Presentation Tips?

[dez250]

Do not read directly off a screen. If you are going to use Power point or another slide show software, use your slides as an introduction, put brief points on the slides and explain them more in depth while speaking. If you can also do the presentation from memory having direct eye contact with your audience with out using flashcards or reading off a screen, the presentation will come off more professional then if you keep looking away, appearing to not know what you have to present. One last thought that will help is to practice your presentation before arriving at the demonstration and time it, to make sure you can come in a time limit if ones given at the demo.
Good luck and keep us updated.

[phrontist]

Thanks for the tips guys...

I'm not really nervous, at the very worst we don't get the grant... and being nervous doesn't help that. As DNA (RIP) would say:

Don't Panic!

[KathieK]

Bring something with you that you can leave - a business card, a team brochure, some of your buttons that you gave away last year... Anything that might jog someone's memory to contact the team in the future.

Several teams have shown us their "yearbooks" that they make up for presentations to sponsors. They keep a copy in their pit area. They bring it to fundraisers. We're tweaking our copy for RAGE right now so we can get some printed.

[Jack Jones]

Here's some info for your slides:

Benefits

Virginia Sponsor List

Proof of Impact

Board of Directors

Testimonial

Also, I have a very good FIRST brochure in PDF format that I can e-mail back if you PM me.

Good luck

[RoboMom]

I have a lot of advice, but no time!!!!!
Make sure you talk about all the scholarship opportunities thru FIRST-$4.5 million last year.
There is a whole section on the FIRST site with advice for approaching a corporation for sponsorship.
Be sure to follow up tomorrow or Friday with all the things you forgot to do. Send a written personalized thank you. If you don't have a brochure, make one quick. Write a professional letter adding important stuff you forgot. Ask if you can bring the robot back for a demo (if you didn't do this already.) Be sure to let the company know all the places you will be doing demo's. Fairs? Schools? Other companies? where your sponsor's names will be seen.
Good luck!

[Bharat Nain]

OK I am not going to say much, because I don't have the time but
"Keep the focus on them" . The more they know how they're gonna benefit, the more they'll feel like giving it to you. Do all that's said above, but really emphasize on how they will benefit. Sometimes just telling them that they will be advertised by the team, all over the nation, they'd feel that's special and give you a grant.
OK gotta run,
-Bharat

[Erin Rapacki]

Over the four years I've been participating in FIRST, I've had to make many presentations... some small, some big (but not as big as yours). I had made a Power Point presentation of about 350 pictures of people having fun in FIRST. Pictures range from the 2001 - 2004 games, and include the ppl working on bots in the pits, mascots, robots on the playing field, random happy people, more robots, etc... I set each picture to a 4 sec auto-transition, and put the slide show on repeat.

My style? I stand in front of the screen and talk about FIRST in a way that specifically pertains to my audience. The pictures give an overall visual as to why I'm so enthusiastic about the program, but my words give them the information they need. In addition, because the pictures transition every few seconds... the audience stays interested.

Just an idea...



ByE

erin

[phrontist]

UPDATE: Just got out of the meeting. I think it went very well, and thanks for all the advice...

I ended up following Erin's format, which worked well, except I was freqently interrupted by: "Wow! Thats amazing..."

They seemed suprised that students were running the show...

The institution is loaded, they said they plan to have $1 Million by NOVEMBER that would just be going to OUR school district...

Now they're required to save a lot of that money, but hey, any donation is a good donation.

We need $11,000 so thats only 1.1% of their income...

[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by phrontist

The institution is loaded, they said they plan to have $1 Million by NOVEMBER that would just be going to OUR school district...

We need $11,000 so thats only 1.1% of their income...

Holy moly! Thats a lot of mulah! If they happen to want to hear any presentations down in Florida.... thats already double my schools budget thus far.

Well I'm sorry I didn't catch this post earlier, but it there are any other people interested and need help with presentations, I gave two speeches during my time over the summer in Oklahoma. I have videos promoting FIRST, the 2004 game animation, a competition during the UCF regional that ended in a tie and all four robots on the bar, team 67 2004 animation (good for values of FIRST), and dozens and dozens of pictures. I also set up an entire promo folder which I put onto a CD to hand out to interested parties. This CD included more matches, videos, and the FIRST 2003 documentary. Anyone who wants any videos from me just let me know.

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Bonzack1390

Holy moly! Thats a lot of mulah! If they happen to want to hear any presentations down in Florida.... thats already double my schools budget thus far.

Well, to be fair this foundation can't give all that money away, they are required to try to save/grow a lot of it...

BUT apparently a bunch of local developers (think high-rise construction) have been guilted into "giving back to the community" because they are "burdening the school district"...

I don't care WHY they do it, but it sounds good to me...

Moral of the story: One (wo)man's guilt is another (wo)man's Gain!