Ian and I launched the ensembli public beta at DEMO 09 at 8.40 PST on Tuesday 3rd March. You can see the video at www.demo.com.

Here’s my personal view of the adrenalin-filled experience of pitching to 500 global movers and shakers and a live Internet audience.

The day of the pitch we had to be at the stage for final technical checks at 7.15 a.m., then we were free to have breakfast until 8.15 when we had to be at the green room. Breakfast? Not a hope. Coffee and water was as much as I could face. We took our coffee and sat in the sun by the pool making desultory conversation about anything other than the upcoming event. At 8.00 we walked back towards the green room, and saw the evri guys sorting themselves out – we were on first and they were after us – and a bunch of other guys standing in corners nervously talking to themselves and waving their arms about. I walked up to Neil from evri and wished him luck, and then we went into the green room.

The tech guy mic’d us up, checked all was OK, and then left us to our own devices. I walked up and down the green room, unable to stay still. I drank loads of water but my mouth was still permanently dry. Ian crouched down behind a potted plant and sent tweets. Our Demo coach, Nathan Gold, came in and wished us luck. The show was late getting going and the tension was building as more and more people came in to the green room to get mic’d up for their pitches. Then the show was called to order, and the video started up getting the day’s events off the ground. We were moved to the ‘X’s behind the set where we had to wait for Chris to announce us. I watched the video on the back stage monitor showing stills from the previous day’s activities, and then Chris went on and made her opening remarks. I heard laughter and talking from the audience as Chris got things going. The tension was now incredible. Then I heard Chris announce us, the music started up, and the tech guy looked at us and said ‘go!’

We bounded onto the stage. Ian went to the bench where our Mac was, and I walked to the front of the stage: “Good morning, my name is…” and so on, the well-rehearsed words coming out in the right order and with no hesitation. I can remember watching myself talking, whilst talking, very weird. I got through my intro and passed over to Ian, who did his stuff with confidence and humour, and then passed back to me for the outro. Same again, through the outro with no deviations from the well-learned script, but a lot of larger-than-life arm movments, and then to the close. Suddenly we were done. Turn, walk off stage, and there we were. Finished. We shook hands, de-mic’d and wandered stunned into the corridor with people giving us thumbs up and congratulations. People got what we’re doing, and why.

It was an extraordinary experience. I’ve done many presentations in my time, but this was the most exciting, the most adrenalin-filled, and the most satisfying. Was it worth all the time and money? Well, it launched us into the world stage, and we met people and companies we just would not have got to any other way. It was also a blast, and a personal and professional experience that I thoroughly recommend.

Tags: demo09, ensembli

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