I continue to find it a little bit mystifying that the worst cell phone coverage in the Bay Area is on Sand Hill Road. Sand Hill Road is infested with gadget freaks. And we love wireless technology. We spend inordinate amounts of time discussing the latest cell phones, the non-emergence of 3G, the integration of cell and PIM technology, etc. Yet, there's nothing we can do to get better network coverage in and around our offices.

The bad cell coverage on Sand Hill Road poses a real problem for companies presenting wireless technologies. Demos don't work and when they do work, they don't work well. On several occasions I've watched companies struggle to show very cool applications that would work perfectly 10 miles away in any direction. We've seen it enough that we don't hold it against the company presenting but it's a real momentum killer.

I highly recommend testing out your demo in the conference room before any meeting — you never know when you won't have cell coverage, or can't get past a firewall, or don't have an analog line out, or can't create a video link, or…