Back in Feb, I posted one blog about Stanford Entrepreneur Week that I went. Here are more learning from Stanford eWeek with several downloads and videos:

• Quick review of the full event agenda
• Pitching & Presenting Workshop Handouts (I found this session very practical and helpful to all of us as individuals and businesses)

• What is the Next Big Thing? (It’s a fun podcast to listen to. One thing stayed with me in my head is: “think about the big problem you want to solve; create a new kind of bank!” It’s the chat between Tony Perkins, CEO of AlwaysOn; Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper, Fisher Jurvetson; and Michael Moe, Founding Partner of ThinkEquity - discuss the evolutions in online media, the power of partnerships, and other next-generation opportunities for the global marketplace.

• Innovation as the Crux of Entrepreneurship from Stanford University President John Hennessy

Enjoy!

Tags: entrepreneur, eweek, stanford

During the weekend, I went to one event as part of the Stanford Entrepreneur Week. Most of the events are free. If you are interested in anything related to startups or entrepreneur, do check it out. It is a good event to learn, share and network with people in the entrepreneur fields of business and research.

The event I went is “Pitching and Presenting Workshop: How to Make Your Story Compelling”. The material from the workshop and presentation was nothing new, but very practical. What amzaed me is the fact that there are so many people are interested in “pitching”, yet there are few people who really knows how.

Here are my key learning that I would like to share from my own experience:

• Pitching happens every day on almost everything we do.

Pitching is not only a business activity. It happens at work, at home, at movie theatre, among colleagues, between wife and husband, among friends, online and offline…You and your friend were discussing if they would all go to the movie you want, it’s a pitch. Your husband or wife wants to buy a Graco car seat versus a Chicoo brand, it’s a pitch. You have an innovative idea on how to improve one project and you need to get your boss’ buy in, it’s a pitch. You run into a person at a bar, who could be your potential client, and you want him/her have more interests in your offering, it’s a pitch…

• Practice your pitch skills when ever you can.

With your wife, your boss, your colleagues, or someone you run into at a bar…

• Develop your pitch on your own brand - who you are - and always keep it in your back pocket

Have a short 2-3 sentence long pitch around your self: who you are, what you do, what might be interesting to your audience at the time. I found this tactic really helpful. It’s like the real and juicy inside-content of your “business card”, that helps others to know about you and what you do as a real person.

• Other common successful pitch elements:

The workshop summarized 3 main tips on how to create a compelling pitch from business perspective:

1. what’s the problem you are trying to solve
2. why it matters /why it is a problem
3. how you are going to solve the problem and why it’s different

I broadened these tactics to the general use for our day-to-day activities, not only business activities. The methods is actually quite simple: make it interesting to your audience at the time and keep it short.

Tags: entrepreneur, event, pitch, stanford, story telling