Imagine Cup Tips

Slide 1: Imagine Cup 55 tips towards success André Furtado Imagine Cup 2005 World Champion

Slide 2: First of all... • Congratulations! • Thanks for being here. • Please remember: – The following information reflects my own point- of-view! – It is not official Microsoft information/instructions!

Slide 3: Why are we here? • Presentations, demos, judges’ questions... do you need help? • Is there anything you can do during the last months? • What should you do once you are in the battlefield? How can you maximize your winning chances in the Imagine Cup?

Slide 4: Who am I? • André Furtado – Microsoft Student Partner (Brazil) – Imagine Cup 2005 World Champion – afurtado1980.spaces.live.com

Slide 5: What have I done? (Imagine Cup 2005) • Office Designer Invitational – Solvent-OD Team – ArtiFACTORY Solution – 1st place worldwide • Software Design Invitational – Solvent-SD Team – TravelMates Solution – Brazilian champion – 4th place worldwide

Slide 6: ArtiFACTORY (OD) • Goal – Improve performance of people related to document-centric process • Three tools – ArtiFACTORY Modeler – ArtiFACTORY Consolidator – ArtiFACTORY Discoverer • Other features during document editing

Slide 7: ArtiFACTORY (OD)

Slide 11: TravelMates (SD) • Goal – Enhance tourist experience with innovative, practical and comprehensive features • Implementation – Based on a reusable services oriented architecture, named InContext Framework

Slide 12: TravelMates (SD) Search and view Take part in Access detailed Interact with local information on a map of communities to create information about people by translating the region being visited, and share your own tourist points and typical tourist phrases according to your customized tourist services, generated by and playing them in the current position points your friends and local language communities

Slide 13: TravelMates (SD) Share your travel experience easily by making real time mobile posts in your mobile and web blog, and by letting the TravelMates to make automatic posts for you Receive the best consumer information at the right time according Consult tourist information on to your preferences sights you can see in a panoramic view

Slide 14: TravelMates (SD) Explore tourists points with Search and interact with old friends near and far, as well as use the the aid of your virtual agent, TravelMates Interaction Indicator to discover people with similar interests who will help you with and to make new friends suggestions and related links

Slide 15: TravelMates (SD) • InContext Framework Social Networking Service Map Service Notification Service Famework for mobile, context-aware and Content Management Service social applications Blog Service Custom Service Context Logger Service Location Service Customizable and integrated services that can be used in domains other than tourism Knowledge Extraction Service User Profile Service

Slide 16: OK, show me the tips! • In the following slides I’ll present 55 tips for improving your experience in India: – Final preparation tips – Presentation tips – Powerpoint tips – Demo tips – Judges’ questions tips – On-site tips • Most important tips will be marked with this decorator: HOT TIP!

Slide 17: Final preparation tips What’s left for this last month? Leo and Gustavo (SD) @ Guarulhos airport

Slide 18: Final Preparation Tips #1 If you have time, evolve application towards feature bombing!

Slide 19: Final Preparation Tips • ArtiFACTORY Feature Bombing: – Change requests with e-mail integration – Reasearch pane – “Mapper” to associate entities to artifacts

Slide 20: Final Preparation Tips HOT TIP! #2 Get your presentation stable as soon as possible!

Slide 21: Final Preparation Tips #3 Create additional promotional goodies for your solution, such as posters of leaflets!

Slide 22: Final Preparation Tips • TravelMates leaflet: outer-side

Slide 23: Final Preparation Tips • TravelMates leaflet: inner-side

Slide 24: Final Preparation Tips #4 Do not include gifts (mugs, pens, etc.) as additional presentation resources!

Slide 25: Final Preparation Tips #5 Design and print business cards!

Slide 26: Final Preparation Tips HOT TIP! #6 Polish your English!

Slide 27: Final Preparation Tips HOT TIP! #7 Try to finish presentation and demos before traveling! Coding at Yokohama Pan Pacific Hotel: not a good experience at all!

Slide 28: Final Preparation Tips HOT TIP! #8 Try to know more about the local culture and language in advance

Slide 29: Final Preparation Tips #9 Ensure required documents (passport, visa, etc.) are all OK!

Slide 30: Presentation tips Time to sell your fish! Igor and Leo (SD) @ Fish market, Tokyo

Slide 31: Presentation Tips HOT TIP! #10 Check your environment prior to presenting

Slide 32: Presentation Tips #11 Be polite: introduce yourself and the team!

Slide 33: Presentation Tips • Solvent-SD introduction: – “Technology enthusiasts with complementary skills” Gustavo The Balance Restorer Igor Leonardo The Sparkle Brain The Visionary Innovator André The Operative Engine

Slide 34: Presentation Tips HOT TIP! #12 Have a pain slide (one or more)!

Slide 35: Presentation Tips • Pain slide: – Key points you are trying to make: what's the pain to be solved? – Don’t solve the pain on the pain slide! Leave that for the presentation – You have the answer, but the question must appear on the pain slide – Keep it humorous, if possible at all

Slide 36: Presentation Tips • An ArtiFACTORY pain slide: – Documents... …or boundaries? Are they friends?

Slide 37: Presentation Tips • Another ArtiFACTORY pain slide: Semantics from one document to the other are not carried out automatically!

Slide 38: Presentation Tips #13 Briefly introduce your application before demo-ing!

Slide 39: Presentation Tips #14 Bring competitor analysis into discussion!

Slide 40: Presentation Tips • TravelMates competitors:

Slide 41: Presentation Tips HOT TIP! #15 Develop and present a persuasive business plan!

Slide 42: Presentation Tips #16 Avoid “reading impression”!

Slide 43: Presentation Tips #17 Make fun of yourself, but not others!

Slide 44: Presentation Tips #18 Allow only relevant content to be part of your presentation!

Slide 45: Presentation Tips #19 Respect the time in qualifying rounds!

Slide 46: Presentation Tips HOT TIP! #20 In the final round there may be a time tolerance. Explore it!

Slide 47: Presentation Tips #21 Avoid saying “I’m nervous”, “Sorry, but I’ve forgotten this” or similar

Slide 48: Presentation Tips HOT TIP! #22 Keep focus on technical/innovation “meat”; forget about exceptions, robustness, etc.!

Slide 49: Presentation Tips #23 SUPER HOT TIP! Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse! Then rehearse again!

Slide 50: Presentation Tips #24 Do a final rehearsal just before presenting!

Slide 51: Presentation Tips #25 Sleep well the night before! “I have a dream”: Madson @ Yokohama Pan Pacific Hotel

Slide 52: Powerpoint tips Beware obvious but treacherous traps Solvent-SD final presentation @ Yokohama

Slide 53: Powerpoint Tips #26 Do not use standard templates!

Slide 54: Powerpoint Tips #27 Use enough color contrast!

Slide 55: Powerpoint Tips #28 Avoid small fonts!

Slide 56: Powerpoint Tips #29 If something cannot be seen/understood, cut it from the ppt!

Slide 57: Powerpoint Tips #30 Cut not useful slides as well (such as a “Credits” slides at the end)!

Slide 58: Powerpoint Tips #31 Don’t let the “Agenda” slide to be too boring

Slide 59: Demo tips Proving your competence practically Solvent-SD Final Presentation @ Yokohama

Slide 60: Demo Tips #32 Reduce demo load time: shortcuts, pre-loading to the cache, defrag, turn off antivirus, etc.

Slide 61: Demo Tips #33 Adjust Windows for better performance unless you need all of its “beauty”

Slide 62: Demo Tips • ArtiFACTORY needs “windows beauty” because of the Document Actions Pane: “adjusted for performance” layout more visually pleasant layout

Slide 63: Demo Tips HOT TIP! #34 Start with the sexiest demo first to grab them, build others to a crescendo!

Slide 64: Demo Tips #35 Bring real world experiences to supplement your demo! TravelMates Language Translator

Slide 65: Demo Tips #36 Emphasize advantages: how worse do people live without that feature? TravelMates journey diary

Slide 66: Demo Tips #37 Summarize each and every demo by answering the question: \"So what?\"

Slide 67: Demo Tips #38 Need to skip demos to make up time? Don't let they know!

Slide 68: Demo Tips HOT TIP! #39 Ensure you can always set the machine to the demo initial state

Slide 69: Demo Tips #40 Have a few extra demos in your pocket!

Slide 70: Demo Tips HOT TIP! #41 Have a demo script that you can “cheat from” whenever you need

Slide 71: Demo Tips #42 Use Virtual PC if you can and if performance permits!

Slide 72: Judges’ questions tips Ensuring the “grand finale” Software Design Judge Panel, Yokohama

Slide 73: Judges’ Questions Tips HOT TIP! #43 Let the judges finish asking their questions!

Slide 74: Judges’ Questions Tips #44 Before answering, repeat the question, rephrase if possible!

Slide 75: Judges’ Questions Tips HOT TIP! #45 There are better ways to say “Sorry, we did not implement that”!

Slide 76: Judges’ Questions Tips HOT TIP! #46 There are better ways to say “I don’t know”!

Slide 77: Judges’ Questions Tips #47 Ask for clarification, case you need!

Slide 78: On-site tips Once there, go for it! Solvent-SD (and others) arriving at Japan

Slide 79: On-site Tips HOT TIP! #48 Be ambitious; earn victory appetite! Leo (SD) @ Solvent-SD celebration

Slide 80: On-site Tips HOT TIP! #49 Carry a whole nation with you! Solvent-OD awarding @ Yokohama

Slide 81: On-site Tips #50 Relax from the competition when you can!

Slide 82: On-site Tips #51 Observe every detail, learn from everything!

Slide 83: On-site Tips #52 Dive into the local culture! “Bento box”, traditional japanese food

Slide 84: On-site Tips #53 Blog to the community! ex.: afurtado1980.spaces.live.com

Slide 85: On-site Tips HOT TIP! #54 Do as much networking as you can! Coffee-break hall @ Yokohama

Slide 86: On-site Tips HOT TIP! #55 Please... have FUN! Many teams @ Sankein Garden, Yokohama

Slide 87: Domo arigatô! • I wish you a great Imagine Cup! • May I help you? – afurtado1980.spaces.live.com • Thank you and good luck!

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