LIFT backstage
Coach advices for finalists preparation
February 7, 2008 - 11:00 — Sandrine SzaboImagine you have a great project and wish to present it.
Usually, you feel comfortable with your dear subject but transmitting the excitment and seducing the crowd you will be pitching your project to, is not an easy thing to do.
You are usually that involved that you lack of distance and objectivity on your project.
Much to say, focused on not forgeting any important item, you tend to try to say as much as possible, while you should just talk about the minimum.
Seducing people is about telling them a story in which they can see themselves.
If you manage to reduce your project presentation to a single idea surrounded with a catching story, you get it.
So here are the advices they gave to the speakers :
- Assume people in front of you do not understand and make it simple
- Concentrate on the core idea
- Explain it from the customer perspective : what will it allow him to do that he does not today (how will it change his life)
- Tell a story people can identify easily to
- Do not put too much on slides, do not use too many slides, ideally use no more than 5 and only to higlight key idea (a couple of words or a picture)
- Explain what you are looking for (promotion, partners, financing, testers, users)
- Go to the product (demo) as fast as possible
- Pitch quick (rythm is important)
- Rehearse many times (to avoid reading note, let your heart and passion speak for you)
- Adapt the speech to your audience needs
- Start with what will strike the audience : if you have a catchy video, run it first
- Be a showman, smile, be confident and share excitment
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
A full afternoon to coach the finalist
February 7, 2008 - 10:52 — Sandrine SzaboHaving had the opportunity the follow the venture preparation was really interesting. Situated in a small room on the 2nd floor of this big theater room, we spent our whole afternoon to prepare the finalist to their show ;-).
After sushis and introductions, each participant got the opportunity to present its keynote during 5 mins. The timing was indeed an important check on the ability to keep up within the fixed limits.
The exercise was not as easy as it seemed though !
The finalists clearly were there to talk with the panel experts, looking for some coaching and advices while having to prepare a presentation dedicated to the evening crowd.
Most of them had to review their presentation to adjust to the variety of the audience, thus simplifying and adding some excitment in the presentation.
In fact the presentation generated a great amount of questions from the panel experts all through the afternoon. Each was trying to understand the possibilities of the products and highlighting what really was the most important for each of them to push forward during their show.
Coached to improve and change their slides, they adjusted their keynote to get the most out of their exciting projects : which turned out for all of them into a very good keynote !
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Venture Night preparation
February 6, 2008 - 13:08 — Sandrine SzaboFollowing Laurent through the organization process is like a race !
Dozens of people are preparing the rooms. Cables, cameras, mics, beamers, chairs, posters...The amount of material needed to get the rooms ready is incredible.
10 people are preparing the venture night.
The nominees will be arriving soon at plainpalais to meet the jury and getting prepared for tonight.
The whole afternoon will be spent on rehearsing and tuning presentations to make the venture keynotes a high level show. 500 people are expected to join tonight so the tension is high.
Empty yesterday evening, the room is now packed with chairs rows which will be repalced tomorow with tables for the fondue.
In addition to the 10 people preparing the room in plainpalais, 40 people are working on setting up the scene in CICG.
10 people for the TSR (swiss television) are working on the capture of the event while the others are preparing the rooms and the side art experiences.
Organising such a big event is taking an amazing logistics and generating a big stress for the team.
4 locations, 650 people moving from one place to another, badges, goodies, programs, speakers to handle, participant to orientate...
You have no idea how hard this team is working to make this event unforgettable !
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Most workshops full
February 6, 2008 - 11:22 — Sandrine SzaboWorkshops have started since an hour and most rooms are full.
The participants ask a lot of questions and interaction is there. More than simple keynotes, the workshops are really the opportunity for sharing. The "balkan blogging" session is just incredible. Jasmina is explaining how she was blogging despite threats and risks during the war. Mark Wubben, animating "forgetful interfaces" has managed to creat a lot of interaction, explaining how people are using the internet according to their needs and the various perceptions of each person (the grandma publishing pictures on the internet for keeping memories, the teenager telling stories...).
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Registration at Unimail
February 6, 2008 - 09:16 — Sandrine Szabo8:12 Particpants arrival
Workshop organizers arrive as well as the first participants.
The RFID reader takes some time to configure which means the registration takes a few more minutes than expected.
People are patiently waiting, starting discussing ;-)
Camera is now working and the scanning may start...
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
LIFT start
February 6, 2008 - 08:59 — Sandrine Szabo7:40, Geneva, Unimail
The lobby of the university is really quiet.
Laurent's team is already up and runnning, preparing the badges, the programme and the rooms indications.
The program sounds exciting.
Laurent accepted more workshop than last year to allow for more people to talk. Attendance is expected to be high but you never can tell before it really starts.
He worries that some workshop might get only few people...but this could surely be an opportunity for deeper talks too.
One of the workshop required Laurent to write a letter to a teacher to certify that a whole class really attends a workshop : 30 teenagers are expected to participate in a workshop ;-)
- sandrine szabo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
