Storytelling: Project Pitch and Picking Teams
Format
This is a short list of pointers and things to consider
Target Audience
Project leads and contributors trying to put together an idea quickly
Materials
- Text editor & or etherpad for notes
Introduction
Pitching your project is an important kickstart to getting started at a hackathon; practicing your pitch can help you define your goals. This exercise will provide some pointers to designing the perfect pitch.
Steps to Complete
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Pick a project
Think about science and Space Apps and browse the challenges on the Space Apps site, try to narrow your focus to a few key areas of interest, or areas of absent work as far as you are concerned. Write down these ideas as 1-2 sentence descriptions answering who your project serves, what your project does, and what you can accomplish in a hackathon as an MVP.
Talk to others
Discuss your pitches with a partner, maybe someone sitting near you, and solicit critiques; provide similar feedback for them. Repeat with other hackathon participants, and see if there are any folks who might want to work with you, or with whom you might like to work.
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Draft your pitch
Choose one project to focus on, or partner with one of the project leads whose pitch you already heard
Browse the following guides to project pitch design:
- Guildlines for your Pitch: short bullet tips from MIT
- What's in a Winning Pitch: slideshare about winning hackathon pitches
- Hackathon Guide: general guidelines and resources linked for how to succeed at a code sprint.
- Open Data Hackathon How-to Guide: lovely resource not specific to open data work.
- How to pitch a brilliant idea: Harvard Business School tips to pitches.
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Consideration delivery
Confidence in your project will inspire others to work with you.
Try to define a few types of collaborators you'd like to work with, and mention those types during the pitch
Project Pitch
Beginning of the hackathon
"Hi there, my name is Aurelia and one thing I've noticed is that there is not index of scientific papers using NASAS Ladsat data an imagery, I'd like to build that index so tha people could see the value of open access repositories of satellite imagery and data, made available to the masses. I'll need help from a designer with experience on front-end programming, I'm a developer so I'd love to work with someone to collaborate on the architecture the resulting gallery project.""
Glossary
MVP
Minimum Viable Product, the basic version of what you are seeking to build, one that will allow you to validate and test a few ideas and still feel "complete" after a given time limit for production.
Pitch
A presentation, usually brief, around an idea and plan of action meant to help solicit contributors and build momentum for work that ensues.