Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Demo day in eClub


new teams will meet in eClub this Thursday for a dry run presentations.  The purpose is to test the ideas, get a feedback and prepare for a final presentation in front of a panel of judges on May 9th.

This time eClub tried to put together curriculum to help you to develop and communicate your ideas to be successful in competing for a seed money in our competition. Two weeks ago Lucie Havlickova taught eClubbers in the art of delivering a stunning presentation. She has listed and explained all the basic rules. It is up to you to exercise in front of an audience now. The presentation is the first test of how well you can formulate your ideas. It is also the best first test about the quality of the idea. Jan Vesely delivered a series of Lean Startup presentations formulating the first steps on the road of testing your hypotheses. One of the most important messages is: get out of the buildings. This is the Steve Blank’s famous advice. Finding customers and making sure they need your solution, your product is the first essential step in building successful startup. A presentation in front of your peers will be the first real step in this direction.

We will organize the dry run presentation in a similar way we have done in the last years. We will meet in the great Era Svet rooms having coffee in a relaxed atmosphere. Every team will have about 10 minutes for a short presentation, and then we will open discussion. Ask for explanation for clarification, find out the essential, try to learn how you would better formulate the final idea, how to communicate briefly etc.  We will as usual record all presentations. This is a great chance to watch yourself and fix all the flaws.

eClub focuses on students teams. There needs to be at least one student in a competing team. We do not expect the teams will be describing finished products we are looking more on newly created teams planning to start an interesting fresh business. How to prepare for the presentation? Come with a maximum of four slides to support your ideas. Try to present to some of your friends before to fix the ideas and see how long it will take. I will appreciate if you can register before Thursday, this will allow us to better plan for the evening. If you don't, it is OK too, just show up, registration will be open till the final demo day in May.

I hope, for the final presentation all teams will already have a web page with a short product or service description. You do not need it for the dry run. The final competition will be run in front of a panel of international judges. It is therefore important to deliver your presentation in English. In exceptional cases we will allow the dry run in Czech, but it is highly recommended to test your English skills.

Join us and present your new ideas, show up even if you are not presenting you can give a valuable feedback to the new teams. I am sure it will be a great experience for all.