Our team is in the planning stages of our Chairman’s Award interview for our regional. I would like to know of presentation styles that other teams have been successful in trying (at least in feedback, if not from winning the actual award). We’re thinking of either using Powerpoint presentation or a poster-type setup. Right now I’m leaning towards the powerpoint just because it can convey alot of information in that short time window. If we can’t use a projector, we’ve thought about bringing in three laptops with the presentation uploaded so the judges can go along with the visuals as we talk. At this point we also want to make some sort of team book to leave with the judges. Feedback?
It’s all good.
For Powerpoint, keep it to 4 word bullet points. If you write a coherent sentence you are writing too much. Speak to the bullets, don’t read them.
Allow 1 slide for every 3-5 minutes, get your point across without fluff. Every word you say should count.
For example:
Slide 2: COMMUNITY SERVICE
- Girl Scouts & Lego
- Flood cleanup
- Blood Drive
- Drainage Grate markings
(Then you speak about how your team went out to three different Girl Scout troops and helped them form FLL teams, mentored them, for 3 years now. Then how the whole team went to a flood-ravaged neighborhood last year and helped the residents clean up and repair their houses - the best part was pushing that 10 x 16 shed about 20 feet back to its foundation. And so on…)
Tell stories, make it interesting, practice in front of friends, mirrors, and video cameras until you sound natural. KNOW the subject thoroughly, do not interrupt each other, and work as a team in the presentation.
I’m sure others will offer their best advice as well.
Don
OK, that definitely sounds like an option. Another idea I had if we don’t go in that direction would be to stick with the powerpoint, but have no text on it with pictures going by every 10 seconds or so. At the same time we would talk about what they are seeing. To me it seems a lot easier for the judges to just look at pictures and listen rather than to look, read, and listen.
Remember you only have 5 minutes to speak, and then 5 minutes for questions. Focus on the most important information first, and practice in front of people.
Instead of repeating what I said before, check out this post:
If you send me your email, I can send you a copy of a presentation our team gave at the Upper Darby kickoff titled “Preparing Your Chairman’s Award: Almost As Fun As Building a Robot”
My team (MARS 1523) won the Chairman’s at the FL Regional and I was part of the presentation, here’s what I can tell you…
We used a Powerpoint (ours was only seven slides with tons of pictures and big text), but you need a projector and you have to set it up fast as in < 30 Seconds. We gave the judges our business plan (if you don’t have one, it’s too late to start one now), event documentation with news articles about us, and goody bags with our MARS alien etc., all to keep. We were energetic and were happy to be presenting. The judges mainly asked us about our business plan so if you don’t one, I don’t know what they’ll ask you. But you only have 5 minutes to present and 5 minutes of Q & A so don’t waste any time thinking or going “Ummmm…” Anything you couldn’t get to in the presentation, try to bring it up in the Q & A or as we did, while we were packing stuff up to leave.
Good luck!!!
That’s another point I want to hear about, this whole “business plan” question. I mean, I can talk about how our team manages and raises funds, but I don’t know if that is the extent of what they’re looking for. What are some questions anybody’s been asked by judges and what tips do you have for discussing a team’s business plan?
I would recommend checking out past winner’s websites, many have links to their Chairman’s Award materials/presentations.
Here is a link to WildStang’s : http://www.wildstang.org/main/chairmans.php When we presented we brought books for the judges, 3 science boards with info on them, as well as a power point presentation. We also practiced daily. Practice is probably the best thing we did
Any questions feel free to ask.
If you want to go with PowerPoint watch this first…
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1529637984
Secondly, I’m against all technology unless absolutly needed in a Chairmans interview. They KNOW the information, they have it infront of them printed out about all your projects you’re going to go over again in the distracting PowerPoint/Keynote/whatever presentation. What they want to see is the students, mentors, and their interactions, personalities, traits, and passion.
My one friend interviewed for a job as a EMT on campus at UD, and he failed his first interview. Why? He focused on facts and the job, not himself. They wanted someone they can be friends with, not a resume. Same with Chairmans, they don’t want to give the award to a list of FLL and FTC teams and community service hours. They want to give the award to the students, mentors, teachers, and parents who put their heart and passion into what they do and what results (or as important, if not more so, lac of results) they got.
Sell your drive head, sell that guy in the stands who’s taking scouting information, sell the guy tightening bolts, sell yourself. That’s the poin of the interview, to see the humans behind the essay, not to see a PowerPoint get in the way.
One thing that may have helped us was a long history lesson of the team for the presenters. Something to do on the long bus ride down. Eleven years (in 2006) is a long time to cover but it helps when the presenters only remember four years back. Kelli can give her take on the history lesson.
Was that the lesson that I thought would take 20 minutes but took the entire state of Tennessee?
So I thought about your question and figured I would type up a few recommendations that I have learned through both presenting Chairman’s in 2006 and five years of Congressional Debate.
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Know your material. Know everything you can about your team and I mean everything you can! Know past members, team history, robot history, sponsers, teachers, any handouts/posters/powerpoints that you are going to use. Talk to old team members, you get wonderful stories from the past. Most of all KNOW EVERY WORD OF YOUR SUBMISSION ESSAY! The judges do read them and have picked out specific parts to ask questions about. It helps to know what’s going on.
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Look nice. Its not that you have to wear a suit or anything, but brush your hair and clean the robo-dirt from your nails. It shows a commitment that you are making to the presentation itself.
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Have something to give the judges! Books are great! But if you cannot afford books have a flyer, anything that they can refrence when you leave, your presentation may only be 5 minutes(on the dot, they will stop you) but any handouts will last a long time after that.
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RELAX! It is not that bad. When you are delivering your speech if things go wrong just roll with it, laughs and awkward pauses are normal! You are teenagers after all. I started to laugh during my speech but kept going (I don’t know how much the judges understood) and my team wasn’t penalized. Things happen, it adds to the performance and will be something to pass down to future generations of FIRSTers
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Have Fun. Chairmans’s is a great opportunity. If all else fails you got to give a presentation to some of the countries top business men and women at a young age.
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Practice practice practice. Things get better with time. Read your speech in front of your team and your parents, criticism helps in the long run. Have people ask you questions about your team, talk to people who have already been in that room, get some of the questions from previous years and answer them. Also… you only get 5 minutes, they will stop you so get your timing down or you may miss out on something big!
And yes, the history lesson was unbelievably helpful!!! Its nice to know the building blocks that have created your team
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
-Kelli
Personally, I recommend against using power point or large posters. While they might help you, they can also distract the judges from what you are saying.
When 67 won in '05, the presenting girls went with the theme of 'We’ve got the recipe for success" and dressed up as chefs. The had covered ‘serving platters’ and on each one, there was something tangible that was important (buttons, medals, business cards, a photo album, etc.). The point is that you MUST have something memorable that makes the judges sit back and say ‘wow’.
A powerpoint feels generic, so if you go down that avenue make sure that you are very animated, confident, and have other visual aides/themes. Highlight what makes you outstanding, especially unique attributes that most teams don’t have.
Also, tell them ABOUT your team. Who are your sponsors? Where do you work? What is your organizational structure? Do you have any interesting stories that highlight how awesome your team is?
Be personal, make them laugh, but remain professional. Look nice if you’re not dressing up/wearing a costume (which is not unheard of). Smile a lot, be at ease, BE CONFIDENT, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, and everything will work out perfectly.
If you have any more questions, or want information about our presentation in '05, please don’t hesitate to PM/email me!
~Megan
On behalf of Team 1676, NJ Regional Chairman’s this year, I can tell you that this is pretty much exactly how we did it. We had pictures scrolling for about 5 seconds each, you’d be surprised how long that lasts. And we spoke, and allowed them to look a the pictures throughout. They went chronologically with our speech, however, in some cases, the pictures may have gotten ahead or behind us, but we did not want the distraction of clicking for words during the speaking.
Title page and picture. ::Click::
Speaker number one’s pictures went and when complete… deep breath by all while speaking one clicked the computer.
Speaker number two’s pictures went… so on and so forth until the end.
During the speaking, we handed them our essential packages during our speaking, while the pictures continued to scroll on our topics of discussion…
It just saved the distractions for us speakers of the computer. We didn’t have to break from a train of thought to fiddle wit the computer. Meanwhile, the judges seemed to enjoy the pictures without having to spend to much time distracted by it.