Trade show review (Wk 13)

Yesterday, the team and I engaged in our last piece of assessment together: the presentation of our web application 'On this day' in the form of a trade-show. Reflecting on the pitch I think the team did a really good job of mentioning all the key points of the web application that are specifically relevant to a trade show audience; we tried to keep away from the technical side and focused on the actual 'selling' of our site. We distributed brochures that summarised what we were talking about which were a huge help as the audience could follow along or read at their own pace throughout the presentation. I think as a team we could have improved upon the uniformity of our separate presentations. We didn't have a chance to go over the specifics of what we would discuss hence when we split up and talked to individual audience members separately I think each of us emphasised different points. This isn't necessarily something we did wrong as a group, however in a company scenario I would imagine that the brand would have a specific outline for their trade show and employee's would be expected to carry that out to the company's likings. This is definitely something to consider moving through university with the goal of getting a job upon graduation.

Whilst the trade show format is a bit different from the more formal pitch we gave in week 5, I wanted to apply some of the things that I learnt (and wrote about in my contact pitches review post) to keep our audience engaged and wanting to know more about our project. The key point from the post that I was focusing on regarded opening the talk with something unconventional to engage the audience straight from the start. I started by opening the talk with an 'On this day' fact from the website's current date: 

"Did you know that #TheBacheloretteAU was trending today?"

Looking back I opened with this line only to spark interest in the website, however I think it also conveyed the fact that the application actually works which immediately worked in our favour. I specifically chose a piece of information from the Twitter column rather than the historical column as the effects of each are drastically different in my opinion. Most of the audience would at least know of the television show 'The Bachelorette' and would know that it was currently being aired. This allows the audience to confirm for themselves that the website is showing accurate information hence is working as planned. If we had mentioned a historical mining accident or something similar from the history column it would not have the same meaning to the audience; they would not be able to confirm the date. In summary, the line that started as a simple introduction to peak the audience's interest in the website turned into a way of allowing them to confirm for themselves that the website works. The visual confirmation of the website working helped us to stay away from the technical side of things during the trade show and kept the focus on the physical website.