Tip for one of those slightly-awkward conference situations

Here’s a situation that came up at the 360 iDev conference: at the end of Colin Donnell’s presentation, other developers from the audience came up to talk about the design of their apps.

But it’s supposed to be informative and interesting, not a sales pitch, right? Absolutely. So everybody feels just a little awkward at that moment.

So here’s what to do: if you’re a developer showing off your app, start off by saying that everybody in the room who wants a promo code can have one. Just see you after and give you a card or scrawled-on-a-napkin email address or whatever.

That takes the sales-y thing out of the room. All good.

And it might not hurt that the people who then get free copies tell their friends about how it’s a cool app — which they’re more likely to do since they’ve heard you talk about it and explain it, and they’ve seen your passion for what you do.

All good, right?

Now if only promo codes could also bring world peace, we’d be set. :)