The key to winning oral pitches is relationship building. People invest in people.

There are way more investable ideas than there is money. Establishing belief in the people doing the work and their capacity to get it done is what winning pitches do exceptionally well.

The stories you need to develop are designed to demonstrate why you are the right person and establish the value of your idea.

The call to action is one part of demonstrating you know how to get it done.

Some keys to pay extra attention to as you move through the program resources.

1. The clear, accessible, 40 word description is key to everything else. When you get this right, it becomes the story about your project that other people can retell when you are not in the room. And that's key. To be successful, you need champions, and those champions need to be confident they can articulate both what you are doing and the value of what you are doing. That summary you will develop is what they need to be able to remember.

   
   

2. When we get to slides, I'll talk first about how most researchers are too dependent on them. Heed that lesson, even if you don't think it's true. You need to be able to pitch without visuals, in fact you likely will be asked to. Remember the slides you build for people to review beforehand or for people to keep after are really a written proposal in slide format. But those aren't the ones you should use for when you present, and you may find you don't need any at all.

   
   

3. In the delivery space, the guardrails are different. Yes there is a need to be professional, but there is an even bigger need for us to hear your passion and drive and belief in this project. If you want us to invest in you and your project, we need to feel the depth of your commitment to seeing it through to the finish. Voice and body language say more than words ever will.