Reflections on DemoCamp 4 Dubai

Last night’s DemoCamp 4 in Dubai was great fun. It was my first DemoCamp and I wasn’t quite sure what I should expect but it turned out I was pleasantly surprised.

The presenters and organizers of DemoCamp 4 Dubai

One thing that struck me very early last night on was how many Macs and iPhones I saw around the room. Of course not everyone had a Mac and iPhone but more than I expected I guess. I think that’s a very encouraging sign that so many involved with and interested in the hi-tech world of cool internet web sites and startup businesses. It was a relatively small audience as far as marketing goes but I felt good about being able to give out copies of Shufflegazine to everyone there. This is the sort of event I’d like us to support more in the future and this is the sort of crowd we want as readers and subscribers for the magazine.

I also find it very reassuring to know that entreprenurship and hi-tech development is alive and well in the UAE. The projects presented ranged from an iPhone app for real estate, a web-based task management application, a location-aware auction web site, to a site full of information for startups in the region. It was a good range of sites with different purposes, in different stages of development, and with different people behind them. I think what they all had in common was a passion for their project, something that came through when they demoed them. Presentation skills may not have been perfect but that’s not needed in this sort of situation.

Finally, I think the organizers did a good job, but I have two small suggestions. One small suggestion I have though is to hand out name tags or badges for people to fill in. With so many new people arriving at social gatherings like this it’s hard to remember names and faces. A name tag would certainly help, well, it would help me at least. The other suggestion is to be a bit tougher on time keeping. Presenters were supposed to stick to five minutes of presentation followed by five minutes of questions and answers. I think only one presentation stuck to that format.

The evening was very interesting and I look forward to the next DemoCamp. I send a big thank you to the organizers as well as the presenters and say “well done”.