What We Learned at Our NYC Demo Skills Event

What We Learned at Our NYC Demo Skills Event

On February 12th, Iris and Navattic brought the NYC sales engineering community together for an evening that combined professional development with genuine connection. Mike McDowell, author of Demotainment, led a book reading and Q&A session at DB Cooper's, followed by a happy hour that kept the conversations going well past the planned end time.

With nearly 60 sales engineers, presales leaders, and solutions architects in the room, the energy was exactly what we've come to expect from the NYC SE community. Real conversations, no corporate fluff, and plenty of takeaways worth bringing back to the team.

Why We Invest in the SE Community

At Iris, we believe in showing up for the people we serve. Sales engineers are the backbone of every technical deal, and the presales community has long been one of the most supportive, knowledge-sharing groups in B2B. That is why we host events like this one. Not to pitch, but to create spaces where SEs can learn from each other, hear from people doing the work differently, and walk away with something useful.

Whether it is a dinner with SE leaders, a happy hour mixer, or a book event like this one, the goal is always the same: bring good people together, keep it real, and make sure everyone walks away with something valuable. The SE community shows up every time, and we never take that for granted.

Mike McDowell on the Art of the Demo

Mike McDowell's background is unlike most people in presales. Before entering the tech world, he studied performance art, and that perspective is woven throughout Demotainment. His thesis is simple but powerful: demos are performances, and treating them that way changes everything about how you prepare, deliver, and follow up.

During the reading and Q&A, Mike walked through some of the core ideas from the book. He talked about the difference between demos that inform and demos that persuade, why most SEs lose their audience in the first two minutes, and how to structure a demo like a story instead of a feature walkthrough. The room was engaged from start to finish, with questions that ranged from handling hostile audiences to making technical content land with non-technical stakeholders.

What stood out most was the practical nature of everything Mike shared. This was not abstract theory about storytelling. It was specific, actionable guidance that SEs could apply in their next demo. Several attendees mentioned they were already rethinking their demo flows before the happy hour even started.

Key Takeaways from the Evening

The conversations at the event covered a lot of ground, but a few themes kept coming up across the reading, the Q&A, and the happy hour conversations that followed.

Your first two minutes make or break you. Mike emphasized that most SEs spend the opening of a demo on context-setting and agenda slides. By the time they get to the product, the buyer has already checked out. The best demos hook the audience immediately with something unexpected, relevant, or emotionally resonant.

Features do not sell. Problems and outcomes do. A recurring theme was the importance of anchoring every demo moment to a specific customer pain point. Instead of "let me show you our reporting dashboard," the reframe is "remember when you mentioned your team spends three hours building those reports? Here is how that changes." This is something that applies whether you are demoing software live or responding to a technical evaluation in writing.

Preparation is the secret weapon. Several attendees shared that the biggest shift in their demo quality came from investing more time in preparation. Understanding the audience, customizing the flow, rehearsing transitions. The best SEs treat preparation as the performance before the performance.

Community matters more than credentials. One of the most consistent pieces of feedback from the event was how much people valued being in a room with others who understand the unique challenges of presales. The SE role can feel isolating, especially in organizations where you are one of a handful of technical sellers. Events like this remind people they are part of something bigger.

How Iris Supports the SE Workflow

Events like this are one part of how we support the presales community. The other part is the product itself. Iris helps sales engineers spend less time on repetitive documentation work (RFPs, security questionnaires, due diligence requests) and more time on the high-value activities that actually move deals forward, like demos, discovery, and building relationships.

We have also released a free collection of Claude skills built specifically for sales engineers. From meeting prep and post-call follow-ups to battlecards and POC planning, these skills are designed to give SEs a head start on the tasks that eat into their selling time. They are free, open to anyone, and built based on real workflows from the SE community.

What Is Next: Upcoming Events

We have a full calendar of events coming up across multiple cities. If you missed this one, there are plenty of opportunities to connect with the SE community and the Iris team in person.

Practical AI: Moving from Time Savings to Strategic Presales Outcomes is a webinar we are co-hosting with Reprise on February 26th. This one is a panel deep dive into how presales teams are achieving real strategic outcomes with AI, not just shaving a few minutes off tasks, but fundamentally changing deal qualification, discovery, and engagement.

We are also hosting a Presales & Friends Mixer in Portland on February 26th at Breakside Brewery. Open bar, great people, and no agenda. Just SEs and presales professionals getting together.

Looking further ahead, we have SE community dinners planned in Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and more. Check out our events page for the full list and registration links, or follow us on LinkedIn to stay in the loop.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can attend Iris events?

Our events are open to anyone in the presales and sales engineering community. Whether you are an SE, solutions architect, presales leader, or just curious about the space, you are welcome. We host events across multiple cities throughout the year. Check our events page for upcoming dates and locations.

What is Demotainment about?

Demotainment by Mike McDowell is a book about transforming product demos from feature walkthroughs into compelling performances. Drawing on McDowell's background in performance art, the book offers a framework for making demos more engaging, persuasive, and memorable. It is a must-read for any SE looking to level up their demo game.

What does Iris do for sales engineers?

Iris is an AI-powered platform that automates RFPs, security questionnaires, and due diligence requests for presales teams. Instead of spending hours on repetitive documentation, SEs can focus on demos, discovery, and building relationships. Teams using Iris typically see response times drop by 70% while maintaining accuracy. Book a demo to see it in action.

What are the free Claude skills for sales engineers?

We built and released a free collection of Claude skills designed specifically for SE workflows. They cover meeting prep, post-call follow-ups, battlecards, POC planning, discovery questions, demo talk tracks, handoff docs, and more. You can download them all at salesengineeringskills.com.

Thanks to the NYC SE Community

Every event we host reinforces the same thing: the presales community is special. People show up ready to learn, share, and connect. That is not something you can manufacture, and it is not something we take lightly.

Thank you to Navattic for co-hosting, to Mike McDowell for bringing Demotainment to life for our group, and to everyone who came out on a Wednesday night in NYC. We will keep hosting these because the community keeps showing up.

Want to join us at the next one? See upcoming events or book a demo of Iris to see how we help presales teams work smarter.

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