In other fields, speeches are pretty much planned out. First off, this isn’t meant to be a blanket statement, as there are cases in which speeches in front of a group or crowd of people do become complex and can have unexpected issues. With technology, demos always seem to be complex and happen to include the guaranteed glitch. Network latency, a software crash, or website being unavailable. That one bug that was either noticed and ignored as unlikely to reoccur, or one that never appeared until your demo will show up in front of all the current and potential customers.

I was at a website demo recently when Firefox was on a blitz resizing a page that was not available page due to network issues. It could have been the projector as well, but I’ve never see the Try Again button get so big.

You can prepare for every possibility, but the only way to prevent a glitch is to run a prepared video, which itself can have issues. Audio, video, or both could fail. When you have to present a demo, just be prepared for that glitch, and if need to, dismiss it with “Oh, so that’s how that bug occurs.” Dismiss it and get back on track as quickly as possible. Customers, especially technology people who have presented with a similar situation, will not hold it against you if you show your product is solid amid the minor demo issue that won’t appear when they try it themselves.*

Oh, and if it’s your product’s bug, you need more testing.

• I assume no responsibility for the use of this response.  It could backfire in certain situations.