Cisco Team Up for Poverty Relief Demo Man Cisco has some of the coolest on-stage demos among any of the largest technology companies. Chalk up this success largely to Cisco's chief demomeister, Jim Grubb. Jim Grubb developed demos for more than 100 trade shows at Cisco before being chosen to add a potent, live technology element to Cisco CEO John Chambers' already powerful speaking style and persona. In the past year, Grubb has set up a Web-enabled piano with a streaming MIDI Java applet that plays Mozart, controlled from a browser on the dashboard of a car. The lights dim and the audience is now looking at a living room with appliances fed by a cable modem.
Chambers shows how the temperature, lights, and window blinds can be controlled remotely.
He turns the TV on and makes a phone call. A piano and violin play a duet. Chambers relishes the enthusiastic reception that the demos have received. In April 1998, he and Grubb captivated US Vice President Al Gore, the Russian Foreign Minister, a Who's Who of Silicon Valley CEOs, and other dignitaries as they showed a fetus in utero moving in an ultrasound image networked to a PC's Web browser. He's entertaining and he has a lot of passion.