of the DemoCamp movement? Nope. But as a 90 second interlude, I’m surprised it turned even one person off.
Those that have travelled for business know that Ottawa is renowned for having a strong tech presence and virtually no good marketers (which is why, frankly, the odds are stacked against Ottawa entrepreneurs). That’s the reputation we have. It strikes me that every entrepreneur that sets foot in DemoCamp should be thinking about marketing with as much ferver as they think about their own technology. Perhaps a little bleed through is not inappropriate afterall.
Matt Roberts on September 27th, 2007
Craig, thanks for joining in.
I’m not knocking the ad. It was really quite enjoyable.
This all started (on my end) by me pointing out that Scott A, can’t on the one hand single out MODA for first of all being ‘established’ (though not explicitly by name) and then state that doing a walk through Presentation of their product makes democamp a “sales and marketing platform.” When at the same time not mentioning an actual advertisement that was played at the event. (enjoyable or not) Thats the main thrust of my argument.
In fact by the discussion here, I’m getting the sense people are more open to having sales and marketing pitches at the event not less.
But your point is well taken on the lack of sales and marketing expertise of local companies. However, will we allow a Shopify commercial at the next event? if yours was allowed then why not? Because its not entertaining? who decides? etc.
I agreed with Scott A, but not his example. I think this is a bit of a slippery slope.
cheers
Craig Fitzpatrick on September 27th, 2007
Actually, you raise an interesting point about “who decides” – on various things. The organizers are basically holding these events out of the goodness of their hearts, so while I’ve been wondering lately if some sort of pre-vetting of material is in order, it’s tough to ask them to give up their time to hold auditions.
I was speaking with someone (can’t remember who or when), who suggested that comment cards would be a great way to have folks voice many more opinions on the evening than they may feel comfortable doing in front of 60 other people. Both the demo’rs and the organizers would get to read them, but no-one else (pseudo-anonymous).
Part of the “ticket price” of attending DemoCamp could be a filled-out comment card with at least 1 piece of feedback about each demo, and 1 about the forum.
Perhaps that would give the presenters (and organizers) a lot of extra feedback to help steer the events.
Mitch Brisebois on September 27th, 2007
YIKES DUDES! We’re all struggling to stake out our space. Ottawa’s startup community right now(IMHO) sucks and needs all the help it can. Alec kicked off the first barcamp 2 years ago… Peter and Ian REALLY took up the challenge of the camps after that. kudos to all three!! It’s not about rules. it’s about engagement. Come to the camps – learn to do a good demo (bonus #1) – learn new technologies (bonus #2) – learn how to market them (bonus #3). Just shut up and focus on your business!!!!
BTW – kudos to MODA, Craig, Ian, and Peter. Rich is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!