What's your FIRST Elevator Pitch?

[Phoenix Spud]

I can't say that I have an elevator (or as they are called here in Australia "lift") speech ready to go. It depends a bunch on the situation, and who I am talking to. Whoever I am talking to, I try to get in the major points that have been mentioned prior in this thread.

As a former FLLer, I agree that FLL helps you with public speaking more than FRC does. I think one of the reasons for this is that FLL is easier to explain. There are two reasons for this. One, you can have a demo of FLL going semi-easily all you need is a table and robot. While the table might be difficult to get to a location it is possible--or you can just bring a portable table! The other reason is that FRC is difficult to explain. I find myself rambling about alliances... and weight/height restrictions... and selection processes... and doing conversion from english to metric units... (I currently live in Australia) and explaining the size of the competition... and who Dean Kamen is... etc!

I have also found that it is harder to explain these things in a foreign country, since most people here have no concept of FIRST at all. Most people who I talked to in NH, had somewhat of a clue what FIRST was from the media attention GSR gets.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Jon236

Agreed....I like your idea of training sessions for the kids; it is something we need to emulate. If you have some training materials to post, that would be helpful.

Happy to share examples of materials for training Student Ambassadors. Since many of the components change each year, I don't think it is useful to post them in the white papers.
But I can forward on sample materials to anyone if you send me a PM with your email.

[RoboMom]

There is a terrific event happening in Baltimore tonight. Talk about real world experience and why you should spend the time perfecting your elevator pitch!
The Maryland Tech Crawl
http://mdtechcrawl.com/

[JohnBoucher]

One of the blogs I read has a great article on the elevator pitch.
Dumb Little Man

Now that robots have shipped, it's time to pratice your elevator pitch for the judges. You need to grab the judges attention. Pratice that 30 second intro about the team and why your robot is the best at the regional. Select a talking point about your robot that will set you apart. The last thing you need to do is pratice, pratice and pratice.

[rsisk]

One of my favorite questions to ask teams in the pits:

What does FIRST mean to you?


You would be amazed at how many blanks stares I get in return.

Anyone on the team should be able to respond to this question and finding an elevator pitch on this thread is a really good place to start.

We are doing judge training for our teams this weekend. We ask the students the kind of questions they might be asked by a judge in the pits. We explain to them why the judges are there and we will go over the awards being judged. It is simple to do and will really make your team shine when the judges come by.

Good luck teams!

[RoboMom]

From Ignite RailsConf in Baltimore.

Ignite events are lightning talks, where 16 speakers each get 5 minutes to talk about a subject they are passionate about, but with a twist: the speaker's slides are automatically advanced every 15 seconds. Ignite's motto is "enlighten us, but be quick about it!"

Here's Joshua Baer's talk, "Five Secrets to a Killer Elevator Pitch" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEd0fjXsk8w