Handling the Live Demo That Might Break

Every researcher who gives a live software demo has a story about the moment it broke. The good news is the audience expects it. The bad news is how you recover is what they will remember.

Rule one. Always have a backup video. Record a clean run of the full demo before the talk. If the live version fails in the first twenty seconds, switch to the video and narrate over it. The audience will forgive the switch. They will not forgive four minutes of you re typing a password.

Rule two. Seed the demo environment. Nothing ages worse on a projector than an empty list view. Pre populate your demo account with real looking data so the screen has something to show even before you click anything.

Rule three. Pick one path and rehearse it. A live demo is not a feature tour. It is a scripted sequence of five clicks. Decide the script, rehearse it five times, and do not deviate during the talk.

Rule four. Have a graceful exit. A sentence like 'and that is where the network timeout usually ends the tour' turns a failure into a joke. The confidence lands better than a recovery would.