Demo Days involve a significant trade-off to consider.

They move focus away from the startups actual businesses, as the programme directors turn their attention to investor relations, and the startups are forced to work on pitching, rather than their business.

If well-marketed and well-attended by active and relevant investors, they can be a create a step-change in both the accelerator's and the startups' reputations, and open the door to customer and investor relationships.

Don't underestimate the size of that if though.

Ignite100, in the UK, dropped it's demo day. This was a bold move, but understandable to many UK accelerators.

The issue is context; a demo day achieves little beyond proving a founder can deliver a slick slide-deck based on a tried-and-tested, and quite tired formula.

There are fundamental issues from a team's point of view. One founder must write scripts, design slides, be coached within an inch of their lives, practice once or more a day, every day for weeks. At the same time, programme managers demand teams double-down on their efforts to build a business. For a team of just two or three founders, being expected to be investment ready whilst simultaneously preparing for demo day effectively ties a hand behind their backs.

- Paul Smith, Ignite100's programme director

Replacing Demo Day with a more continuous approach to investor/startup match-making relieves the strain:

We wanted to ensure that every team joining Ignite would be backed by successful angels who cared about supporting new talent and technology.

We were inspired by one of our investors, who last year performed his own experiment; feeling the London tech investment scene was more fragmented than most considered it to be, Doug Scott arranged (and attended) a series of 13 lunches over consecutive days, each attended by over 20 VCs, angel investors and other guests from his address book. The result? Every day, a roomful of people made new contacts, discussed portfolios and opportunities and expanded their own personal and professional networks.

So instead of herding 150 people into a dark room, we're going to try a similar experiment; we'll hold a series of lunches in London, perhaps over two or three days - for founders, investors, press and invited guests. Teams will still need to convey their stories, they'll still need to demonstrate their prototypes, but these events will provide the opportunity for relationships to be further explored and strengthened in a more intimate, informal setting. There'll be a finite amount of invites available - no more spray and pray - and instead of robbing investors of up to half of their workday, a lunch better-fits with their daily routine.

You can read Paul's full post on the experiment here.