over 11 years ago
Convincing Judges, + Live Event Details
This is the last weekend to prep your submissions. Please allow me to offer some important, useful tips on this final stretch!
Video to win the hearts of judges
Our judges will go as in-depth in evaluating your app as they feel necessary, but your job is to optimize their first impression. Use a video to sell them on it, and keep it short and impactful. Talk about the problem/solution, the market need, as well as your best features. Why users need this and why it is so awesome, not just what it does.
What to expect at the Live RootsTech event
You are competing in a similar way as a contestant or presenter would in the popular show "Shark Tank", or TechCrunch Disrupt. Prior to RootsTech, 8 semi-finalists will be selected by our judges based on your online submissions and content. On the first day of RootsTech, another round of judging will narrow this down to 4 finalists after you present to them in-person in front of an audience of 300-400 innovators like yourselves. The 4 finalists will make their way to the BIG final event wherein it is a consumer audience of over 2000, as well as streamed live around the world with a potential audience in the 10's of thousands.
If you feel you are not good at presenting, maybe invite someone who is. A single presenter is best, but we'll allow a max of 2 representatives from your team or company on stage, and a good approach would likely be one for talking and one for demos, and maybe both for Q&A by the judges.
Preparing for the stage
You will have 5 minutes to present on stage with no allowance for "overtime" (you will be given a "times up!" by the moderator/host). We encourage live-demos if possible, but we require a backup plan that does not rely on devices or internet (either a slide presentation, or a video, or just your raw speaking talent, or any combination totaling 5 minutes). If you choose to play a video to the consumer audience, it must meet our quality requirements (details communicated later), and it can be different than the video you might have given the judges at the time you submitted your app.
My suggestion is to focus on the video for the judges right now (and if that happens to also work well for a consumer audience, great!). You can then focus on your stage presentation, but be aware that you won't know whether you are in the pool of 8 semi-finalists until Jan 30.
Got Questions?
Discuss more about videos here.
Or open a new discussion and start some dialog!
We are already seeing some really cool submissions coming in, and are looking forward to even more as we approach that deadline. Good Luck!
David Pugmire
Director, RootsTech Innovator Challenge