What's your FIRST Elevator Pitch?

[Michael Sperber]

Instead of reviving an old thread started by John Boucher a little over two years ago, I thought it would be important to start clean and fresh... after all, FIRST has changed a lot in the past two years.

With all the discussion about the "Educate to Innovate" initiative launched by President Obama yesterday at the White House, I figured it would be important for all of us to practice, share and improve our promotion of FIRST within our communities.

Usually, this comes down to having to explain FIRST to someone who does not know anything about FIRST or the FIRST programs... and having to share that message in a clear, clean and concise format within an extremely short period of time. (If you take too long, you risk losing their interest.) Thus, the Elevator Pitch.

Here's an explanation of an Elevator Pitch from wikipedia:

An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch should be possible to deliver in the time span of an elevator ride, meaning in a maximum of 30 seconds and in 130 words or fewer.

The term is typically used in the context of an entrepreneur pitching an idea to a venture capitalist or angel investor to receive funding. Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea and team on the basis of the quality of its elevator pitch, and will ask entrepreneurs for the elevator pitches to quickly weed out bad ideas and weak teams.

A variety of other people, including entrepreneurs, project managers, salespeople, evangelists, policy-makers, job seekers, and speed daters commonly use elevator pitches to get their point across quickly.

So... What's your FIRST Elevator Pitch?

[JesseK]

You know I've never given thought to a verbal pitch. I've always "pitched" it via whatever situation I've been given, be it presentation format, handouts, etc.

There was one I created that was an animated power point, emphasizing the noisiness and single-threaded-ness of most STEM programs funded by private organisations. Then FIRST comes in with a loud, powerful statement that FIRST seeks to change the way we see things as a nation: Academics should be celebrated more than athletics; the future of our childrens' success rests solely in the hands of what those hands create rather than in the latest economic bubble or sociological fad; the organisation that helps FIRST meet it's monumental goals will not have to do it alone.

It was in different words than those, but the idea was to show how FIRST stands out from the rest of the STEM initiatives while also delivering Dean's message as I've gathered it from all of his speeches.

[JaneYoung]

Yesterday's event at the White House shows the value of speech writers and also, people who do research and preparation so that the event goes well. The more prepared the team is (and not just one or two - the whole team), armed with a brief elevator pitch, information regarding the team's history, and some thoughts of why the program is valuable to them as individuals, as a team, and as a community - is a strong asset for the team in any setting or situation. There is a photo that I've seen that shows the teams and guests sitting and listening while President Obama is speaking and the robot is being demonstrated. They are listening, attentive, and focused. Their professional conduct speaks well for the teams and the program, long after the event is over.

[KelliV]

I have to give this a lot at my school actually, here's what I generally do...

"In high school and elementary school I was involved in FIRST, a multi-national high intensity robotics competition that partners students with engineers and local scientists from major corporations, For example, mine was sponsored by Motorola Inc., in order to promote STEM education initiatives. The FIRST season usually has 6 weeks of building followed by a month of competitions culminating with the World Championships. Robots usually weigh in around 120lbs and range in heights up to 15 feet tall.

Being in FIRST has not only helped me develop technical skills, but also improved my people skills and taught me how to work successfully in an engaging competitive environment with not only teammates, but competitors as well. These skills have helped create lasting connections and memories. I would recommend FIRST to any student as it was an amazing experience that I am honored to have been a part of and people like you make it happen."

I usually have an old team video/photos on my ipod as well.

[rsisk]

I usually start mine with:

"I am a mentor for a competitive high school robotics team"

That always seems to get their attention, because their response is typically to look at me and say "What??"

Then I get to roll into the pitch about FIRST robotics. A little bit of competition description, a lot of the inspiration angle, a laundry list of benefits for students/community/mentors etc.

Choose from one or more of the following:

Competition

• Robot teams form alliances to accomplish a challenge. The alliances change each round to encourage "coopertition" (this one encourages further discussion about what coopertition is).
• Imagine 50 teams of robotics students in a sports arena with all the glitz and glamour of a rock concert, its exciting, you have to experience it to believe it.
• You can walk around the pits and talk with the students as they work on their robots. You never have meant a greater bunch of students, they are in their element and love to tell you all about it.

Inspiration

• Its all about inspiring students in science and technology. Then, in a fake whisperThe robot competition is just a means to an end.
• Its a pretty cool concept, bringing together students and mentors, giving them a challenge and common interest, and everyone becomes a winner.

Laundry List of Benefits

• Its fun and inspiring
• Great opportunity for project based learning
• Another way to reach out to students that may have been left behind
• It makes us all smarter

Of course we always carry tri-fold brochures with us to have a take away for the person. I'll link in the tri-fold later, once I get it up to CD-Media

[RoboMom]

Forgive me if I’m repeating myself as this has come up in other posts re: FRC elevator speeches.

For the past 5 years, along with the Ambassador Coordinator I have trained “Student Ambassadors” at the Chesapeake Regional. I know this is done at many events, but believe this should be a formalized role at all the events. In fact, I would love to see a "training" offered at kickoff's and incorporated in more workshops for teams year round.

Student volunteers from any teams attending the event are gathered up and have a 1-2 hour training. The first part of the training is a mini-Toastmasters. Speaking up. Eye contact. Listening skills. Not playing with their hair. The elevator speech about themselves. The students sit in a semi-circle and are called on and are grilled. In a nice way. These are the same skills the students need to interview for college and for jobs.

The second part is the elevator speech about FIRST. Students are given some background materials and get to practice. Then they sign up for times to escort VIP’s, school groups, and the public.

One of the best resources to help students explain FIRST is John Abele’s “The Psychology of the FIRST Experience.” http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...er.aspx?id=952

I have gotten great feedback on this approach; from politicians, from the Supt. of Schools for Maryland and education community, and from the corporate world. There are students who discover they shine in this role. Some discover that even though they didn’t have a leadership role on the team or have a major role building the robot they do have a very important role to play at the Regional. I have some wonderful stories which I am happy to share on our next elevator ride.

From my experience, the very hardest audience for the elevator pitch is with the TV media, standing at an event with a mike in your face and noise everywhere. I’ve been lucky to get the words “robots, teamwork, partnerships, alliances, mentoring, scholarships, innovation, awards and gracious professionalism” into the pitch and leave a little time (very little) for whatever the game is that year.

Last year was a very difficult game for an elevator pitch.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Then, in a fake whisperThe robot competition is just a means to an end.

Woodie describes the robot as "the campfire we all sit around."

[Jon236]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

Woodie describes the robot as "the campfire we all sit around."

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.

My elevator pitch is something like "My real profession (I'm a physician) is working with FIRST. I get to help inspire kids to get involved with STEM in the US and in Israel with the moral foundation of Gracious Professionalism."

That gets a response "And how do you do that?" Then I describe "a robotic competition based on a new game every year which requires kids and mentors to figure out the game, design, build and test a robot that is roughly 2 x 3 x 5 feet and 120 pounds within a 6 week time limit. The competition requires random alliances of 3 robots to work together to compete against a similar alliance." I give the example of a Regional Final in Tel Aviv with an Arab team's robot pushing a Jewish team's robot up a ramp so the whole alliance wins. "The kids get it!"

That makes for a very effective elevator pitch!

[JaneYoung]

It's been my experience when talking with FRC and FTC students, that they can readily and easily discuss the robot and the game. What they can struggle with and sometimes can't seem to do at all, is talk about the other aspects of the team and the FIRST program.

The students who have a much easier time talking about different aspects of the team, are the FLL students.

That's just an observation on my part, not a criticism.

Jane

[Fe_Will]

"FIRST is an acronym: For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It's a non-profit workforce development program that challenges 4th-12th grade students to work as a team to design, build, and program a robot. This friendly co-opertition gets students excited about careers in science, technology, engineering and math by giving them hands-on applications of what is being taught in the classroom. This year, Oregon will have over 4,000 students participating in FIRST and over 1,000 technology and manufacturing professionals will mentor teams."

[Roboj]

That's beautiful Fe_Will.

Things I like about it.

Originally Posted by Fe_Will

"FIRST is an acronym: For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

Get's the key words "Inspiration" "Science and Technology" out there

Originally Posted by Fe_Will

This friendly co-opertition gets students excited about careers in science, technology, engineering and math

Describes the higher purpose.

Originally Posted by Fe_Will

by giving them hands-on applications of what is being taught in the classroom.

Covers hands-on learning and that it compliments the classroom

Originally Posted by Fe_Will

This year, Oregon will have over 4,000 students participating in FIRST and over 1,000 technology and manufacturing professionals will mentor teams."

Shows the impact... This isn't just a small thing. If you're talking to media, it gives them a sense of how this is a bigger story than just whatever they see in front of them. Also shows the amount of community involvement. (I personally would have added the worldwide numbers too to show that it's not an Oregon specific thing)

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

It's been my experience when talking with FRC and FTC students, that they can readily and easily discuss the robot and the game. What they can struggle with and sometimes can't seem to do at all, is talk about the other aspects of the team and the FIRST program.

The students who have a much easier time talking about different aspects of the team, are the FLL students.

That's just an observation on my part, not a criticism.

Jane

Second. Our team has former FLL students present our Chairmans as they have prior experience presenting to the judges.

That is one of the few aspects of FLL that beats out FRC. With the required presentation and research FLL'rs have the ability to explain the entire program than FRC'rs can. And some of that is from FLL team being so small that all of the students have been involved with all of the parts on the team. Come to think of it, I could tell you more about Ocean Odysey in 2005 than Lunacy 2009.

AHHH... now I miss FLL!

[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.

[Fe_Will]

Originally Posted by Roboj

That's beautiful Fe_Will.

First of all, it's not my speech. It was written by Jodi Walder-Biesanz (Autodesk Oregon Regional Planning Committee) and Deb Mumm-Hill (Pacific NW Regional Director). I recieved it at the public speaking seminar held at FIRST Fare this past Halloween.

Secondly, I believe giving local stats gives the recipient a more manageable opportunity to join the cause. As a professional is it easier to see yourself as 1 in 1000 or 1 in 50,000?

[Alivia]

My elevator pitch for FIRST has been tweaked throughout the years, and I've found this short sound byte has worked the best to get people interested and asking questions:

FIRST stands for, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." Basically, students work alongside engineers and other mentors to build a robot to compete in a given game each year."

One thing I dislike about this pitch is that it leaves out a HUGE chunk of people/jobs on a team, but to list off all the jobs and hard work that go into a FIRST team could potentially take days...which I'm totally not opposed to to, but this could leave a normal-non-robotics-obsessed person feeling overwhelmed and might lead to them not wanting to ask questions.

Anywho, this one seems to work for me!

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!