Honing my elevator pitch in front of 1000 people | Travel Research Online

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Honing my elevator pitch in front of 1000 people

Tomorrow I am going to a program in my hometown called Ignite! Actually, I attended my first one last year, and I am going again to maybe work up my courage for next year! Ignite is (my definition) a very short TED Talk with a twist. You come up with a topic. You provide 20 slides to go with your presentation and you have 5 minutes to finish it with each slide advancing every 15 seconds. No pressure there huh? So what does that have to do with travel?

Directly; not a whole lot. Indirectly, probably quite a bit. I almost signed up for this year, but chickened out at the last minute. I am okay with smaller groups, but when you approach a thousand, I start to freak out—especially if I am flying solo…and under pressure. So I will watch and observe again and hopefully look to present in 2019.

If I select a travel topic (and let’s be honest, there is no shortage of them), this will give me an opportunity to put myself in front of a thousand or more of my neighbors who may (or may not) know I am in the travel business. But rather than pitching them on a deal as one might do on a cruise night; I will be tweaking them to maybe catch the travel bug. And if I am entertaining and memorable enough, they may come to me. There are a lot of “ifs” in there, but the cost is zero so if I flop…nothing lost other than my humility. If I succeed, well I will let you know how that works out.

But as I mentally prepare for 2019 and observe these brave souls tomorrow night, my mind will be racing because an Ignite talk is very similar to the elevator pitch that everyone says we must have down-pat. Which I don’t. Just think about it. You have a very limited amount of time to convey your message. You need to grab their attention, hold it for a little, and leave them with a positive impression. No pressure there huh?

So, here I am with 1000 of my neighbors looking to be entertained, amused, and quite probably pitched (in some subtle way) tomorrow night. I will be trying to pick out what I feel are the “best practices” of the 15 presenters and hopefully hone down some topics and a plan for me in 2019.

Have any TRO members done something like this? Any refreshed tips for your elevator speech?

These talks are held all over the world. If you want to check one out, here’s the website. And if you are brave enough to speak, make sure you send me the video to share!

  One thought on “Honing my elevator pitch in front of 1000 people

  1. Stef Katz says:

    I really appreciate you sharing this! I assume I’m the only one who hesitates putting myself out there in front of so many people, doing what I really must to make my business grow.

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