Pitch contests get creative!
1. The 5 business cards format: The Moo 5-Card competition sets very unique guidelines for its presenters. They invite presenters to explain their business ideas on 5 business cards. The idea was spawned when Colalife made their pitch using Moo cards. More images from the moo cards competition here.
b) 20 images, 20 seconds each: This is the format for presentation constests organized by the famous PechaKucha organization. PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk in conjunction with the images.
The PechaKucha website explains the reason behind this format – “Because architects talk too much! Give a microphone and some images to an architect — or most creative people for that matter — and they’ll go on forever! Give PowerPoint to anyone else and they have the same problem.” PechaKucha was founded in 2003 and has witnessed 1000s of presentations all over the world.
c) 1 minute & 2 slides: The Thiel Fellowship program started by Peter Thiel (initial investor in Facebook) encourages young students to drop-out of college and focus 2 years on building sustainable and disruptive businesses. Although there have been some differences in opinions about the impact and consequences of this program, there is no denying the fact that the format of their pitch contests is quite intriguing and challenging.
Students have exactly 1 minute to talk about their idea and have just 2 slides of visuals to communicate their ideas. At the end of the 1 minute their microphones are switched off and the next presenters proceed with their pitches.
