How to Give Technical Demos That People Actually Remember
- Jul 28
- 3 min read
Introduction: The One Rule That Changes Everything
The moment you look at your screen, you give the audience permission to look at theirs. That single insight is the foundation of everything Brent Ozar teaches about demos — and it is the reason most technical presentations lose their audience before they have even started.
Brent makes his living doing demos all over the world. This session is his playbook.
Table Stakes: The Bare Minimum for 2024
Before any of the creative stuff, there are non-negotiables:
Turn off dark mode. You love it. The projector in that washed-out conference room does not.
Rehearse at least three times. Every time, you will find things that break. That is the point.
On the fourth run, screenshot everything. Paste those screenshots into your slides. This is your insurance policy — because demos fail, laptops get lost, and the audience should never have to watch you troubleshoot.
On go-live day: zoom in so the back row can see, set Do Not Disturb, and if things break — eject immediately, switch back to slides, and move on. The audience already believes you are an expert. You do not need to prove it by fixing a broken laptop in real time.
Going Viral Starts Before You Walk on Stage
Brent's definition of viral is simple: people share it. That means publishing your slide deck, prerequisites, and demo resources before the session begins. It means open-sourcing your work even when it feels uncomfortable. The more freely you give it away, the more widely it travels — and the more it builds your reputation.
Maintaining Eye Contact During a Demo
Two approaches work:
Recorded demos. While you rehearse, record your screen. Chop the footage into 10–15 second clips and embed them as animated GIFs in your slides. Crop and zoom into the action so remote viewers on 1080p can actually read what is happening. You keep eye contact with the room the whole time; the demo runs itself.
A co-presenter as narrator subject. Rather than scripted back-and-forth dialogue — which always sounds fake — Brent treats his co-presenter as a character in a story. He narrates. They act. The audience follows the plot. He once handed a microphone to a colleague in a room of 850 people and simply asked him to ask any question that crossed his mind during the demo. It made a giant room feel interactive without any pre-briefing at all.
Making Demos Compelling: The Twitch Streamer Model
Brent's role models are not other tech presenters. They are Twitch streamers — people who have figured out how to make watching someone else do a thing genuinely entertaining.
The formula he borrows: give the audience a clear enemy to slay, invite them to contribute, and structure the session like a game. Open with the objective, work through the problem in the middle, and close with a recap of what worked and what did not. Let the smart person in the front row suggest an approach — even if you know it will fail — because when one person thinks it, twenty others do too.
Final Thoughts: When You Shouldn't Demo at All
Sometimes the best demo is not a demo. Abstract technical concepts often land better with something physical — playing cards, mini whiteboards, a camera on a tripod pointed at your desk. Brent's playing card explainer on database statistics has 50,000 YouTube views in an industry that does not have 50,000 people. That is the goal: something memorable enough that people save it and send it to someone else.
If your demo is painfully fast (a vendor wizard) or painfully slow (waiting on the cloud), pre-record it. Your audience's time is worth protecting. Make every minute count.
Join the Conversation
What is the biggest challenge you face when doing live demos — and what has worked for you? Share in the comments below.
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