Jed; What you said makes sense, except;
Unless the device is so costly and complex that you can only afford 'one' or have only managed to get 'one' to work, I would think it prudent that you have another in the wings to be rushed in for just this type of problem. If the device is so expensive or complex and borders this close to working or not working then the public demo in my mind is only to get new money to hold off the old providers (VC's) and get new cash to keep everyone quiet for a bit longer. Unless I have my history wrong, old Henry Ford did not present a lot highly complex auto before he sold a working one. Think is was simple at the start and grew in complexity. Oh well, wish them luck, but no sympathy from me, been there done that and still have egg on the face that shows up now and then. Not to sure they really know what they have yet. -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 10:49 AM To: vortex-L@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [Vo]:Steorn will demonstrate the Orbo in ~ a few days Esa Ruoho quoted Sean McCarthy, chief executive of Steorn: >"Obviously Steorn and Sean McCarthy would never recover if there is >a negative result here. But we don't see that as even an outside >possibility . . ." That is the WORST POSSIBLE THING to say before a demonstration!!! As I pointed out the other day, and Steven Johnson reiterated, you should NEVER stake your credibility on a single demonstration. Before you begin, you tell the audience something along these lines: "Remember folks, this is an experimental prototype, and it may not work. It worked back in the lab, and we tested it an hour ago before the trade show opened, so we are pretty confident it will work now, but you never can tell . . ." Then -- as I said before -- after you extinguish the fire in the power supplies, you put on your best smile, keep your cool and say: "Okay, let's turn to the PowerPoint slides and this nifty video we made of a successful demonstration last week. We'll come back to this after Charlie here installs new power supplies . . ." [You chuckle and give Charlie an attaboy pat on the shoulder, even though you would like to kick him for not checking the power supplies.] The fate of an experiment, a scientific claim, or a company should never ride on a single make-or-break demonstration. It should always be spread out over hundreds of demonstrations, performed over many months with many different audiences. Expectations must be kept in check, and the tone of the demonstration must be low key, and matter of fact. When it fails, you show the audience that you can take that in stride, and you know how to fix the problem. - Jed
