Presenting at Health 2.0

Indu and Matthew now spend most of their time and effort figuring out great companies with amazing technology and great panelists. But there is no way we can accommodate everyone. Instead, please keep telling us about interesting people, ideas and companies and we'll consider them for podcasts, interviews, and future participation in conferences. But please keep it gentle, or at least funny!

With the exception of clearly delineated "Sponsored deep dives" which are not on the main schedule, we are not a pay-for-play conference. It may be hubris but we think that we know a fair bit about the space and hope that our choices provide some "value-add". So please do not contact us asking to sponsor a panel, so you can speak on it. Sponsorship and speaking are on different sides of a church/state divide at Health 2.0

There's also a policy/code of conduct/set of guidelines for speakers and demoers. After some audience feedback, and to fit in with our internal organization, we're becoming a little more rigid about enforcing it.

In general, almost all of our program consists of panels which have speakers demonstrating their technology, and commentators reflecting on what they've just seen and how it will fit into health care from their perspective. Please let us know whether you want to be considered as a demo-er or as a commentator.

If you are a company doing a demo, once you've been accepted onto the program you need to prepare a 3 minute demonstration of the high points of your service/technology. We know this is very challenging. We do not expect you to show everything that you have built or do in that time. The idea is to give a taster that enables people to get the gestalt of what you're doing and gives them something to react to.

Our panels run on rigid timelines and the pattern of rapid-fire demos is very popular. So please practice in advance (in fact a couple of times won't hurt) – and don't try to cram more than 2 or max 3 features in. Don't be afraid to show the sizzle more than the steak. Innovation in presentation is good! Be imaginative.

You will have to rehearse this for our team in advance—perhaps 2-3 times. If you're selected, you can expect to start having these scheduled from 2 months in advance. We know you're busy, but think about what we're having to do (with maybe 75 presenters this Fall!). And we promise you, you'll find the ability to do a 3 minute demo very useful with potential clients and investors. So please try to help us help you by getting these scheduled.

Everyone who demos gets a chance to discuss their tools and technology with the panelists and the audience after the demos are done. That's when you can give your opinion on how this will all shake out. Trust us—it works well.

Here are some rules as to what you can NOT do.

1) No Powerpoint. We only want live software. A demo/non-production version is fine. If you think the audience needs 5 slides to help them understand the context for what you're doing a) you underestimate the audience, b) you underestimate your ability to let your product explain itself, and c) no end user is going to have that much patience!

2) No exceeding your time limit. Do not take too much time for your demo. It's discourteous to the other presenters and not fair, and it throws off our whole event's timing. We've only had a couple of people go off the rails. BUT the audience notices, and they tell us. It doesn't make the demo-er or their company look good, and the moderators have to intervene—not fun for anyone concerned.

3) No blatant sales pitches. If your technology is cool & innovative, and you're providing a great service, your demo and explanation will be enough. Everyone knows that you're there to promote your organization and your product. Extemporaneous appeals to the crowd for business/support/help/funding are not on.

If you have a question about any of this, please ask us. We are here to make you look good and to help you present as well as possible. After all, people come to Health 2.0 because they know they're going to see cutting edge tools and technology. You wouldn't be presenting if you didn't fit that description.

So after all that if you want to see if you'd be a good fit, please sign up here.