10 Pines Blog

Tips for introducing yourself in a conference or 'the conference elevator pitch'

conference elevator pitch tips agile personal elevator pitch introducing yourself

It could sounds basic, but when you talk with people in a conference, you have to think quickly. So it’s very important to have in mind a successful path to a productive five-minutes chat. After being talking with a lot of people and making a lot of mistakes (since not knowing what to say about what our company do, to not asking how to contact him/her back); I’ve decided to write down a guidelines to introduce yourself and getting to know the other person, avoiding typical mistakes.

Must-ask questions (and its must-remember answers)

It’s important to talk, but sometimes it’s more important and more difficult to listen. That’s why I prefer to start talking about what you need to hear and know from the person in front of you:

  • What’s her/his name? Basic, but sometimes when you are in a rush, you forget this.
  • What does she/he do? Again, basic. But a lot of times I’ve found myself speaking a lot about what I do in order to convince the other how great we are, that I forgot to know and understand what this guy does. And this is one of the most important things in order to identify how you can make synergy together.
  • How can you contact her/him back? This is important so you can continue your conversation if a potential lead emerges from the talk.

Finally, it’s not important to ask the questions like this or in this order; what it is really important is that at the end of the conversation you know these 3 things:

  • you know his/her name,
  • what his/her company do,
  • and how you can contact him/her

What do I need to tell from me?

It is really important also to let him/her know about you. And since you have a very short limited time, you have to choose very careful what do you want the other person to remember. So here it’s the top 3 messages you should always send:

  • What is my name and the name of my company? This is important so he/she can later connect your name or your company name with other things
  • What do I/we do? It’s important to be wide open, but not to much. So try to be special in something, but let space for match with the interests of your audition
  • With who? Here I encourage to choose your top 3 clients. Not the most important for your company but the most well known.

Template elevator pitch to introduce myself

So, saying this, and in order to have a training and think about this basic but important things, I create a template for sort of an elevator pitch to introduce yourself. Again, you could think this is worthless, but try doing it and you will discover that it’s not so easy.

{% blockquote %} My template elevator pitch to introduce myself

  • My name is…
  • My company does…

  • We work with…

  • My name is Jorge Silva, I work at 10Pines, a south america company based in Buenos Aires

  • My company does great software for great companies

  • Such as Starbucks, 8thLight and Teespring {% endblockquote %}

So, now is your turn, tell me

  • Who are you?
  • What do you do?
  • And how can I contact you?

That’s it. Simple and straightforward. Hope this is useful.

13 Oct 2015