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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