Venture Forum

I was really impressed with what I was seeing in the Venture Forum. When they first told me that we were going to the 5-minute elevator pitch contest, I thought that it was going to be some Grad students or maybe some representatives from certain companies. However, to my surprise, there were CEO's from the companies presenting the products and giving the elevator pitches. I really wasn't expecting to see that at all. i think that it is very important for WPI to keep doing this type of events, since it brings a very large pool of executive officers from different companies and markets, and allows the WPI community to reach out to them. 

Despite the products being very interesting, there were some of them that seemed very interesting to me. One of them, was the Achilles's Tendon restoration. I found the presentation very good, the presenter tackled the aspects that you want to see in an elevator pitch, and I liked the summary that he had at the end with the 4 main points of the product. Also, I believe that the product will benefit a lot all the people/animals that have a torn Achilles Tendon, as it is an injury that happens a lot and usually takes a lot to recover. The other company that impressed me with their product was Freight Farm. the way that they introduce the technology into the food industry will definitely help it grow significantly. Last, GelSight Imagining was a very interesting product that can help all those companies that use materials that need to be in optimal conditions in order to function appropriately. Certain things can not be seen by the human eye, and the gel that they've created can have  a lot of potential in the market.     

Take-away's from the presentations:

Practice before Presenting. In some of the presentations, the presenters were talking too much and did not have time to give their presentation well. They were rushing through the slides and the information, and they were not allowing the audience to fully understand their product, its purpose, and its reason. Also, know your product to be able to answer every question they ask you. I went up to the poster of the rubber band social connector, and they were unable to answer a couple of my questions which made them look unprofessional.  

Strict time. I was surprised to see how strict the judges were with the time for the presentation and the Q&A section. There were a lot of presenters and they had to stick to the schedule, so even if the presenters were in the middle of their presentation or answers, they would cut them off. 

Gain Credibility. As learned in class, it is important to gain credibility of your team and product in order to have an investor/customer buy your product. At the end of the presentation, the companies had the information of all the team members that worked on the product, as well as some advisers. The curriculum of each member was there, which is important to see who is involved in the creation of the product.  

Body Language. In my opinion, a presentation is more interesting when the presenters have some more body language and movement. Personally, I don't like listening to a presentation and having the presenter stand behind a podium and read off from the sides. It is important to not read too much, and have more eye contact with the audience and judges. If they would've had wireless microphones it would've allowed them to move around a little on stage and to be understood better when they talked. 

Amaze the Audience. It is vital to keep the audience and judges interested in your presentation and product. You should try to make the presentation clear and interesting in order to keep everyone with you. 

More images, Less words. In the presentations and posters I find it more interesting to see pictures and graphs and have the presenter explain them and talk about them, instead of seeing a lot of words. In some of the posters, it as very hard to see and understand from far, and I had to come very close in order to see it.