Proposal Presentation
• The Project Presentation document on the course webpage gives the due dates of the entire presentation process and the grading rubric.
• Two kinds of presentations
• Elevator pitch (quick summary of project)
• Formal oral presentation
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Elevator Pitch
• Definition• a brief, persuasive speech that you use to
spark interest in what your organization does (mindtools.com)
• short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value proposition (Business Week, June 2007)
• Should last as long as an elevator ride, approximately 30 seconds to 2 minutes
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Elevator Pitch
• Selling a product or business to:
• Consumer
• Company
• Investor
• University
• Employer
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• Selling yourself to:
• Employer
• Buyer
• Potential business partner
• When is this type of communication used?
Elevator Pitch
• These ideas also apply to
• Poster presentations
• Social media – Facebook, Twitter, company website
• Brochures and fliers
• Business cards
• Mission statements
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Keys For a Good Pitch
• ALWAYS be prepared
• Have a tag line – hook your audience
• Length
• Keep their interest
• Know your audience
• What do you want the listener to walk away with?
• Show uniqueness
• Be thought provoking
• Keep a “how can I help YOU attitude”
• Make sure the entire team knows pitch
• Make yourself likable!
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Know Your Audience
• Give the right amount of technical detail
• Sales pitch – mostly high-level and focused on functionality
• Poster presentation – heavy on technical details, want to point out uniqueness
• Make it the right length
• More details requires more time
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Words to Avoid
• Great / Exceptional / Wonderful
• General and doesn’t provide detail
• Better: original, pioneering, leading, dominant (as long as it is true)
• Trendy
• Gives an impression that it won’t last
• Buzz words
• Trendy and often over used
• Example: outside the box, synergy
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Common Mistakes
• Too vague – doesn’t focus on key points
• Too general – applies to many products and/or companies
• Trying to close a sale – you want to start a conversation, not close the deal
• Too long – you lose your listener’s attention
• Unrealistic – “I will make all your dreams come true”
• Boring – doesn’t excite listener
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Writing an Elevator Pitch
1) Identify your goal
2) Explain what the product does
3) Communicate your uniqueness
4) Put it all together
5) Practice!!!
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Assignment 6
• Develop an elevator pitch for your senior project.
• Think: “If I happen to meet someone in an elevator who could fund my project (e.g. Bill Gates), what would I say?”
• Record a video of yourself making this pitch as if the audience is behind the camera. Using a webcam or a cellphone is fine.
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Assignment 6
• Submit your video file via LiveText no later than 11:30pm (Evansville time), Sunday, October 2. P
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Final Presentation
• The goal of the proposal presentation is to convince the audience your project is worthwhile.
• The audience should leave the presentation wanting to come back next semester to see what you have accomplished.
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Final Presentation
• A guideline for the number of slides in a presentation is one slide per minute.
• So for a 15-20 minute presentation, expect to have 10-15 slides and no more than 20 slides.
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Final Presentation
• All presentations should start with a title slide giving the name of the project, the name of the presenter, the presenter affiliation (University of Evansville in this case), and the date.
• In addition, for this course, it should also give the name of the project sponsor and project advisor, and their affiliations.
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Final Presentation
• Although many presentations start out with an outline of what will be in the presentation, for a short presentation, this is unnecessary and wastes valuable time.
• Your presentation should start out with the problem statement and background, given in whichever order makes sense for the project on 3-4 slides. This section should motivate the audience to want to more about the project.
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Final Presentation
• The requirements and specifications section should flow from the problem statement.
• Each requirement or specification should be tied to something specific in the problem statement.
• Use 3-4 slides
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Final Presentation
• The design section should give an overview of the design, then tie each design decision to a requirement or a specification.
• A block diagram of the design components is often useful
• This should be the bulk of your presentation, 6-8 slides.
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Final Presentation
• The presentation should conclude with an evaluation of the design.
• Show that the design (when implemented) will meet the requirements and specifications that in turn will solve the problem at hand.
• Use 1-3 slides
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