January 28, 2007
DEMO DIARY - Day 1.

It's 39 Degrees in New York. Clear and Cold. And even though I know i'm not going on vacation - packing chino's and short sleeve shirts seems kind of wrong. I keep telling myself that - wardrobe not withstanding - this is going to be one of the most demanding weeks i've ever had in my professional career. I'm not making this up. I've done the research. I've talked to CEO's who've done the DEMO conference who say that it is something you train for - like a marathon.

And train we have. For the past four weeks we've been driving to get everything ready for DEMO. That means product, materials, web site, press materials, presentation, AV, logo, and most importantly - the actual product story. The thing is - everyone knows video is big and getting bigger - the shear volume of consumer press on YouTube assures us of that. But what will video BE? Will it be a destination, a or a language, or a ubiquitous piece of every bit of the web? We've got to arrive in Palm Springs ready to present a coherent and comprehensive view of the space - and our role leading the next generation of video. The good news is - we've got the team to do it. The bad news is - every day there's a new surprise that needs to be engaged and absorbed into the story. For example, just yesterday Google announced somewhat critically that it would present YouTube clips in the Google Video search results. Most folks think this means that over time, upload and such will move to YouTube, and Google Video will focus on monetization and search. But for the time being - that hasn't been confirmed. At the same time Chad Hurley was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and ended up making a statement that YouTube would begin to pay creators. Hmmm.... was that planned? Probably not. Was it inevitable? Probably. So that's the fun of building in a fast moving space. As it turns out - neither announcement does anything but straighten the Magnify platform. YouTube also announced they were supporting Digg, StumbleUpon and others- ratifying the idea of multiple distributors for video going forward... but that didn't make as big a headline.

So, back to Palm Springs.

DEMO - if you don't know it - is the place where great ideas get rocket fuel. Fuel can be key biz dev relationships, or national press, or venture capital - or all three. It's two and a half days of high drama... and just six minutes on stage to tell your story. (www.demo.com)

Yikes.

Six minutes. So we've had to focus, focus, focus. Simon and Emeri will join me on stage- so we'll be able to do not one, but two demo's in our six minutes. I won't let the cat out of the bag, but it's going to be pretty great. I think it should have a real 'wow' factor. And that is what the demo crowd wants. They want something they've never seen before. And we're going to deliver that - in spades.

At the same time, i'm going to try and find the time to write here about other companies that we meet along the way...

Ok - off to the airport, Simon, Emeri and I are flying together. Beth and Laura are meeting us in Palm Springs... tomorrow at 9am it all begins.