The document provides tips for presenting at a hackathon competition. It advises speakers to understand their audience of judges, clearly define their project and intended users, and focus on what they accomplished rather than failures. Presenters should know how they will be judged, deliver valuable information to the audience, and anticipate questions or objections in order to effectively communicate their project.

1. Presentation skills
Your time to shine
Hackathon 2014

2. CONNECT
• No one likes to sit through a boring presentation
where the speaker is either clueless or
inattentive.
• Audiences lose patience with the presenter who
does not know them or where he is going, so
• Deliver material that is of value to the audience
• Know who the judges are, and what’s important
to them. If one judge is a designer, emphasize
your entry’s beautiful design. Certainly don’t
disparage something which is important to a
judge if you want to win them over

3. CONNECT
1. Make sure judges can summarize your app in one sentence.
When deliberating, judges will remind each other about
each entry. Don’t make a judge search through notes to
remember your entry.
2. Clearly state who your intended user is. If the hackathon
has an entrepreneurial feel to it, this will give judges an
idea of your total addressable market.
3. Don’t spend time explaining what you couldn’t accomplish.
I’ve heard presenters list everything they attempted to do,
but failed. Focus on what you built, not on what failed.

4. GET TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Do your homework and know how you are being
judged
• Understand the judging criteria. Devote attention
to all judging criteria, not just one criterion in
particular.
• Know what they are looking for
• Know what you are being judged on
• Know what matters to them
• Know what is of value to them

5. DEFINE NOW AND THE FUTURE
• Don’t just throw around data and technical jargon w/o
knowing what you want the judges to do with it.
• Land your most important points early. Don’t wait until
the end. You might forget, or run out of time.
• Organize your data and talking points to direct
attention to a specific point.
• Never lose sight of your end point
• Go back and forth btw now and the future
• Alternate btw the present and what the future looks
like. Heighten attention and shine a light

6. FIND THE COMMON GROUND
• Answer why yours is the best
• Show how you improve, eliminate or create a
new solution or method
• Provide evidence of why yours is the best
• Give an example and eliminate any doubt
• Use familiar setting or common ground
• Use familiar teminology

7. ANTICIPATE RESISTANCE
• Prepare for all the objections that might come
up
• Share your concepts with a few people
outside of your group
• Have them share with you their questions and
concerns
• Practice practice practice