[Matt D]

We began our presentation with a two minute DVD showing some of the highlights of our team, especially stuff that is shown better than talked about (like FLL mentoring with the cute kids, our trailer, etc). We then had each person talk for about a minute about a different aspect of our team. The judges are usually pretty flexible if you go a little over on your presentation.

I've been on our interview team the past three years. In 2002, we misread the rules. We thought the interview was all question and answer format. As a result, we made up our presentation in the 10 minutes we waited to go into the interview. In 2003, we knew about the presentation format and had prepared a VHS tape. However, it did not work on the TV we brought. Again, we had to improvise. We had already planned most of our talk so we just expanded it. For 2004, we tested out our equipment in advance. Our equipment worked flawlessly.

We have also made stuff to hand out to the judges. In 2003 we made binders containing everything about our team. In 2004 we made presentation folders for each of the judges containing nice copies of our submission, a one page update on what had happened since the submission, a copy of our newsletter, and a copy of our woodie flowers nomination essay.

Good luck on your submissions! I hope that you are able to learn from our experiences so you do not make the same mistakes we did.