June 12, 2014
As we prepare for the debut session of AlligatorZone this Saturday (10:15 a.m. on June 14, 2014), one of the items on our checklist is to provide the invited startup founders with tips on presenting to kids and families who will be a part of the general public in the audience.
Margaret Rials, Chief Librarian at Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative helped us immensely in bringing the program to the library system and in planning the layout for the program at the Innovation Studio at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, in Valrico, Florida, where AlligatorZone will make its debut at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, June 14, 2014.
As Chief Librarian Margaret Rials was saying earlier this week when inviting a roomful of children who were learning to code at the CoderDojo Tampa Bay Area along with their parents, this was going to be “the first AlligatorZone to be ever held (and she paused before adding) in the world”. As far as we know, it is the first such program. This makes it as exhilarating as getting ready for a gig during amateur night at the Improv Club in Ybor City. Soon Sunnyvale Public Library in California will have a session of AlligatorZone (August 23, 2014, to be precise), by which time we will have three successful AlligatorZone sessions under our belt in Florida. However, for now, we are going foward improv-style.
With no precedence, how does one design a list of tips for the presenters? We drew parallels from different experiences. My experience at a Great American Teach-in explaining a web-startup offering virtual trade shows to a class of 2nd graders and 4th graders really forced me to boil down my startup’s value proposition to a simple sentence, only to be asked by a 7-year old girl, “How can your company help my mom’s business become famous?”. The other experience has been in trying to explain a dot com business at a Thanksgiving gathering where the only one at the dinner table who wasn’t a naysayer just came out of the oven. The robust common sense of someone from the general public is something we are hoping will challenge the presenting entrepreneurs enough to refine their messaging if not rethink their strategy.
Here are tips for presenters at AlligatorZone :
Tell Your Story: Talk to the audience as a gathering of a group you met at a neighbor’s backyard for a barbecue and tell them your story. That means avoiding jargon. Be a story-teller. However, do not assume that your audience is clueless, so try not to dumb it down to absurd levels. It’s something the street entertainer near the Ellis Island Ferry does effortlessly. It is a skill entrepreneurs must learn. Talk to the audience, not down at them even if they are lesser qualified. They can be your greatest advocates with a single post on their personal social media channels. Be extremely respectful even if a child inadvertently puts you on the spot, or a grownup deliberately does so. While shows like Silicon Valley on HBO have a generous sprinkling of profanity, that is uncool, and is a dead giveaway of an entrepreneur’s poor vocabulary, or lack of imagination, or both. Take yourselves lightly, take your product seriously, use humor very carefully if you have to, and remember that your goal is to be likeable. Consumers are forgiving of likeable presenters, and more willing to help them out or do business with them. To quote entrepreneur, philosopher and author Rajesh Setty, likeability is an unfair competitive advantage. Be the likeable and entertaining storyteller whose product or offering solves a problem for the members of the audience or for someone they know and care about. The other rule of thumb that might work is, imagine your mom is also in the audience. Make her proud.
Take Notes: Every reaction from the members of the audience has a lesson, be it indifference, a crinkled brow, a smile or a nod. Note down their questions, their concerns and their suggestions. Feel free to poll the audience members for questions you always wanted to ask about the use of your product or service, or about the pain it is supposed to address. While on the topic of taking notes, allow us to add a valid and valued suggestion from Sean Murphy, who is also the founder of Bootstrappers Breakfast in Silicon Valley. Bring a Spotter, suggests Sean, and further explains”Bring a friend who also observes and takes notes. It’s very hard to be improvising and reacting to the crowd and also noticing what’s not working or other reactions. They can also ask questions or help to direct your attention to an aspect of a question you may have overlooked or a help to clarify a statement (or give you a chance to clarify a statement)”.
Express Gratitude: A sincere thank you, a limited free trial, a free sample, an offer to keep them posted when you start hiring — whatever it may be, do consider a way to reciprocate their willingness to hear you out and offer you suggestions.
Plan B for those technical glitches: The other tip was the common Plan B tip in case the technology faltered during the talk. Bring images, or handouts or samples to pass around.
The library has a solid infrastructure for holding the AlligatorZone event, including the big screen.
The presenting startups in the debut session on Saturday June 14, 2014 are:
Jess Rasemont, Founder & CEO of Rasemont Gardens bringing to your backyard, a subscription service of fully managed non-GMO and heirloom varietal vegetable plants that they have grown from seeds to insure that they are 100% organic home-gardens.
an app for making school dismissals easier for parents and school administrators.
Travis Russi, Founder of StuffHub, an app to easily trade stuff with friends.
We hope you can make it with your friends and family! To reserve a seat, visit http://AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com. The startup founders are excited about this opportunity to meet with the community! We at SiliconGlades and the leadership and team at the Library are indeed excited to see the AlligatorZone program coming to life!
