The second workshop focusing on pitching training took place on the evening of May 12th and it was moderated by Gleb Maltsev, who runs the successful communications agency Stoneful and is a recognized master of the art of performing and presenting.

Maltsev brought out many important points when it comes to pitching, like remembering the names of people and companies and connecting with them as soon as possible, either on Facebook or LinkedIn. Often people rush when introducing themselves and are forgetful of other people's names. He said that if you seek attention, you have to be attentive yourself. The name itself is also important, because if you want to succeed internationally, the name of your product, company etc should be easily pronounceable.

He also noted that when pitching, it's important to know your audience. For example, who are the investors present and what is in their portfolio. That helps set the tone and content of the pitch. Usually that goes unnoticed.

The recurring theme of the workshop was self-reflection. The participants had to answer the question "Why are you doing this and why do you care?". The final conclusion was that if you want to be believable, you have to be honest and vulnerable while telling your story. If the people listening can relate to you and understand why the topic is so important to you, they also start to care.

Gleb Maltsev was very honest and vulnerable himself and he connected with everybody fairly quickly. He learned everybody's names and bits and pieces about their stories, while also sharing stories about himself. Feedback for this workshop was exceptionally good and everybody learned something new.

Gleb Maltsev's presentation can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/glebmaltsev/fundamentals-of-writing-a-pitch

And you can also check out his Twitter account - @glebmaltsev.

Ethel Okas
UT Idea Lab

Translated by Gerda Kelly Pill
UT Idea Lab