Establishing Purpose and Goals

The basic goals of presenting a Demo Show outreach program are many and can include:

To bring physics (and science in general) concepts and demos to populations who are not normally exposed to these subjects
To excite people about physics
To encourage people to become more interested in physics
To stimulate support for your department, university, you, and physics in general in the form of financial gifts, legislative support, etc.
To create a media “buzz” around physics and you and your department specifically (see Public Relations)
To recruit students to study physics

Of course, you may have your own goals for deciding to do a Demo Show, as compared to another type of outreach program. These goals may have to do with the audience for which you are presenting, or a presented opportunity. For example, if your campus is holding "Take Your Child to Work Day" festivities, you can organize a Demo Show that the kids and their parents can attend. You might not even have to promote it much – you can use the festivities’ in-house marketing muscle to promote the show to the kids.