The Pitch
Week 8
Agenda
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5:30 – Team Stand Up
5:40 – Pitching your Presentation
6:30 – Activity
7:25 – Ongoing Offsite Activities
Objectives
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The elements of an effective pitch
Judging Criteria for pitch
How to deliver a good pitch
Draft the first revision of team pitch
Effective Presentations
• Name of Speaker
• Title
• Credentials
Pitch Foundations
• The foundation of any good presentation is the
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information but presentations must be crafted
for the audience!
Presentations should be crafted in “language”
the audience will understand.
All members of the team should deliver the
Pitch.
The Pitch will not be “perfect” until the day you
actually give it - so practice, practice, practice
then practice some more.
First things first!
• Know who your audience is…
• Judges, Parents, Students?
Establishing a “subject rapport” with the
audience means you are articulating
the problem in a way that is relevant to
them…find an example they can “get”.
Hook Them In!
Source: Theresa Lina Stevens, Lina Group
The Hook
• Get your audience’s attention or arouse
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curiosity with a “hook”…
Be creative!
Start your Pitch with the team acting
out a skit of what happens when a
customer uses the app
Start with the scenario: “imagine a
world that allows ______ to ______ in
half the time / for half the price etc. ”
Practice your Hook
• How will you “hook” your audience?
Source: Kristine Schaefer, Loma Communications
Speaker Tips
• Make eye contact with someone in
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each sector of the audience (left, right,
center) and smile when you are
speaking to them! 
Move around a bit on stage if you can
Use conversational inflection
Project your voice = confidence
Eye Contact
• Builds trust
• Establishes a connection beyond words
• Creates a channel for receiving
feedback
Eye Contact Activity - Shift
• Recognize the need to be connected to
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communicate fully
Experience the personal impact to
having attention broken.
Gestures
Gestures bring language to life visually
by:
• Emphasizing important points
• Just like “normal” conversation
• Poor or no gestures LIMITS impact.
What counts?
• 7% is Verbal (the message
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itself)
38% is Vocal (the sound of
your voice)
55% Visual (what people see
of you)
Instrument of Voice
• Tone Displays Meaning
• Breathe! - Breathing will reduce your
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speed and calm your nerves.
Pauses - Learn to STOP.
Avoid
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Pointing
Gestures that are too small
Keeping hands in pockets
Playing with or adjusting your clothes
Fillers – “Umm” “like” “you know” are
distracting to your message
Reminders for All
• Your attire should be similar your
audience
 (...or your customer)
• At Pitch you should dress professionally
 No bare shoulders, no jeans, no midriffs
• Be sure to eat something
• Being somewhat nervous is good - it
gives you adrenaline
Practice
• Practice
 will increase your confidence
• Practice
 will give you rote memory
• Practice
 will make it more fun!
• SOooooo - Are you going to Practice??
Draft Pitch using
your presentation
content that we
shared last week
The Presentation
• Title
• The problem
• The solution
• Competition
• Market
• Value
• Future plans
Elements
Your Pitch needs to communicate the
information you are being judged on
• Presentation - You already have this
• Script - this is what you are doing today
• Timebox - 4 minutes - edit “story” to
meet the time limit
How to Create a Script
• Open the presentation that only has the judges
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criteria - you should have named it v1
View “Presenter’s Notes” and in the notes
section answer the Judges question that is on
that slide
Write it like you would speak it - tell the story of
the end user
Complete the entire script before you go back
and edit
Edit the text of each slide down to the salient
point or example that answers the question
while still being conversational
How to Create a Pitch
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Each team members should practice reading the “script”
to find out who is most at ease delivering which part of the
pitch
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Time yourselves reading the script all the way through to
know how much you have to cut each part
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Once you have the concepts nailed - edit the script to
save time - eliminate information that doesn’t illustrate a
point the judges expect to hear
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Combine sentences and exchange multiple words for one
“better” word to make points stronger and save time
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Keep editing until you are telling the story they want to
hear in the amount of time you have to tell it
How to Create a Pitch
• When you have the script about 80%
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done, go back and start customizing
the deck.
Customize means adding images that
reflect the words in your script
 Images work as prompts for you
 Images direct the audience to watch you
PS: About the “Pitch”
• The Pitch is your story to tell
• Nobody will know if you messed up
• You may never do the PITCH exactly the
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same
Focus on telling the story of your
customer
Reminder:
Weekly Reflections
• What did your team like about this
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week?
What challenges did your team have
this week?
Anything else your team would like to
share?
Technovation Challenge
Google Group
Share with us on
Twitter & Facebook
Tweet us: @_technovation_
#technovation
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Ongoing Activities
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Finalize prototype
Work on poster
Work on business plan
Refine the presentation
Practice your Pitch