Tips to Avoid Demo Drama - Tip 13: Share Some Emotion

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One aspect of doing demos and presentations is building a rapport with your audience. The best way to do that is to share a little of yourself—to show your emotions.

We are not talking about baring your soul to your audience, and sharing deep and intimate secrets. However, when you are demonstrating some software, it is helpful to be able to convey the fun and passion you have when working with that piece of software. I definitely find it easier to cover that part of a demo during a live presentation, when I am actually using the software.

It is also fair to say that emotions can be both positive and negative. We all know that no software is perfect, so it is fine to show that you do not really like the way a specific requirement is covered in the software. Overall, you obviously need to be more positive than negative, but a bit of criticism can often make your demo more credible.