Procedures for Demo Day

These are the procedures we follow on “Demo Day” during which students present their projects to an audience of their peers and guests. Demo Day is public. All are welcome. We will have two Demo Day.

The document begins with an overview of the procedures and then provides advice to guests and to students. If you are a guest, you do not need to read the advice for students.

Key request to everyone: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

Overview

Students are in two groups: Movers and Sitters. Movers present first. We will identify which group you are in at the presentation.

Students should arrive to the Demo Day room at least five minutes before we start. Store your belongings, other than your fully-charged laptop, in the back of the room. Students will sit in pairs, spread around the room, ideally near an aisle. Course staff will assign one student to be the Mover and on the Sitter. The Mover will move around the room as described below. The Sitter stays in one location the entire time.

From the front of the room, I start the Show. The Mover in each pair opens her laptop and presents her project. She will generally have two tabs open on her browser: one for the project website itself and one for her Github repo. After 4 or so minutes, I announce that it is time to switch. The Mover closes her laptop. The Sitter opens his laptop and presents his work. After 4 minutes, I announce that it is time to switch partners.

The Mover stands and moves to the closest Sitter in order. That is, we have arranged the pairs of Movers/Sitters in a rough circuit around the room in order to facilitate this exchange, sort of like a game of musical chairs, but with no chairs removed. This may seem complex but it all just sort of works.

Advice for Guests

Although arriving on time is nice, don’t worry if you need to come late. There will be plenty of people wandering around. Don’t feel obligated to stay for the entire presentation! Once you have seen “your” student present once or twice, you should feel free to leave.

But you are also free to stay! Check out some of our other student presentations. You will see me and other course staff doing the same.

Most importantly: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

Advice for Students

The only material you need for your presentation is a browser which can show both your project’s webpage and your Github repo. We don’t use Powerpoint or other nonsense.

Enlarge the image of your project so that the font is large enough for your (older) viewers to read the title, legend and so on. Test how it looks beforehand.

In addition to presenting, you will also be listening to presentations by several classmates. Be an engaged listener! Act toward them as you hope they will act toward you.

Most importantly: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

When Presenting

Have fun! Demo Day is a joyful occasion. Your (natural) nervousness is unwarranted. Everyone wants you to succeed. Always start on your project home page. Give your opening paragraph. Pause to see if anyone has any questions. If they don’t, spend another paragraph explaining the details of your main graphic. Pause again. Questions are fun, but you have to give people a chance to ask them.

When pausing, use the “Take a sip of water” technique. Stop talking. Imagine that you are reaching for a class of water, lifting it up, taking a sip, and putting it back down. Only after that can you assume that there are no questions.

Sadly, you will sometimes be stuck with an audience too shy to ask questions. That is OK! One of the things you are learning in this class is how to handle different sorts of audiences. To handle a shy audience, you need to have prepared ahead of time 5 minutes worth of things to talk about. This can, and should, include a tour of your Github repository,

When Listening

Always allow the student you are listening to to give their opening paragraph, perhaps even allowing them a second paragraph to explain their plot. But then interrupt them and ask a question. It doesn’t really matter what the question is. The important thing is to get a conversation going, to demonstrate to guests that questions are welcome and that they should ask some as well.